The second game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium was dedicated to the go green initiative. Therefore, players of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) donned their green jersey owing to the Royal Derby.
It was the visitors Rajasthan Royals who clinched a couple of important points on the back of some brilliant exhibition of hitting from Sanju Samson.
The high-scoring contest saw Rajasthan clinch a comfortable 19-run win over RCB.
Here’s a look at the five game-changing moments from the game.
The Sanju Samson show:
Rajasthan Royals had to shell out a whopping sum of INR 8 crore to retain the services of former players. Looking at the knock today at Bengaluru, the owners would believe every penny on Sanju Samson was worth spending.
Samson dealt only in sixes for his prolific unbeaten knock of 92. His blazing innings came off just 45 deliveries at a strike rate of 204.
The Kerela-based batsman struck a mind-boggling 10 sixes during his knock. Samson helped propel RR’s score way above 200.
Final Flourish from Royals:
The crowd at Bengaluru were thoroughly entertained by the strokeplay of Rajasthan Royals at the fag end of the innings. The last ten balls of the innings read: 1, 6, 6, 1+nb, 4, 6, 6, 2, 4, 4, 6, which comes out to be 47 off just 10 balls.
Royals posted a mammoth 141 runs in the final ten overs and lost only two wickets, which took the wind out of the RCB team.
It was only due to splendid efforts of Samson along with Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi which enabled Royals to post 217.
Virat Kohli shows who the boss is at Chinnaswamy:
Chasing a mammoth total, Virat Kohli stole all the limelight to notch up his first half-century in the tournament. With Kohli on strike, RCB were at par with the mega run-rate required.
Kohli returned to action with his 30-ball 57. He brought up his fastest fifty in T20 cricket on Sunday evening, as he needed only 26 deliveries to achieve this feat.
In total, Kohli smacked seven boundaries and a couple of sixes during his knock.
Shreyas Gopal baiting the big fish:
Shreyas Gopal turned the chase around its head by baiting the two big fishes in the RCB’s batting line up. The local boy broke the back of RCB’s run chase with the prized scalp of dangerous looking Kohli and AB de Villiers.
Also, the Karnataka spinner was at his economical best as he conceded only 22 runs in his spell at an impressive five-and-a-half per over.
Mandeep-Sundar bringing RCB close:
With the quick wickets of AB and Virat, the game was done and dusted for the hosts. But in-form Mandeep Singh and rookie Washington Sundar ensured that RCB were close to the target. They somewhat did not decapitate under pressure before running out of overs.
In addition, this effort would turn out to be instrumental when the net run-rate comes into the equation during the latter stage of the tournament.
Also, here’s the newsfeed:
IPL 2018: Match 12, Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals – Twitter Reactions
Commonwealth Games Helped Australia Restore Global Reputation, Says CWG Chairman