Led by a fiery spell from Mitchell Starc and skipper Virat Kohli’s excellence with the bat, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) thrashed Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 9 wickets in the 22nd match of IPL 8 at Motera.
Chasing a modest target of 131, Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli got RCB off to a steady start as the duo put on 36 runs inside the first five overs before RR skipper Shane Watson struck to get rid of the dangerous Gayle on 20. AB de Villiers, who was promoted to number three, played with an uncluttered mind and along with Kohli put on an unbeaten 98-run partnership to guide RCB home with 3.5 overs to spare. Kohli, who struggled early on in the tournament, scored his second consecutive fifty whereas de Villiers finished off the chase in style and scored 47 off just 34 balls with six 4s.
Earlier after being put into bat, RR also got off to a good start as Ajinkya Rahane, the leading run-getter this IPL, and Shane Watson opened the way they always do – a quiet swab followed by a powerful strike – as they added 30 in the first four overs without a fuss before wickets started to tumble at regular intervals courtesy some outstanding bowling from Iqbal Abdullah, Harshal Patel and Yuzvendra Chahal, RCB’s highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
Still, with Smith, James Faulkner and Stuart Binny remaining, RR would have eyed a late surge but as Starc returned in the 18th over and got the wicket of Smith and Binny, that hope banished quickly. The penultimate over, bowled by Patel was a great one and he also removed Faulkner courtesy a fantastic one-handed catch by the wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. With Starc giving away just 3 runs in the last over, RR’s score trickled to just 130, the second-lowest by any team this IPL.
Starc was awarded the man of the match for his outstanding figures of 3-22 in 4 overs.
Brief Scores: RR 130/9 (Smith 31, Starc 3-22, Patel 2-23) lost to RCB 134/1 (Kohli 62*, de Villiers 47*) by 9 wickets