A blistering finishing act by Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to win their second match in IPL 2022. This, after Yuzvendra Chahal bowled brilliantly against his old team during the middle overs to take Rajasthan Royals close to a win. Earlier, the RCB bowlers bowled impressed on a difficult pitch, but Jos Buttler played the entire 20 overs, eventually picking up 42 runs in the last two overs in a partnership with Shimron Hetmyer.
Rajasthan Royals 169/3 in 20 overs
Faf du Plessis won the toss and decided to bowl. Both teams came off wins, and went in with unchanged XIs.
Yashasvi Jaiswal failed again, falling early to David Willey. At No. 3, Devdutt Padikkal was surprisingly more aggressive at times than Buttler, who took his time to get set. They added 70 runs in 8.1 before Padikkal became Harshal Patel’s only wicket, for 37. After 10 overs, Rajasthan were 76/2.
Soon afterwards, Wanindu Hasaranga bamboozled Sanju Samson to extract an easy return catch. Hetmyer walked out and built a key partnership with Buttler. Hetmyer took his time to get set, but found his touch once he hit back-to-back fours off Hasaranga.
Rajasthan, 118/3 after 17 overs, would have eyed at least 150. They got 51 in the last three overs. Buttler (70*) hit four sixes in the last two overs and Hetmyer (42*) hit one off the last ball as Rajasthan ended their innings on 169/3.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 173/6 in 19.1 overs
Anuj Rawat and Faf du Plessis began sensibly in response, maintaining a good run rate during the Powerplay without losing a wicket. Samson brought Chahal into attack immediately after the Powerplay. The move worked, as Chahal had du Plessis caught at long on in his first over.
More drama followed when Navdeep Saini induced an edge from Rawat in the next over. In Chahal’s next over, Virat Kohli was run out thanks to a brilliant fielding effort by Samson. Off the next ball, Chahal dismissed Willey for a duck, and Bangalore were suddenly 62/4, requiring more than 100 runs.
Sherfane Rutherford and Shahbaz Ahmed took the score to 87 before Rutherford was brilliantly caught by Saini off Trent Boult. With 83 to get from 45 balls, Karthik came out and started playing his shots immediately. The next two overs went for 37, with Karthik getting 30 of those. He eventually hit seven fours and a six. Shahbaz, too, got 45 off just 26 balls, with four fours and three sixes, before he was bowled by Boult.
Bangalore needed only 16 at that stage at roughly a run a ball. With three to be scored, Samson asked Jaiswal to bowl the last over. Harshal Patel finished the match with a huge six off the first ball.
Brief Scores
Rajasthan Royals 169/3 in 20 overs (Jos Buttler 70*; Harshal Patel 1-18) lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 173/6 in 19.1 overs (Shahbaz Ahmed 45; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-15) by 4 wickets with 5 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Dinesh Karthik.