Hello Cricket Lovers,
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It was a thumping victory for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the just concluded Indian Premier League T20 Cricket Match against Rajasthan Royals in match number 15.
It also marked return to form of RCB captain Virat Kohli as he scored an aggressive half century, his first in this edition of IPL.
Let's go thru the match with few more details.
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Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to bat first looking into the stats of matches played so far as most of the matches won by teams batting first.
Rajasthan Royals Innings:
Although Jose Buttler along with Steve Smith started the batting confidently, soon, Royal Challengers Bangalore felt a good toss to lose as they picked up 3 quick wickets starting with captain Smith becoming the first to be removed bowled by Isuru Udana and Jose Buttler, who scored 22 from 12 balls with a Six and 3 Fours was next to go as he got a perfect yorker from Navdeep Saini, which he guided into the hands of First slip.
In form, Sanju Samson was the next batsman to be removed for a cheaper score by ever smiling Yuzvendra Chahal caught and bowled.
That forced the Rajasthan Royals go into back foot as their middle order is a bit weaker with batsmen to follow were an out of form Robin Uthappa with couple of youngsters in Mahipal Lomror and Ryan Parag and then all-rounders to follow.
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Mahipal Lomror and Robin Uthappa started the innings building act after those 3 quick wickets, but their scoring rate was way below and with spinners bowling in middle overs, it was a daunting task and Yuzvendra Chahal seized the initiative to remove Robin Uthappa.
Mahipal Lomror and new batsman in Ryan Parag were a bit of aggressive as that was the need, especially, Mahipal Lomror kept attacking spinners being a left hand batsman and reached 47 from 39 balls before being holed out to another Chahal delivery.
Finally, Rajasthan Royals ended up with 154 runs thanks to some quick runs from all-rounders Rahul Tewatia and Jofra Archer.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Innings:
Royal Challengers although lost Aaron Finch early in the innings in chase of 155, in form Devdutt Padikkal continued his good form to score another half century with his usual attacking play.
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What was more heartening from Royal Challengers Bangalore was the return to form of their captain King Kohli.
He started slowly, took time to assess the conditions, once he got set, he started playing those exquisite cover drives and lofted shots all over the ground.
So much aggressive Kohli was that, he was going at run a ball still he scored 30.
Once he started feeling more confident, the shots started to come as well and by the time they scored winning run, Kohli had reached 72 runs from just 53 balls with 2 Sixes and 7 Fours.
Overall, it was a good win for RCB as they had a comfortable chase wit King Kohli back in form, we can only imagine the better days ahead for RCB as they set to face Delhi Capitals, Kolkata Knight Riders and Chennai Super Kings in their remaining matches as part of first round with all those teams barring CSK are on good form and it will be important for RCB to win as many matches to ensure a smooth entry into play-offs.
Let's see the scorecards for both the teams:
Scorecard for Rajasthan Royals:
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And, here is the scorecard for Royal Challengers Bangalore:
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Frankly speaking, it's unusual of RCB winning 3 out of 4 matches and this is something which has made their fans to hope for a better performance this time.
With the likes of Devdutt Padikkal, Yuzvendra Chahal and Shivam Dube performing better with the usual heroes Virat Kohli and Ab De Villiers and players like Aaron Finch, Adam Zampa are still to improve their performance, we can only see better days ahead for RCB in this long tournament.
Oh!!!! I forgot to mention to you that, we have a double header today with Delhi Capitals taking on Kolkata Knight Riders in the other match with Delhi posting 228 for 4 wickets!!!! highest score in this edition of IPL with Delhi's captain Shreyas Iyer leading from the front with 88 from just 38 balls and opener Prithvi Shaw scoring 66 from 41 balls.
I will be back with the details of this match in detail by tomorrow :)
Until then, Good Night/Good Morning to all :)
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