Press Trust of India
Pune, May 20: It was termed as the ‘battle royal’ and in the end Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) came up with a royal performance to handsomely defeat Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 71 runs here Wednesday and set up a date with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in qualifier-2 Friday.
Chasing a target of 181 runs, RR never recovered from losing Shane Watson’s wicket in the very second over and got bundled out for 109 runs in 19 overs. Ajinkya Rahane’s (42, 39b, 4×4) fighting knock went in vain as all the RCB bowlers were right on the money from the word go. Sreenath Aravind (2/20), Yuzvendra Chahal (2/20), Harshal Patel (2/15) and David Wiese (2/32) bagged couple of wickets each to break the back of RR’s batting order.
Earlier, AB de Villiers (66, 38b, 4×4, 4×6) and Mandeep Singh (54 n o, 34b, 7×4, 2×6) bailed Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) out of a tricky situation as they posted 180 for four.
Choosing to bat first, RCB began well as Chris Gayle (27, 26b, 4×4, 1×6) and Virat Kohli (12) stitched together a 41-run opening partnership but Dhawal Kulkarni (2/28) got both of them to peg back the run rate.
Then the De Villiers-Mandeep show began as they conjured up a 113-run partnership for the third wicket. Mandeep was more aggressive of the duo at first, but De Villiers came into his own while facing Ankit Sharma when he blasted him for two sixes and a boundary.
He then completed his half century by smashing two sixes off Chris Morris. The South African was run out in the penultimate over but Mandeep got two maximums off James Faulkner to take the score close to 180.
Brief scores
RCB 180 for four (AB de Villiers 66, Mandeep Singh 54 n o; Dhawal Kulkarni 2/28) beat RR (Ajinkya Rahane 42; Sreenath Aravind 2/20, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/20, Harshal Patel 2/15) by 71 runs.
