The equation read 96 needed from 66 balls after a frenetic knock from Yashasvi Jaiswal, who kept swinging until his fall, and a smart innings from Nitish Rana. As may as 38 runs had come in the three overs after the Powerplay when RCB’s Krunal Pandya intervened.
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Off his first ball, he took out Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag. It wasn’t his usual quicker one, but the slowed-up tweaker that spun, inducing a top edge from an attempted slog-sweep that was pouched by wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma.
With 46 needed from 24 balls, the chase came down to how well RCB seamers could bowl as Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer had added 27 runs from 15 balls. Krunal and an impressive spell from leggie Suyash Sharma were done.
Hazlewood struck almost immediately, inducing an inside edge from Hetmyer that was taken by Jitesh to leave Rajasthan needing 44 from 21.
But Jurel refused to fade away, slamming Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a six over long-on and two deft strikes for four – a steer to third man and a lap over fine leg as 22 runs came in that 18th over.
Just as the heist was on the cards, Hazlewood bowled a high-quality over that included Jurel’s wicket. It was a really full well-outside-off delivery that Jurel had to stretch out to for an attempted slice, but edged off the back of his bat through to Jitesh, and the game turned again. Now 17 were needed from 8, and that proved a bridge too far for Rajasthan. Yash Dayal defended the last over where 17 runs were needed, giving away just five runs.
Kohli sizzles
It perhaps was Virat Kohli’s best knock this IPL. The pitch wasn’t easy in the first innings (it did ease up a touch during the chase just as Riyan Parag had predicted at the toss). There was tennis-ball high bounce at pace with the new ball for the fast men and it began to stop a touch for the spinners and seamers as the innings progressed.
Things kicked off rapidly in the very first over from Archer. The first ball Kohli faced was the fifth of the innings, and a vicious bouncer kicked just over his head in a blur, even before he could finish his swivel. That was deemed a wide, and the next legal delivery jagged up awkwardly just outside off, again at high pace; Kohli’s top-edged cut had the ball flying over the lone slip. Kohli smiled, Archer smiled. The last ball of the over flashed past the blade. Game on.
In the next Archer over, Kohli was late on the pull and dragged it behind square for a single. On the fourth ball, Archer grunted audibly as the short ball whooshed past an attempted cut. He brought the next one a lot closer and Kohli chopped it off the inner edge past the stumps. But he managed to swivel in time next ball to short-arm a pull to the right of the square-leg fielder for a boundary.
If only Rajasthan Royals had another Archer. Not necessarily for his kind of pace, as that’s unrealistic, but someone to copy his thought to hit the deck at back of a length and use the bounce on offer. The left-handed Fazalhaq Farooqui kept bowling really full to Phil Salt, who capitalised with a few driven boundaries. Tushar Deshpande served a full one on the leg-and-middle line and Kohli wristed a signature on-drive to excite the full house to pandemonium. In the sixth over, Sandeep Sharma offered another juicy full-pitch delivery that Kohli caressed to the straight boundary.
Kohli perfectly judged the two-paced pitch for the spinners, milking them around off the backfoot and letting Padikkal go hard at them before Sandeep returned for the 12th over. Kohli backed away to unfurl a square-slash over point and edged the next one through the untenanted slip, before Sandeep realised that a hard length was better on this track.
There was another boundary left in Kohli, and that’s bound to be a viral hit. In the 14th over, when offie Parag bowled one full and well outside off, the batsman with the best bottom hand in the business currently crouched to pull out a fierce cross-batted swipe that sent the ball into the long-off stands. A big smile flashed across Kohli’s visage but it would turn into a wince soon when Archer returned in the 16th over and bowled change-of-pace stuff first ball. Kohli was a touch early into his punch-drive and the ball jumped from back of a length, hit the top half of the bat, and spooned to cover.
But by then, Kohli had set the pace. In the end it took skillful spells from Krunal and Hazlewood to pull off RCB’s first win of the season at home.
BRIEF SCORES: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 205/5 in 20 overs (Kohli 70; Sandeep 2/45, Hasaranga 1/30) won to Rajasthan Royals 194/5 in 20 overs (Dube 49, Rachin 47) by 11 runs.
