Jos Buttler and homegrown leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal starred, as the Rajasthan Royals beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets in Tuesday’s Indian Premier League fixture at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.
Gopal secured telling figures of three for 12 in Bangalore’s final total of 158 for four, before the Royals climbed to 164 for three to triumph with one delivery to spare.
Gopal’s haul included the key dismissals of Indian talisman Virat Kohli, former South African captain AB de Villiers and West Indies star Shimron Hetmyer. All three were flummoxed by his deceptive wrong’uns.
Diminutive right-hander Parthiv Patel top-scored for Bangalore with 67, while Australian recruit Marcus Stoinis capped the innings with a brisk 31 not out. Stoinis was part of Australia’s ODI series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates just two days ago.
Rajasthan’s pursuit was aided by a couple of dropped catches, including Kohli’s mistake at first slip. Buttler capitalised on the reprieved – and eventually moved to 59 before perishing to leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
Middle-order trio Steven Smith, Ben Stokes and Rahul Tripathi were ultimately at hand to finish the job.
The result left the Royal Challengers at the bottom of the 2019 tournament’s eight-team standings, after four consecutive defeats, while Rajasthan climbed to sixth position above the seventh-placed Mumbai Indians.
Monday saw the Kings XI Punjab beat the Delhi Capitals in Chandigarh, while Wednesday will bring an important clash between Mumbai and Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens.
Photo: SPORTZPICS for BCCI | Faheem Hussain
