Head-To-Head
Rajasthan Royals pull off a last-over thriller to beat Delhi Capitals by 12 runs for their second win
Victory in their respective previous games might have eased the initial nerves but imperfections remain, hence Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Kolkata Knight Riders will eye a quick course correction to add steam to their campaign in an IPL 2024 match here on Friday.
The Royal Challengers defeated Punjab Kings by four wickets, while the Knight Riders elbowed out Sunrisers Hyderabad by four runs to garner some early points.
But entering the points table has not really eased some of the worries – particularly pertaining to the top and middle-order batting.
The Bengaluru dugout might be a happy space after star batter Virat Kohli made a classy fifty on an unusually gripping Chinnaswamy pitch while chasing 177 against Punjab the other night, but that's only one part of the story.Skipper Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameroon Green and Rajat Patidar are yet to hit the overdrive, and for the win against PBKS they had to rely on the lastminute cameos of Dinesh Karthik and 'Impact Player' Mahipal Lomror.
The Kolkatans have a much more capable bowling unit, at least on paper, and such a collectively underwhelming effort by frontline batters might push RCB into deep troubles against them.
Once they iron out that rough edges, RCB can look at their bowling unit that still needs to fill a couple of unticked boxes despite good outings by pacers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal against Punjab.
Pacer Alzarri Joseph continues to be profligate and his figures -- 0/38,
1/43 -- might
Squads (from): Faf du Plessis (c), G Maxwell, V Kohli, R Patidar, A Rawat, D Karthik, S Prabhudessai, W Jacks, M Lomror, K Sharma, M Bhandage, M Dagar, V Vijaykumar, A Deep, M Siraj, R Topley, H Sharma, R Kumar, C Green, A Joseph, Y Dayal, T Curran, L Ferguson, S Singh, S Chauhan.
S Iyer (c), KS Bharat, R Gurbaz, R Singh, A Raghuvanshi, S Rutherford, M Pandey, A Russell, N Rana, V Iyer, A Roy, R Singh, V Chakravarthy, S Narine, V Arora, C Sakariya, H Rana, S Sharma, M Starc, D Chameera, S Hussain, M Ur Rahman.
KKR: RCB 32 14 18 213 49
prompt the RCB think-tank to bring in England left-arm quick Reece Topley, who has impressive white-ball skills, in place of the West Indian for this match.
The Knight Riders offer a strikingly similar plot. Shreyas, who is central to their batting plans, was dismissed for a two-ball duck, but the return to Chinnaswamy might give him a sense of relief as he had fruitful outings here in white-ball cricket in his last two innings.
In bowling, Narine redeemed himself with a frugal spell (1/19) after a modest effort with the bat, but pacer Mitchell Starc, their record buy, and Varun Chakravarthy failed to impress, leaking over 50 runs in their four overs.
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RCB: KKR Matches Played 32 Won 18 Lost 14 Highest 222 Lowest 84
Rajasthan Royals defeated Delhi Capitals by 12 runs in their Indian Premier League match here on Thursday.
Chasing the 186 target to win, RR could only manage 173 for five.
Riyan Parag struck a stunning 84 not out off 45 balls to single-handedly take Rajasthan Royals to 185 for 5 .
The 22-year-old from Assam, who made 43 in Royals' previous match, took 25 runs off South African pacer Anrich Nortje with scores of 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 1 in the final over to hit his highest T20 score. His knock was studded with seven fours and six sixes.
Parag held the home side's innings together after they were invited to bat first. He shared 54 and 52 runs respectively with Ravichandran Ashwin (29) and Dhruv Jurel (20) after RR made a shaky start.
Royals captain Sanju Samson
threatened to play another destructive innings after his knock of 82 not out in the win against Lucknow Super Giants as he struck three consecutive boundaries in the fourth over bowled by pacer Mukesh Kumar.
But Samson nicked a Khaleel Ahmed delivery two overs later to DC captain and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant to get out for 15. RR were 30 for 2 by then as Mukesh Kumar had given DC their first breakthrough with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (5).
The Royals were in more trouble after wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav literally forced his captain Pant to take a review, which later proved to be successful, to dismiss Englishman Jos Buttler for a leg before wicket decision. Ravichandran Ashwin came out to bat at number five and he lofted a Kuldeep delivery for a six to help RR reach 58 for 3 at halfway stage. He gave Nortje even a harsher
SCOREBOARD
Y Jaiswal b M Kumar 5, J Buttler lbw b K Yadav 11, S Samson c Pant b K Ahmed 15, R Parag 84*, R Ashwin c T Stubbs b Axar 29, D Jurel b Nortje 20, S Hetmyer 14*
(b-1, lb-1, w-5) 7 Total 185-5
9-1, 30-2, 36-3, 90-4, 142-5
Extras: FoW: Bowler:
K Ahmed 4-0-24-1, M Kumar 4-0-49-1, A Nortje 4-0-48-1, A Patel 4-0-21-1, K Yadav 4-0-41-1.
D Warner c S Sharma b A Khan 49, M Marsh b Burger 23, R Bhui c †Samson b Burger 0, R Pant (c)† c †Samson b Chahal 28, T Stubbs 44*, A Porel c Buttler b Chahal 9, A Patel 15*
(lb-1, w-4) 5 173/5
1-30, 2-30, 3-97, 4105, 5-122
T Boult 3-0-29-0, N Burger 3-0-29-2, R Ashwin 3-0-30-0, A Khan 4-0-29-1, Y Chahal 3-0-19-2, S Sharma 4-0-36-0
DC: Extras: Total: FoW: Bowling:
7.30 pm
treatment with two sixes in the next over that yielded 15 runs.
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