Kohli and Hazlewood break RCB's home duck as RR botch another chase
An unhittable 19th over from Hazlewood yanked a third successive match away from RR's grasp
An unhittable 19th over from Hazlewood yanked a third successive match away from RR's grasp
Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Abhimanyu Bose
11.50pm Phew, what a thriller! There was a Kohli fifty, a Padikkal blitz. There was a Jaiswal blitz, during which he also tore into Josh Hazlewood. But the Aussie quick not only got the big wicket of Jaiswal, but also came back to bowl one of the best spells of death bowling you'll see, especially given the pressure he was under. RCB have finally added a 'W' at home, and they have bettered their chances at making the playoffs. For Rajasthan Royals, they are not knocked out of contention mathematically yet, but it would take nothing short of a minor miracle for them to revive this season and play for anything other than, as their stand-in skipper mentioned, pride. That's all we have for you today. On behalf of Vishal, Sudeep and Thilak, it's Abhimanyu signing off.
11.45pm Time for the presentation ceremony. Here's what he has to say: "[On the 19th over] I was just sticking to my strengths. I knew hard lengths were hard to hit so i was mixing that up with yorkers, change of pace. [On his evolution as a T20 bowler] I think it's just a range of people and teams. First of all it's a chance to play the format. For a lot of years Test cricket and ODIs were a preference. But then Sydney Sixers, CSK, RCB, I got the chance to take in pieces of information. I just love our attack. We bounce off each other really well. The bounce here has been quite steep throughout the tournament. Getting the score we did today was really great."
Josh Hazlewood is the Player of the Match.
Rajat Patidar: "It was a much needed win. Today the wicket was different, as we had expected. All the credit goes to the bowlers how they came back after the 10th over. The way they showed courage was tremendous. [On their score of 205] I think initially RR batted beautifully, credit goes to them. At some point we felt that it would be a tight match and we were just searching for wickets. Only if you get wickets you can stop runs. I always back my instincts first but we have a group of great leaders, so their thoughts and inputs are really helping us."
Kumar: "Hazlewood POTM for me just for that 19th over" It looks like this will be the case! He deserves it. Anyway, this should be formalised very soon in the presentation ceremony.
11.30pm Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Nitish Rana and Vaibhav Suryavanshi all tore into RCB's bowling early in this 206 chase. Rajasthan Royals looked in control. Then Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma applied the brakes, with Krunal picking two wickets as well. Josh Hazlewood then bowled an excellent 17th over. RCB in control? Not quite. Dubey and Jurel took 22 off Bhuvneshwar's 18th over to leave RR needing 18 off two overs. But then Hazlewood bowled an over to remember, giving away just one run and taking two wickets to seal victory for RCB. Royals have lost five on the trot, but the story today will be RCB finally giving a jubilant home crowd a win to savour. Batting first, of course, RCB put in a much improved display. Kohli, Salt and Padikkal helped set it up for the middle and lower order, and Tim David and Jitesh Sharma provided the finish to take RCB to their highest score at home this year.
Virat Kohli: "Look, we've had three pretty average games at home and we discussed a few things we need to get right as a batting unit and we applied ourselves well to get the total on board. The pitch wasn't as flat as the score makes it look. Dew made the ball come on nicely in the second half and credit to Rajasthan for coming out and playing some good shots. Pushed us back straighaway, but to claw ourselves back into the game and get those two points is great. The first challenge is winning the toss [chuckles]. In the second half there is always dew. We've struggled to put on a par score. The template is now pretty simple, for one guy to bat through and the others to attack around him. Devdutt and I know this ground well. Just wanted to let Salt to his thing at the top. There is pace and bounce in the first few overs with the new ball. Today we just tried to time the ball and keep enough pressure on the opposition to keep giving us boundary balls. [Our score] looks enough right now but at one point…"
Riyan Parag: "I think we did really well with the ball. I thought it was a 210-220 wicket. We held them back really well. With the batting, I thought at the halfway mark we were in the driving seat. But we have ourselves to blame. We didn't show enough intent against the spinners and didn't execute well. The onus is on the players to show that freedom and put in performances with intent. It's a tournament where you make one mistake and you pay for it and that's what happened today. We speak a lot as groups, we try and be honest in our conversations. We have spoken about situations like this and we just couldn't execute it tonight. We were in the driving seat and we let it slip. We gotta play for pride now."
Jai: "One captain RP win over another captain RP"
Amey: "The curse of Chinnaswamy ground for RCB is finally broken."
Farooqi on strike.
Naman: "I cannot believe RR has botched up another chase which they should have won."
PW Hasaranga run out 1 (6m 3b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33
Around the wicket to Hasaranga
Ankur: "What a spell at death from Haz!"
SB Dubey c Salt b Yash Dayal 12 (18m 7b 1x4 1x6) SR: 171.42
Yash Dayal against a left-handed finisher. Can Dubey pull a Rinku? He needs fewer runs of course
With RR needing 18 from 12 balls, Hazlewood conceded only one in the penultimate over and also took two wickets
"We've got three more games here at home, so vitally important for us to play well in these conditions," RCB coach Andy Flower says after win over RR
RCB's spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma gave away only 31 runs each in their respective four overs
An unhittable 19th over from Hazlewood yanked a third successive match away from RR's grasp
After they won their first home game of IPL 2025, Kohli felt RCB were finally getting to grips with their batting template at the Chinnaswamy