Mumbai: Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed's surge helped Royal Challengers Bangalore bounce back from early collapse to defeat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in the 13th match of IPL at Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.
In a stunning counter-attack, Karthik came to the party just when Rajasthan were cruising to another win. His assault off Ravichandran Ashwin turned the game in favour of Bangalore in a jiffy. He hammered an unbeaten 44 off 23 balls with seven boundaries and a maximum. Bangalore never looked back thereafter.
Shahbaz Ahmed played an ideal partner to Karthik, who sewed a game-changing partnership of 67 for the sixth wicket. He smashed 45 off 26 balls that was decorated with four boundaries and three maximums.
Harshal Patel (9) gave finishing touches to Bangalore with a thumping six off Yashasvi Jaiswal to hand Rajasthan their first loss of the season. He sat back and pulled comfortably into the stands at deep mid-wicket.
Rajasthan had a competitive total, but committed mistakes like holding back Yuzuvendra Chahal back too much took the game away, and that mistake was clouded with some ordinary bowling from others who bowled to the strengths of the batters, conceding boundaries regularly.
Chasing 170 runs target, Faf du Plessis (29) got off to a steady start after he stitched 55 runs for the opening partnership with Anuj Rawat (26), but it came to an end in the seventh over as Chahal removed the South African.
In the next over, Navdeep Saini (1/36) struck to dismiss Rawat and Bangalore were pegged back in their chase. Sanju Samson brilliantly ran out Virat Kohli (5) and Chahal removed David Willey (0) in the same over.
Trent Boult and Chahal picked up two wickets each for Rajasthan.
Sent into bat, Jos Buttler's unbeaten half-century and a partnership of 86 runs with Shimron Hetmyer helped Rajasthan reach 169/3.
Until the 19th over, it appeared as if Rajasthan would end up with a below par total.
Buttler, who cracked an unbeaten 70 off 47 balls, did not score a boundary, but smacked 6 maximums in his innings. He smoked two sixes off Mohammed Siraj including an out-of-the-book flat-batted one over long-on.
In the last over, Buttler's experience came into the play as he assessed the two-pace pitch so well that he waited for the balls to come to him to nail them over long-on for maximum twice against Akashdeep.
Hetmyer (42 not out off 31 balls) provided the finishing touches by smoking the last ball for a maximum. In all, he hit 4 boundaries and 2 sixes.
Buttler and Hetmyer were reined in by some quality bowling by Bangalore as they struggled to score on two-paced wicket.
In the last two overs, both went berserk and scored 42 runs that gave Rajasthan a competitive score to defend. Buttler stayed at the crease and eventually raised the tempo and managed to strike some handsome blows.
Devdutt Padikkal (37 off 29 balls) and Hetmyer made useful contributions and added crucial partnerships with Buttler. Padikkal sewed a 70-run partnership for second wicket and Hetmyer 86-run stand for fourth wicket with the English player.
For Bangalore, Harshal Patel, David Willey and Wanindu Hasaranga bagged one wicket each.
Earlier, RCB captain du Plessis won the toss and chose to bowl first. Both captains said that the pitch at the Wankhede might be a bit more difficult to bat on than what has been the case this season. (UNI)
