Rajasthan Royals’ paltry run in the ongoing Indian Premier League continues as they went down against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai. Bangalore went over the target of 178 runs set by Steve Smith & Co batting first.
Chasing a moderate total, Devdutt Padikkal once again put Royal Challengers Bangalore ahead. Shreyas Gopal pulled the first trigger removing Aaron Finch before Virat Kohli and Padikkal paired well to keep their side in the run chase.
Rajasthan continue to drop points
Steve Smith & Co had pulled things back well in the middle overs removing Padikkal and Virat Kohli. But AB de Villiers show was on offer in the death as Royal Challengers pulled off a great win. De Villiers remained unbeaten on 55 runs from 22 deliveries to chase down the target with two balls to spare.
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Earlier in the day, Rajasthan won the toss and straightaway opted to bat first. Their intent looked positive from ball one as Robin Uthappa took on Washington Sundar to hit him for 4 fours in an over. Ace all-rounder Ben Stokes had another sombre affair and so did Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson.
But skipper Steve Smith showed his class and struck a few lusty blows to hand Rajasthan Royals the advantage after the first half of the innings. Chris Morris once again did well with his bull-headed attitude of landing the yorkers at regular intervals. His control ensured Royal Challengers Bangalore contain the Royals in the 170-run mark.
Hard to swallow the loss – Steve Smith
Speaking at the end of the game, Steve Smith admitted that it is a hard pill swallow for them. The Aussie also heaped praise on AB de Villiers, who once again played a gem of a knock to see his side through.
“Sure is a hard pill to swallow. Just got AB’d there. That’s two in a row we were in the box seat to win but didn’t. Disappointing. I think it was a good score on a slow wicket. I thought we built the pressure pretty well and it took a pretty special inning to take RCB home. We wanted to use Jaydev to the bigger boundary, he bowls a lot of slower stuff into the wicket. Obviously boundary not big enough for AB,” Steve Smith said.
Meanwhile, Steve Smith looked in his original touch with the bat after a long time. He scored a crucial fifty but it was not enough to seal the game. Smith seemed happy to hit the strides and is looking forward to the games to follow.
“Nice to spend a bit of time in the middle and get a bit of rhythm,” he concluded.