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Rajasthan Royals 164 for 3 (Buttler 59, Smith 38, Tripathi 34*, Chahal 2-17) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 158 for 4 (Parthiv 67, Stoinis 31*, Gopal 3-12) by seven wickets
Jaipru: Royal Challengers Bangalore were pushed further into gloom with a seven-wicket loss to Rajasthan Royals.
Defending a target of 159, RCB were guilty of dropping a number of catches in the death overs which could have turned the game in their favour.
Royals, for their part, finally managed to win a match that they dominated for the most part after being beaten despite being in strong positions in previous games this season.
Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to field first. Kohli said that he would have chosen to bat first anyway so both captains were happy.
Shreyas Gopal bowled a sensational spell to dismiss key top-order batsmen before Parthiv Patel and Marcus Stoinis propelled Royal Challengers Bangalore to 158 for four.
Gopal claimed three wickets, including that of Virat Kohli (23) and AB de Villiers (13), conceding just 12 runs in his four-quota over.
It was opener Parthiv who resisted the Royals attack with aplomb, hitting a belligerent 67 off 41 balls with nine boundaries and six to help his side put a decent total on board.
Stoinis (31 not out) too played a key part in shoring up team’s total, add 32 quick runs in partnership with Moeen Ali (18).
Playing with a cautious approach, Kohli was happy working the ball around.
Parthiv was aggressor of the two. Parthiv hit three boundaries in Jofra Archer’s first over as RCB finished the Powerplay overs with 48 runs on the board.
Immediately after that, Gopal was introduced into the attack and he began to trouble the Indian captain with his googlies. Gopal deceived Kohli with one, which went through the gates.
The leg-spinner returned and this time got rid of de Villiers with another wrong one which stopped a bit as the South African hit it straight back to Gopal, who bowled a rare wicket-maiden.
Jos Buttler could not match up to his high standards in the previous two matches but that wasn’t the case on Tuesday in Jaipur. He and Rahane got Rajasthan off to a flier in the chase and arguably ended the competition within the first six overs.
Rahane was dismissed in the eighth over by which time RR had reached 60.
Steve Smith came next and ensured that Rahane’s wicket was only a blip and kept the innings going at the same pace.
Buttler scored his fifty in this time and had made 59 by the time he fell to Yuzvendra Chahal.
Even that wicket was not enough for the Royals to take their foot off the pedal.
Rahul Tripathi replaced Buttler and shared a 50-run stand with Smith that ended the competition. The pair was helped in the death overs by the number of sitters that the RCB fielders dropped.
Smith was dismissed in the 19th over, after being dropped twice off consecutive balls before that by which time it was too little too late. Tripathi finished the game with a six off the penultimate ball.
