Bangalore: Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the Rajasthan Royals in an IPL 2023 contest at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. The visiting team had won the toss and chosen to field first also getting two early breakthroughs but the partnership between Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell laid the foundation of a solid first-innings total. The two added 127 runs off 66 balls with Du Plessis getting out after making 62 off 39 before being subbed off.
Glenn Maxwell should have ideally looked to continue but couldn't bat much deeper into the innings, falling in the 15th over after scoring 77 off 44 deliveries. Post their wickets, RR did manage to make a comeback of sorts and keep Bangalore down to 189/9 in their 20 overs.
In the run chase, RR lost Jos Buttler in the very first over with Mohammed Siraj ratting Jos Buttler's stumps in the very first over. Yashasvi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal did stitch a partnership woth 98 runs but after Padikkal departed for 52 and Jaiswal went back for 47, RR continued to lose wickets at regular intervals as the required run rate started mounting.
There was some superb fielding on display from both the teams marred with a few ordinary effors too but the highlight was Jaiswal's direct throw to run out Du Plessis and in perhaps a massive moment in the game, Suyash Prabhudessai ran out RR's designated finisher Shimron Hetmyer who got out for 3 for 9. In the end, Dhruv Jurel remained unbeaten on 34 off 16 and R Ashwin scored 12 off 6 but it wasn't enough on the day.
Trent Boult (2 for 41) and Sandeep Sharma (2 for 49) were among the wickets for Rajasthan with Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal also chipping in with a wicket each. For Bangalore, Harshal Patel picked 3 for 32 while David Willey (1 for 26) and Mohammed Siraj (1 for 39) also scalped a wicket each that helped Bangalore win the match.
It was Virat Kohli who was captaining the RCB in this game with Du Plessis still not fit enough to field and captain. However, he was removed for a golden duck by Trent Boult. The team was playing a match as part of the 'Go Green' inititaive and donned the special Green jersey for this game.