Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals successfully chased down the target of 172 in 19.5 overs and registered a four-wicket win against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a thriller at Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur on Monday.
Sanju Samson played a brilliant innings of 63 runs which was very well complimented by the cameos from Shane Watson and Brad Hodge which got them over the line. Watson scored 41 off 31 balls and Hodge got 32 off just 18 balls. Stuart Binny hit the winning runs as he smashed a boundary to continue the winning run of RR at home.
Earlier, it was some brilliant bowling from Watson, who picked up three wickets in his four overs, which helped Rajasthan restrict RCB to 171 for the loss of six wickets in their 20 overs.
Chasing the stiff target of 172 was never an easy task for Rajasthan Royals. Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane opened the innings and added 21 runs for the first wicket before Rahane got out to Ravi Rampaul. But that didn’t have much impact on RR batting as Sanju Samson, who joined Dravid, started dealing in boundaries and was looking in good touch. He kept on dealing in boundaries and kept the scoreboard ticking. Dravid too was looking good but lost his wicket to Moises Henriques in the 7th over of the innings. He scored 22 runs off 17 balls which were studded with four fours.
Samson kept the good work going and was ably supported by in-form Watson who gave him all the opportunity to score as many runs as possible. After playing a magnificent knock of 63, Samson departed to bring Brad Hodge into the middle.
Watson and Hodge kept the momentum going and kept getting those boundaries with ones and twos. Match turned around in 17th over as needing 42 off 24 balls, the duo smacked 12 runs. In the 18th over, with two huge strikes Hodge almost sealed the match as they scored 17 runs in that over. With 13 runs still to get, RR saw a twist in the tale as they lost the wickets of Watson and Hodge which made the match much more intense in the final over of the game. With 3 needed off 2 balls in the last over, it was Stuart Binny who smashed the ball to the deep mid-wicket to snatch a boundary and registered a thrilling win for RR as they ended up scoring 6/173 in their 20 overs. They won the match by four wickets and kept their fortress at home-ground.
Earlier in the match, it was RCB who started off really well and reached 44 in just four overs but they lost the precious wicket of Chris Gayle who scored 34 off just 16 balls. Watson was the one who got that big-wicket and gave relief to Rajasthan royals. They soon lost the wicket of Abhinav Mukund who was dismissed after scoring 19 off 21 balls.
Kohli and De Villiers looked in good knick once again and continued piling up runs at good rate till the 12th over of the innings. However, S Sreesanth got the crucial breakthrough of De Villiers who departed after scoring 21 runs off 13 balls. Kohli too fell to Watson after scoring 32 off 35 balls.
Henriques got run-out while trying to take a double while Ravi Rampaul too departed after scoring three runs.
20th over of the innings was full of surprises as Vinay Kumar hit three huge sixes to take RCB past the total to 170 with his lusty blows. RCB scored 22 runs off the last to finish at 171 for the loss of six wickets.
By ISN