Rajasthan Royals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs

Rajasthan Royals (RR) stunned Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 19 runs in their own den at the jam-packed Chinnaswamy Stadium. It was the day for Sanju Samson to create mayhem against the bowlers of the home side as he blazed through to 92 off just 45 deliveries. Virat Kohli also played a special knock replicating his 2016 form but once he was gone it was all one-way traffic as the visitors pounced on and closed the game to leave the crowd heart-broken once again.

After losing the toss, Royals got off to a brilliant start courtesy Ajinkya Rahane who went berserk in the powerplay. After his wicket, Samson took over and played a special innings for his team as he got an able and sufficient support from Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Rahul Tripathi at the other end. The bowling from RCB was absolutely lacklustre as they leaked runs at the death and the Boys in Blue latched on to the opportunities eventually posting a mountain of 217 runs for the loss of 4 wickets after their 20 overs.

In the chase, the hosts were rocked early as Krishnappa Gowtham scalped Brendon McCullum in the very first over after which Kohli took the game in his hands. He played wonderfully well and while he was there one felt that the chase was really possible. His 57-run knock off 30 balls proved that he will come harder in the next games at other teams. However, for this game, his innings wasn’t enough at all and it was finished once AB de Villiers lost his wicket.

Though Mandeep Singh and Washington Sundar smacked a few in the stands, it was always going to be a tough ask for them. They eventually fell 19 runs short scoring 198 runs for the loss of 6 wickets after their 20 overs.

Man of the Match, Sanju Samson