Faf du Plessis’s fifty, bowlers lead Royal Challengers Bangalore to four-wicket win over Gujarat Titans. cricket news

Royal Challengers Bangalore hit the self-destruct button midway, but captain Faf du Plessis’s blistering half-century had enough torque to seal a four-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in their IPL match in Bengaluru on Saturday. Du Plessis (64, 23b, 10×4, 3×6) and Kohli (42, 27b, 2×4, 4×6), who added 92 runs in just 35 balls for the opening wicket, led the Royal Challengers to a stellar performance to chase down a paltry target of 148. Crossed. , experiencing some nerve-wracking moments, most of which are of his own creation. The win lifted RCB to seventh on the table with eight points from 11 matches and kept their mathematical chances of reaching the playoffs alive.

Du Plessis and Kohli hit boundaries as the home team scored 92 runs in the power play, which included 10 fours and seven sixes.

Both du Plessis and Kohli were serious on all GT’s bowlers, as the latter started the attack with two sixes off fast bowler Mohit Sharma in the first over.

Du Plessis was in no mood to play the sidekick role as he dismissed left-arm fast bowler Josh Little in the order of 4, 6, 4, 4 in the second over, leaving a total of 20 runs.

The Titans introduced IPL debutant left-arm spinner Manav Suthar in the hope of at least containing Kohli, but the move failed spectacularly.

The RCB talisman showed his growing ease against spin by hitting Suthar for two consecutive sixes.

Du Plessis reserved his punishing blade for Mohit, whom he hit with four fours in the fifth over as the South African reached fifty from just 18 balls before falling to Little.

RCB entered a struggling phase from there as they lost last match’s centurions Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green for just 20 runs between the sixth and 10th overs.

Little (4/45) and spinner Noor Ahmed (2/23) were the main culprits as RCB slipped from 92 for 1 to 112 for five.

Ahmed dismissed Kohli soon after when RCB were 117 for six, but Dinesh Karthik (21 not out, 12b) was cool under pressure as RCB registered their fourth overall win this season and third consecutive win .

Before RCB’s batsmen joined the party, their bowlers put in an impeccable effort on a supportive pitch to restrict GT to a paltry score of 147.

There were some good partnerships – 61 between David Miller and Shahrukh Khan and 44 by Rahul Tewatia and Rashid Khan – but the Titans lacked a big innings or stand that could have given them a firm grip on the match.

In fact, they seemed unable to accelerate even in the power play as their top-order batsmen struggled against RCB pacers Mohammed Siraj (2/29) and Yash Dayal (2/21), who bowled brilliant lengths. But hold on.

GT managed to hit only two fours in the power play, providing ample evidence of their struggles and the accuracy of the RCB bowlers.

Gujarat team’s power play score was 23 runs for three wickets which was the lowest in this segment this season and the main reason for this was Siraj’s dominance beforehand.

He dismissed the out-of-form Wriddhiman Saha with a brilliant outswinger, which the GT opener sent to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps.

As soon as Shubman Gill tried to swatt the ball from Siraj towards the on-side, he took the lead and ended up being caught by Vaishakh Vijayakumar at deep point.

Green got the third wicket for RCB in the power play when he dismissed in-form B Sai Sudarshan, whose weak pull close to the body was blocked by Kohli at mid-off.

Miller (30, 20b) and Shahrukh (37, 24b) tried their best to get GT out of trouble by making a good partnership of 61 runs in 37 balls for the fourth wicket.

Miller, who was lucky to be caught by Karn Sharma off Green at the score of 23, played brilliant power shots.

He punished leg spinner Karn for a few sixes – a pull and a bounce over extra cover – but fell to the same bowler when a mis-heaved heave was caught by Maxwell in the deep.

But a major misfortune for the visitors was that Shahrukh, who had backed Rahul Tewatia’s soft drop to great lengths, could not beat Kohli’s throw at the non-striker’s end.

For the sixth wicket, Tewatia (35, 21b) and Rashid (18, 14b) added 44 runs off 29 balls, but the latter’s desire to be innovative against Yash Dayal led to the ball crashing onto the stumps.

Tewatia, who gave 18 runs (4, 6, 4, 4) to Karna in the 16th over, was out soon.

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