RR vs RCB, IPL 2024: Rajasthan Royals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 wickets, Virat Kohli’s efforts in vain Cricket News

Jos Buttler eclipsed Virat Kohli’s record of 113 runs with a superb return to form as Rajasthan Royals beat Virat Kohli in Saturday’s IPL The team defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets to achieve their fourth victory. Royals have now won four out of four games and are firmly on top of the ten-team table, while RCB have slipped to eighth place with a fourth defeat and three games behind. Although Kohli strengthened his status as RCB’s lone man by scoring his eighth century in the IPL, RCB could only manage a sub-par 183/3 after the home team opted to bowl.

The England white-ball skipper then chose to ruin Kohli’s night in his 100th IPL appearance with a knock that was far better than that of the former India skipper, both in intent and quality.

Buttler ended IPL 2023 with three consecutive innings and scored a maximum of 13 runs in the last three innings to seal the chase with five balls remaining.

Buttler ended Cameron Green’s deep square-leg chase with a six in the final over, which also marked his sixth century in the IPL.

His knock was only 58 balls with 9 fours and 4 sixes.

Skipper Sanju Samson provided brilliant support to Buttler, posting a record-breaking partnership of 148 – the highest score of the season – that almost killed off the match.

Samson ended up scoring 69 runs off 42 balls with eight fours and two sixes. Rajasthan Royals are now at the top of the table with eight points and ahead of Kolkata Knight Riders in net run rate.

On a day when Rajasthan Royals’ spin duo of Yuzvendra Chahal (2/34) and Ravichandran Ashwin (0/28) turned the tables for the home team by suffocating RCB in the middle overs, RCB’s bowling looked woefully short .

The likes of Mayank Dagar and Himanshu Sharma failed to make any impact in Royals’ chase.

Chahal, who was released by RCB ahead of the IPL 2022 auction, proved to be a difference-maker against his former club.

After a cautious start, Buttler made his intentions clear in the final powerplay, selecting rookie left-arm spinner Daggar to unleash his fury.

He hit his boundaries firmly with his silky timing before smashing him for four, a six and another four for 20 runs.

Buttler went from 10 off 10 balls at the start to reaching 50 off just 30 balls – nine short of Kohli’s milestone.

For Buttler, the 20th IPL fifty finally arrived after a long wait of eight innings.

The Englishman read the lengths of the game well, played his silky cover ball and took the seemingly ordinary RCB bowling over the bowlers’ heads with a late over.

Samson also stepped up the intensity in the 11th over of Dargarh’s second over, hitting him with two fours and a six with a lofty inside-out shot, his first of the season. Two fifties.

The Royals skipper has scored just 33 goals in those 50 games, with the pair dominating the chase during their partnership that spanned more than a century.

Siraj finally got the much-needed breakthrough in the 15th over, dismissing Sanju, but by then the chase was just a formality, reducing the equation to 32 for the final 5 overs required.

Earlier, Kohli hit 12 fours and four sixes and besides getting help from captain Faf du Plessis (44 off 33 balls; 2×4, 2×6), he had no Get any support from other batsmen.

After reaching his 50 off 39 balls, Kohli performed brilliantly, taking only 28 off 50 balls in the next 50 overs and scoring one off Nandre Burger in the penultimate over. Record singles reached milestone.

Glenn Maxwell (1) and debutant left-hander Saurav Chauhan (9) failed to replicate Syed Mushtaq Ali’s T20 performance state, fell down miserably.

Credit should go to the RR spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin (0/28) and Chahal (2/34) who suppressed the proceedings in the middle order.

Chahal performed brilliantly, deceiving the RCB batsmen with his bowling and slide deliveries, using his pace and variation deftly. While Kohli did score a hundred, he could never really dominate the bowling and eventually, the hundred became irrelevant.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Topics mentioned in this article