Royal Challengers Bangalore 123 for 3 (Gayle 49*) beat Rajasthan Royals 117 (Dravid 35, RP Singh 3-13, Vinay Kumar 3-18) by 7 wickets
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On high-scoring grounds, Rajasthan Royals depend a lot on Shane Watson,
and as he has been doing with Australia in their unfortunate run, Watson
let Royals down too. From the moment Watson was caught superbly by
Murali Kartik for six off 9, Royals limped through their innings for an
inadequate 117. Royal Challengers Bangalore threatened the fashionable,
inexplicable collapse, but a restrained Chris Gayle took them through
with more than two overs to spare.
R Vinay Kumar operated intelligently against the middle order lacking in
firepower, and his strikes kept pegging Royals back. The big wicket of
Watson, though, went to Ravi Rampaul. Watson had begun with a four first
ball, but was getting uneasy with his inability to find gaps at the top
of the innings. In the third over, he tried to bludgeon one, but Murali
Kartik took a smart overhead catch at mid-off.
Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane couldn't hit out, and Rahane was
consumed by that pressure. Stuart Binny hit a few lusty ones, eventually
took the run-rate past a run a ball, in the ninth over, but was bounced
out by Karnataka team-mate Vinay in the next over. Dravid, given a
rousing welcome by the "home" crowd, struggled so much that his
strike-rate reached 100 only in the 14th over. He had faced 27 balls by
then.
The pressure of all those dots was all consuming. Dravid holed out to
long-on. Brad Hodge fell to Vinay trying to run one down. RP Singh then
had a good time with the lower order, and picked up three for himself.
Unscarred Royal Challengers - with Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Virat
Kohli and AB de Villiers their top four - would have blasted their way
through this target and boosted their net run rate. This side, though,
has been turning regulation matches into thrillers of late, and didn't
eliminate drama despite a 53-run opening stand in 6.4 overs.
Watson, bowling for the first time in 2013, delayed the finish with the
wickets of Dilshan and de Villiers. Kohli fell to James Faulkner in
between. At 64 for 3 after nine overs, Gayle put his head down, and in
the company of Saurabh Tiwary, who was playing his first match of the
season, chose the middle path between a lightning chase and a dramatic
one despite all the we-want-six chants from the crowd. He did give them
what they wanted, but only after scores were level, raising his arms to
seemingly tell the crowd he can hit them but chose not to. It was good
enough to put their team joint-top on the table with a game in hand.
Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
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