On a doubleheader day of the IPL both the teams at the bottom of the IPL league table won their respective matches and both while chasing targets. Rajasthan Royals chased down a target of 188 set for them by Mumbai Indians with four wickets to spare while Royal Challengers Bangalore chased 174 successfully losing only two wickets.
Mumbai Indians vs. Rajasthan Royals
Captain Rohit Sharma (47 runs off 32 balls) and Quinton de Kock gave Mumbai Indians a good start with a 96 run opening stand, off 10.5 overs before Jofra Archer got Sharma to hole out to Butler at long-on. Suryakumar Yadav (16 runs off 10 balls) flattered to deceive while Pollard was ill at home scoring just 6 runs from 12 balls. Quinton de Kock (81 runs off 52 balls) did the bulk of the scoring till he got out to a brilliant catch by Butler off the bowling of Archer. A few lusty hits by Hardik Pandya (28 runs off 11 balls) saw Mumbai posting a respectable total of 187 runs for five wickets. Alzarri Joseph suffered a shoulder injury while fielding though the extent of damage is not known.
Jos Butler (89 runs of 43 balls) played a blistering knock to bring Royals within sniffing distance of victory. He was ably supported by Rahane (37 runs from 21 balls) and Sanju Samson (31 runs off 26 balls). Alzarri Joseph who finished with the IPL all-time bowling best figures two matches ago bore the brunt of Butler’s blade. In the 13th over of the inning, Butler hit Joseph for 6,4,4,4,4 and 6 to plunder 28 runs from the over. The required run rate, which was 8.75 prior to the over had come down to run a ball.
Yazuvendra Chahar dismissed Butler when he induced the batsman to loft one over long-off where Suryakumar Yadav took the catch. Mumbai Indians stormed right back into the game when they had the wickets of Sanju Samson, Rahul Tripathi, Liam Livingstone and Steve Smith in a span of 9 balls leading into the 19th over. But Shreyas Gopal saw the Royals home by hitting two boundaries. This is Rajasthan Royals second win in seven matches.
Kings XI Punjab vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore
Kings XI Punjab got off to good start with Chris Gayle taking a fancy first to Umesh Yadav and then to Mohammed Siraj. But Virat Kohli deployed his spinners soon after power play and Kl Rahul was the first causality was KL Rahul who was stumped of Yazuvendra Chahal. Chahal also claimed the wicket of Mayank Agarwal to further dent the Kings XI scoring rate. Chris Gayle who had scored 48 runs off 23 balls during the power play could add only 20 runs in 27 balls in the next 10 overs. In the meantime, Kings XI lost the wickets of Sarfaraz Khan (15 runs off 13 balls) and Sam Curran.
It was in the last four overs that Chris Gayle added 31 runs off 14 balls became only the second player after Suresh Raina to remain 99 not out in the IPL. Mandeep Singh (18 off 16 balls) along with Gayle added another 46 runs to the King's XI total to score a respectable 173 runs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore, who had lost all of their six matches played this season got off to a good start themselves despite losing the wicket of Parthiv Patel (19 off 9 balls) caught off Ravichandran Ashwin. Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers posted 63 for 1 at the end of the power play. Kohli, who is considered a master at chasing down scores, played a sedate inning which is evident in the fact that there is not a single six in his 67 runs off 53 balls. Mohammed Shami claimed Kohli’s wicket when the batsman pulled a short ball straight to Murugan Ashwin at mid-wicket in the sixteenth over.
At the end of the over Royal Challengers needed to score at 11 runs per over to win the match. But Marcus Stoinis (28 runs off 16 balls) along with AB De Villiers (59 runs off 38 balls) saw Royal Challengers Bangalore home with 4 balls to spare and 8 wickets in hand. This is the first win for Royal Challengers in the IPL this season.
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