Rajasthan Royals stay in hunt for the play-offs after defeating Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur on Saturday. RCB fell short of 30 runs in a 165-run chase which ended their campaign in IPL 2018. In a match of permutations and combinations, RCB failed to keep afloat and kept losing wickets in crucial stages of the match. Royals rode on a fine half century from Rahul Tripathi, combined with leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal's 4/16 to outclass Bangalore.
With the win, Rajasthan rose to the fourth spot in the IPL tally with 14 points while RCB's campaign ended on a disappointing note, summing up their inconsistent performances in this edition.
Barring AB de Villiers (53 from 35 balls; 4x7) and Parthiv Patel (33 from 21; 4x3, 6x2), none of the visiting batsmen could offer any resistance to the disciplined Rajasthan bowling as wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals.
While Gowtham started the onslaught with the wicket of skipper Virat Kohli (4) in the third over, Gopal accounted for the scalps of Parthiv, de Villiers, Moeen Ali (1) and Mandeep Singh (3) in quick succession.
Despite the loss of two key overseas players in England's Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes, who have left for national duty, Rajasthan managed to keep the fight and leave the tourists high and dry.
Earlier, pacer Umesh Yadav starred with three wickets to peg back the hosts, who rode on opener Tripathi's unbeaten 58-ball 80, laced with five fours and three sixes, and cameos from skipper Ajinkya Rahane (33) and Heinrich Klassen(32)to put a healthy 164/5 in their 20 overs.
(With inputs from IANS)
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