RCB bowlers outshine fielding performance as Kohli, DK drop catches

Royal Challengers Bangalore on Tuesday made the optimum use of their decision to bowl first after winning the toss against Rajasthan Royals at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Pune. 

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In a brilliant display of fast bowling on a hard MCA Stadium pitch, RCB’s bowling attack spearheaded by Mohammed Siraj ripped through the Royals’ batting attack.

Siraj was the first to give RCB an early breakthrough when he trapped in-form batter Devdutt Padikkal in front for lbw in the second over. He struck again in the fourth over to rattle off the Royals by scalping the wicket of Ravichandran Ashwin, who was promoted to bat at No. 3 but failed to hold the guard of his team against Siraj’s nippy pace and swing. 

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In the first delivery of the fifth over, Josh Hazlewood picked up the important wicket of Jos Buttler, who was playing RCB after scoring two successive centuries. With Hazlewood reducing RR to 33 for 3, the Jaipur side found itself in deep trouble. 

Captain Sanju Samson provided some resistance for a while playing a 27 runs innings, which comprised three sixes. But Wanindu Hasaranga cut short his blitzkrieg in the third ball of the 10th over, bamboozling the Kerala batter. Hasaranga could have taken his third wicket of the night had Virat Kohli not dropped Trent Boult in the 16th when the New Zealander played at a very short straight mid-wicket but the Indian cricketer flew to his left with an outstretched hand but it did not stick. 

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In the second delivery of the 15th over, Hazlewood took his second wicket getting rid of Daryl Mitchell (16 off 24). With this wicket, the Australian pacer took 10 wickets in IPL 2022 in five matches.

At this stage, Riyan Parag held the fort all alone, playing an exquisite unbeaten 56 runs innings off 31 balls. This is Parag’s highest score in IPL. But he did not get any support from his fellow batters with Hasaranga taking his second wicket of the evening by removing dangerous Shimron Hetmyer in the 16th over. 

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While Siraj, Hazlewood and Hasaranga took two wickets apiece, Harshal Patel got one as the pacer got Trent Bout caught by Kohli for 5 in the 18th over. Prasidh Krishna was run out by Suyash Prabhudessai. Sri Lanka were eventually restricted to 144 for 8 in 20 overs. 

But had Dinesh Karthik not dropped in the 18th over off Harshal Patel, the pacer could have become the third RCB bowler to take two wickets today evening.