Rajasthan Royals (RR) were put to the sword by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their own den. RCB bowlers’ brilliance with the ball helped their side to notch up a dominant 112-run win over RR to strengthen their IPL playoffs chances. Chasing 172, the Royals’ batters never found their game going and kept losing wickets. A clinical performance from RCB bowlers bundled out RR for 59. Wayne Parnell claimed three wickets while Michael Bracewell and Karn Sharma picked up two each.

Opting to bat, RCB did well not to lose an early wicket but KM Asif dismissed Virat Kohli (18) soon after the powerplay. After that, it was yet another stellar stand between skipper Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell, smashing boundaries to keep the scoreboard ticking along. Both added 69 runs for the second wicket before Asif bagged Du Plessis for 55.

Adam Zampa struck twice in the 16th over, removing Mahipal Lomror (1) and Dinesh Karthik (0) to put a brake on the scoring rate. Maxwell’s fine innings of 54 and Anuj Rawat’s cameo of 29 helped RCB to reach 171/5 on a tricky batting surface.

The hosts’ chase started terribly as Mohammed Siraj stunned RR by dismissing Yashasvi Jaiswal for a duck. And in the 2nd over, Parnell gave a double blow, sending off Jos Butler for a duck and skipper Sanju Samson for 4. Michael Bracewell then dismissed Devdutt Padikkal (4) while Parnell removed Joe Root (10) in his next over. Shimron Hetmyer played a quickfire 35 but did not last long. RR’s lower order did not show any resilience and eventually lost the game.