IPL 2024: Bowlers, du Plessis keep RCB’s playoff hopes alive with four-wicket win over GT
Bengaluru, May 5 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Riding on a superb performance by their fast bowlers and a blistering 64 from captain Faf du Plessis, Royal Challengers Bengaluru kept their playoff hopes alive with a four-wicket win over Gujarat Titans at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. After Yash Dayal, Vyshak Vijaykumar and Mohammed Siraj picked two wickets each in a superb bowling performance to bowl out GT for a below-par 147, du Plessis and Virat Kohli gave RCB a blazing start with a 92-run opening stand coming in just 35 balls. Du Plessis was more aggressive of the two, hitting 10 fours and three sixes in his 23-ball stay at the crease. After he fell, GT triggered a spectacular RCB batting implosion by picking up six wickets from overs 6-11. It took Dinesh Karthik’s 21 not out and Swapnil Singh’s unbeaten 15 to get RCB over the line in 13.4 overs and help them jump to seventh place in the points table. RCB’s win also meant GT slid to ninth place, while Mumbai Indians became the new occupants of tenth position in the points table. On a two-paced surface, Dayal, Vyshak and Siraj got their lengths and rhythm spot-on to bundle out GT for the lowest total at the venue in IPL 2024. They were also supported by Cameron Green and Karn Sharma taking a wicket apiece. Shahrukh Khan, David Miller and Rahul Tewatia chipped in with sizeable 30s, but none of them converted it into a big knock to make it the third time GT have been bowled out this season. Electing to bowl first, Siraj found late movement on a short and wide ball, which was good enough to find an outside edge of Wriddhiman Saha. It was also the fourth time Siraj took out Saha in the IPL. Siraj found late movement again when he forced Shubman Gill to whip and ended up with deep point taking a catch off a leading edge. The consistent B. Sai Sudharsan was next to fall, pulling without footwork and top-edge caught by mid-off against Green, as GT ended their power-play at a paltry 23/3, the lowest total in this six-over phase of IPL 2024. Post a horror Power-play, GT got some boundaries flowing, starting from Shahrukh glancing and cutting off Vyshak in the seventh over. He and Miller, dropped on 23 by Karn off Green, got some sublime timing on their shots to keep GT innings going as 38 runs came from overs 8-11. Shahrukh brought up the 50-run stand for the fourth wicket in the 11th over by smashing Green high over long-on for a 94-metre six. But RCB launched a fight-back in successive overs – Miller holed out to long-on off Karn after hitting a six over extra cover, while Shahrukh was run out by a direct hit from Virat Kohli at non-striker’s end. Tewatia took a liking to Karn by smashing three fours and a six to take 19 runs off the 16th over, followed by Rashid taking two boundaries off Siraj in the next over. But Dayal brought a halt to the 44-run stand by castling Rashid’s leg-stump with a yorker, before taking out Tewatia with a short ball, with the diving third man taking the catch off the top edge. Vyshak came back to take out Manav Suthar and Vijay Shankar, while Mohit Sharma was run out in the final over as RCB got a team hat-trick to bowl out GT with three balls unused in their innings. Kohli began RCB’s chase of 148 by lofting and whipping Mohit Sharma for a brace of sixes in the opening over. Du Plessis greeted Joshua Little with a pulled four, followed by taking two fours and a six in the 20-run second over. He then took the attack to debutant spinner Manav Suthar, taking a six and four in the third over, followed by heaving Mohit over mid-wicket to bring up RCB’s fifty in just 19 balls. There was just no stopping du Plessis as he took three more fours off Mohit in an 18-run fourth over. After a sublime Kohli dispatched Suthar for two sixes, du Plessis completed his fifty in 18 balls and went on to slam Little for two fours and a six in the last over of Power-play. But Little had the last laugh by cramping du Plessis for room and a short fine leg took the catch on top-edge, as RCB ended Power-play at 92/1. The fast and furious-styled scoring from RCB in Power-play was brought to a halt afterwards by GT as Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Green perished quickly. When Kohli nicked behind off Noor Ahmad to fall for a 27-ball 42, the RCB supporting home crowd was left stunned over the batting meltdown resulting in the hosts’ being at 116/6 from 92/0. Amidst incredible pressure, a calm Karthik came out to diffuse the tension in the run-chase by taking down Rashid Khan with three fours – a whip over mid-wicket was followed by pull over square leg and a firm carve over cover in a 16-run 12th over. A brace of lovely sweeps from Swapnil Singh off Noor, followed by the batter slamming Rashid down the ground for a huge six ensured RCB got over the line with 38 balls to spare, which is a big win in the race to playoffs heating up in IPL 2024. Brief scores: Gujarat Titans 147 all out in 19.3 overs (Shahrukh Khan 37, Rahul Tewatia 35; Yash Dayal 2-21, Vyshak Vijaykumar 2-23) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru 152/6 in 13.4 overs (Faf du Plessis 64, Virat Kohli 42; Joshua Little 4-45, Noor Ahmad 2-23) by four wickets —
