And RCB have managed to win this one by 7 runs. That was a great contest. It went down the wire with Jurel keeping RR's hopes alive. Siraj was good in the closing stages but would have not wanted to bowl those wides. Harshal was good as well. 45 were needed off the final three overs. Willey bowled the 18th and gave 12 runs. Siraj came for the 19th and gave 13 and Harshal held his nerves and defended 20 in the final over as he gave just 12. So 2 back-to-back wins for them and 2 back-to-back losses for RR. But RR are still on top, while RCB are at 5th. Brilliant game. Hope you enjoyed it, I Varun Malik, sign off.
The final over is underway
Harshal to Ashwin, Ball 1 - 4 runs
Harshal to Ashwin, Ball 2 - 2 runs
Harshal to Ashwin, Ball 3 - 4 runs. 10 needed off 3. They have got 10 in the first 3. Can they get the remaining. Field changes being done
Harshal to Ashwin, Ball 4 - Out!. Ashwin has been caught out at deeo mid-wicket.
Impact sub alert. Basith comes in
Harshal to Basith, Ball 5 - 1 run
Harshal to Jurel, Ball 6 - dot ball
RCB win by 7 runs
That was a decent over from Siraj as he has given 20 to defend in the final over. Jurel hit a six in the over to help RR but can they chase this down.
We are down to the final two overs now. 33 are needed in 12 balls. Willey gave 13 in his final over
What a brilliant fielding effort by Prabhudessai on the field. He has caught Hetmyer short of his crease and this might well be the game for them. RR need 35 off 13
RR are still hanging in it. 45 are needed off 18 balls. 16 off Siraj's over and he bowled a few wides as well. While, Hetmyer is not able to fire, Jurel has found 2 fours in Siraj's over.
We are in the final four overs aka death overs of the game. RR need 61 off 24 balls. RR have Hetmyer, and Jurel in the middle. Hetmyer is the key. For RCB, Siraj has 2 overs with him.
And there's the big wicket of the RR captain Sanju Samson. Harshal Patel has got his wicket as Samson has been caught out at short third. Harshal is pumped.
RR are at 121/3 after 15 overs and need 69 off the final five overs. RCB scored only 32 in the final 30 balls.
Harshal Patel has now sent Jaiswal packing on this slower full toss as Kohli takes the catch again at long-on. This game is wide and open guys.
The game is taking an interesting route. RR are still not comfortable and need over 12 an over at the moment. Samson and Jaiswal are in the middle.
And here comes the wicket for RCB. David Willey strikes and gets the wicket of Padikkal. The batter is caught out at long-on by Kohli and RR are 2 down. Stat Alert!! This was Kohli's 100th catch in IPL. Only five other players have taken more than 100. Three are wicket-keepers and two are fielders. He is the sixth one.
Padikkal has hit a fifty here in the chase. A 30-ball half-century for him. RR are at 97/1 after 11 and need 93 in 9 overs.
RR going very well in the chase. Padikkal has now found his touch and is striking over 160 and is at 39, while Jaisawal is hitting at 150 and has scored 142 so far. RCB are under the pump at the moment with RR at 81/1 after 9. They need 109 off 66 and it shall be gettable if they continue like this.
RR are at 47/1 after 6 overs. Jaiswal and Padikkal are going fine at the moment. RCB will look to get more wickets in the middle phase now
Jaiswal has hit three fours in the game. He has hit 2 to Siraj in the third over and 1 to Willey in the second over. RR 16/1 after 3 overs
And Siraj sends the Chinnaswamy crowd cheering loud. What a bowl that was. A wonderful wobble-seam taht came back in and finds the gap between Buttler's bat and pad. RR 1 down.
RR have begun their chase of 190. The second-best pair of the season - Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal is in the middle. Impact change for RCB - Faf du Plessis is subbed out for Harshal Patel. Mohammed Siraj starts for RCB.
And RCB have finished at 189/9. Similar story for them. Power at the top, struggle in the middle. They were at 135/2 in 13 overs and ended up achieving only 54 in the final 7 overs and lost 7 wickets.
RCB have now lost 9 wickets. They are completely falling apart.
RCB are in mess at the moment. Their middle order is letting them down once again.
And RCB have lost a wicket. A run-out was what looked the only way to stop these two batters. RCB have lost their 3rd wicket now. Faf hits this to mid-off and Jaiswal does great work as he catches Faf short of the crease at the bowler's end.
Faf has brought up another fifty. What a brilliant tournament he is having. 5th fifty in 7 IPL 2023 innings, speaks volumes of what sort of player he is.
And a 100-run stand between Faf and Maxwell is up. They are going brilliantly today and Faf is proving out to be the most reliable batter for them, despite his rib injury problem.
And here's Maxwell's fifty. He raises his bat in delight after this masterful knock. A 27-ball fifty for the RCB star and he has been hitting very well. After 10 overs, RCB are at 101/2. How long can they continue?
16 runs from the previous 2 overs and RCB have gone to 78/2 after 8 overs. Maxwell is closing in on a fifty and is playing over 200 strike rate.
RCB are going well at the moment. They would be disappointed to lose the 2 wickets. But Faf du Plessis and Maxwell have stabilised things for them. They are going strong. Meanwhile, Chahal is brought into the attack straight after the powerplay.
And Boult's wonderful run in the powerplay continues. He has now got the wicket of Shahbaz Ahmad. This was on a good length and it hurried Shahbaz as he looked to pull this. But he slices this to mid-wicket. RCB 2 down.
Oh no!! Trent Boult has got the wicket of Kohli on first ball of the game. What a beautiful ball to start the game. Came over the wicket, pitched it on good length as Kohli looked to work it on the leg side. Kohli gets beaten and he is gone!!
Donavon Ferreira, M Ashwin, Akash Vasisht, KM Asif and Abdul Basith are RR's subs
Harshal Patel, Finn Allen, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma and Anuj Rawat are RCB's subs
We would have batted first anyway. The wicket looks dry and it will get drier and might break up first. I didn't say that to Sanju, but I'm very happy to bat first. We both got to do what we wanted. They informed me last time saying I might have to captain a couple of matches, nothing I'm not used to doing. So I'm happy to step in, I am ready to continue from whatever Faf has been doing. The team has answered well, we are playing with a lot of energy and that showed in the last match. One change for us, David Willey comes in for Wayne Parnell. Faf continues to play as an impact sub.
We will be bowling first. Seeing at the conditions, our side and their side. So we'd prefer bowling. The dressing room is simple, honest and we need to respect the way we are playing. We are starting with the same XI, might substitute someone later on.
Virat Kohli(c), Faf du Plessis, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik(w), Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Wanindu Hasaranga, Mohammed Siraj, Vijaykumar Vyshak
Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal
RR have won the toss and have opted to bowl first. Virat is leading the team. Same XI for RR, they might substitute someone later. Meanwhile, Willey comes in for Parnell.
Virat Kohli will be leading his team in this game too.
There are some interesting battles lined up. Virat Kohli and Sandeep Sharma are involved in a big battle, while Faf vs Boult is also a battle to watch out for.
Virat Kohli vs Sandeep Sharma - Kohli has hit 78 runs off 59 balls but has been dismissed 7 times.
Faf du Plessis vs Trent Boult - Faf has scored 76 runs in 71 balls and has been dismissed 3 times.
Sanju Samson vs Wanindu Hasaranga - Samson has faced 34 balls against Hasaranga and has been dismissed six times.
RCB and RR are almost neck-to-neck in head-to-head clashes. The two have played against each other 28 times and RCB have managed to win 13 times, while RR have won 12 times. At Chinnaswamy, RR have an upper hand over RCB and have won 4 matches, while RCB have won 2.
RCB have power in their famous three - Virat, Faf and Maxwell. These three players have led them to big totals in the season so far. Interestingly, these three have scored 74% of RCB's runs in the ongoing tournament. Their bowling is spearheaded by Mohammed Siraj. He is the joint leading wicket-taker in powerplay and has set up wins for his team.
RR are the table toppers and are having a memorable campaign with 4 wins in 6 games. They lost their last outing to LSG but have defeated the likes of CSK, GT, SRH, and DC. Their only other loss except the one to LSG came against PBKS, a five-run loss.
Form guide: L,W,W,W,L,W
RCB's campaign has been a mixed sort of journey so far. They have won three games and lost three, two of their defeats coming at home. RCB won at home against MI and DC and lost to CSK and LSG at Chinnaswamy. They recently defeated PBKS away from home.
Form guide - WLWLLW (most recent first)
RCB's squad:
Faf du Plessis (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Virat Kohli, Mahipal Lomror, Glenn Maxwell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Wanindu Hasaranga, Suyash Prabhudessai, Harshal Patel, Wayne Parnell, Mohammed Siraj, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Siddarth Kaul, Karn Sharma, David Willey, Michael Bracewell, Finn Allen, Sonu Yadav, Anuj Rawat, Manoj Bhandage, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma
RR's squad:
Sanju Samson (c & wk), Jos Buttler, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Riyan Parag, Shimron Hetmyer, Dhruv Jurel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Jason Holder, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, Yuzvendra Chahal, Devdutt Padikkal, Joe Root, Adam Zampa, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Akash Vasisht, KC Cariappa, Obed McCoy, KM Asif, Kuldip Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Donavon Ferreira, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore
Hello and a warm welcome to everyone in this first match of the Super Sunday doubleheader in IPL 2023. It's the Battle of Royals at the batting paradise M Chinnaswamy in the afternoon game on April 23. Faf du Plessis' RCB will be up against Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals at the former's home. While RCB are coming off a win, RR have lost their previous game in the tournament. This shall be a cracking contest. So, bring some snacks out of your kitchen and sit back in comfort as I Varun Malik, take you across this game.
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