In the 39th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Rajasthan Royals (RR) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 29 runs at the MCA Stadium in Pune.
Faf du Plessis won the toss and asked Rajasthan Royals to bat first. The champions of the first-ever IPL edition got off to a rough start as both the openers who played magnificently in the last match, failed to get going today. After losing Devdutt Padikkal in the second over, Ravichandran Ashwin (17) came at number three and gave some valuable start for RR in the powerplay. To get momentum going, captain Sanju Samson (27) played a decent knock. It was Riyan Parag (56*) who was amazing with the bat. The sublime strokes which Parag played throughout the inning were gems to the eyes. The right-handed batsman smashed three fours and four sixes to take RR to a defendable score of 144/8 in 20 overs.
In response, Virat Kohli (9) experimented a bit and came to open the innings along with Faf du Plessis. This move of Kohli failed once again but the inning further was taken ahead by Rajat Patidadar (16). du Plessis (23) was the only batsman to have a decent score ahead of his name. Inform Dinesh Karthik also, unfortunately, got run out. Shahbaz Ahmed (17) and Wanindu Hasaranga (18) tried their best but it wasn’t enough. In the end, RCB were all out for 115.
Youngster Kuldeep Sen was at his best once again as he scalped four wickets in his quota of four overs. Ashwin got three wickets and along with him, Prasidh Krishna managed to get two wickets. Trent Boult and Yuzvendra Chahal also troubled the batters which helped RR defend a small total at the MCA Stadium in Pune.
For RCB, two wickets each were plucked by Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazelwood and Hasaranga. Harshal Patel also got one wicket in the first inning.
Riyan Parag was awarded the Man of the Match for his amazing batting display. Following this win, Rajasthan Royals goes to the top of the table with 12 points.
Scorecard:
Rajasthan Royals: 144/8, Overs 20, Riyan Parag 56*, Josh Hazelwood 2/19
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 115/10, Overs 19.3, Faf du Plessis 23, Kuldeep Sen 4/20