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IPL 2023: No Battle Royal as RCB annihilate RR

Synopsis: Rajasthan Royals lost their top three in 10 balls and half their side inside the Powerplay as they succumbed to a humiliating 112-run loss at home
The bowlers stepped up for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at a crucial stage of the campaign as they thumped Rajasthan Royals (RR) 112 runs to stay afloat in the play-offs race. Meanwhile, for Rajasthan, it is all but over in this year’s IPL.
On a dry surface, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis opted to bat and led from the front, scoring his seventh fifty-plus score this season. Given the batting firepower Rajasthan has in their ranks, 171/5 looked like a par total but RCB bowlers came to the party big time and decimated the hosts for 59, the third-lowest score in IPL hory.
Parnell’s carnage
It was Mohammed Siraj who set the tone with the ball for RCB. But it was Wayne Parnell, into the side after Josh Hazlewood picked up a niggle, who did the most damage. Rajasthan lost half their side inside the Powerplay, and Parnell got three out of them.
Siraj struck in the first over again. Yashasvi Jaiswal departed without troubling the scorers. Siraj started with a brilliant inswinger, with Jaiswal getting his bat down in time. The next ball was fired down the legside for a wide. He followed it up with a length ball that Jaiswal drilled straight to Virat Kohli at mid-off.
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Wayne Parnell , second right without cap, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of Rajasthan Royals’ Jos Buttler during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur, India, Sunday, May 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)
Parnell then broke the back of the batting removing Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson in one over. Buttler guided one straight to Siraj at cover point. Rawat, who was donning the gloves in place of Dinesh Karthik who was substituted, took a skier after running nearly 20 yards to the middle of the pitch. Rajasthan had lost three wickets inside the first 10 balls and probably lost the match there itself.
Devdutt Padikkal, who came in as an Impact Sub for Yuzvendra Chahal, lasted four balls. He was beaten the slow nature of the surface, played a chip shot and found Siraj at mid-wicket, and the pacer took a brilliant low catch.
Parnell returned to pin Joe Root, who batted for the first time in his third IPL outing this season. The left-arm pacer came round the wicket and bowled a slower yorker, which dipped very late and struck Root on the pads.
For RCB, Parnell (3/10), Michael Bracewell (2/16), Karn Sharma (2/19), Glenn Maxwell (1/3) and Siraj (1/10) shared the spoils as they bundled out Rajasthan in 10.3 overs.
Kohli needs a move on
Virat Kohli’s rigidity about his batting template to take the game deep, even with the new ‘Impact Player’ rule, has cost RCB 20 runs in almost every match. He had consently maintained that “he can make up later in the innings.” It’s a nice theory on paper, but as we have seen with RCB in the past, it doesn’t quite hold up.
In this year’s IPL, the former RCB skipper has scored 438 runs, including six fifties, at a strike rate of just over 130. On the other hand, his opening partner du Plessis has amassed 631 runs and his strike rate is above 150. With Faf at one end, Kohli had a free hand to take on the bowlers and as former India coach Ravi Shastri said, “he shouldn’t slow down.”
Rajasthan Royals’ KM Asif, left, celebrates the dismissal of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Virat Kohli, right, during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Jaipur, India, Sunday, May 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Surjeet Yadav)
It is not that Kohli isn’t trying. He has tried to up the ante from the start but hasn’t quite succeeded. On Sunday against Rajasthan Royals on a double-paced surface, Kohli again looked all at sea. He was looking to muscle every bowl but RCB managed only 42 runs in the Powerplay. He scored a 19-ball 18 and was undone a change of pace from KM Asif. Kohli was looking to put the ball into the stands, but spooned it up in the air and Jaiswal completed a simple catch.
Two-man show and a collapse
Maxwell’s arrival gave the much-needed impetus to RCB’s innings. The Aussie teed off with a six on the third ball he faced. Faf scored another fifty, his seventh of the season. The dryness of the wicket and Rajasthan’s spin troika – Adam Zampa, Chahal and Ravichandran Ashwin – bowled beautifully, but the duo kept finding the odd boundary. Just when the tempo seemed to have slowed down, Maxwell smoked back-to-back boundaries off Sandeep Sharma and then hit a straight six against Ashwin to ease the pressure. Faf too joined the party, completing his half-century with a maximum.
Just when it looked like the match was getting beyond the hosts, the bowlers pulled the strings. Asif removed Faf with another off-pace delivery. Then Zampa, whose selection ahead of Trent Boult raised eyebrows, struck twice in three balls to remove Mahipal Lomror and Dinesh Karthik.
Meanwhile, Maxwell kept the tempo up; he raced towards his half-century with a booming six against Chahal over square- leg. However, in the next over, Sandeep knocked him over with a yorker. Maxwell was trying to play a reverse sweep but Sandeep fired it at the stumps and ended another whirlwind knock.

Anuj Rawat’s 11-ball 29 ended RCB’s innings with a flourish. Asif started the last over quite brilliantly giving only two singles off the first three balls. But in the second half of the over, Anuj Rawat took him to the cleaners, smoking two sixes and a boundary, to take RCB to a respectable total.

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