IPL 2023, Rajasthan Royals (RR) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB): Glenn Maxwell's 54, Wayne Parnell's 3-10 and Faf du Plessis' 55 are top performances. RCB beat Rajasthan Royals and move to 5th position in points table.
Brief Scores: RCB 171/5 (Du Plessis 55, Maxwell 54, Zampa 2/25) beat RR 59 (Hetmyer 35, Parnell 3/10, Bracewell 2/16) by 112 runs
Player of the Match: Wayne Parnell (3/10)
Rajasthan Royals (RR) locked horns with Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to decrease mid-table rat race at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on Sunday. RCB lead 14-12 in their overall history of 28 games with two no-results against RR.
Comprehensive victory by 112 runs takes RCB to fifth position
RCB captain Faf du Plessis on winning the toss opted to bat first on a pitch that looked dry and was expected to slow down under the sun. While Royals brought back Adam Zampa for Trent Boult, Bangalore included Wayne Parnell and Michael Bracewell in place of Josh Hazlewood and Wanindu Hasaranga.
Royal Challengers Bangalore began decently with 42/0 in the powerplay before picking the pace to reach 78/1 at the halfway mark. The 69-run stand for the second wicket between Glenn Maxwell and Faf du Plessis carried them to 120/2 in 15 overs, before a late cameo of an unbeaten 11-ball 29 runs from Anuj Rawat helped RCB finishing on 171/5 in their allotted 20 overs.
Chasing 172, Rajasthan never got going losing half of their side for just 28 runs to reach 28/5 in the powerplay before Bangalore took more control of the game reducing RR to 59/8 at the halfway mark before dismissing them for 59 in 10.3 overs, winning by 112 runs. It’s now the second lowest innings total for RR after their 58 against RCB in 2009.
Read More: IPL 2023, KKR vs RR: Chahal, Jaiswal's carnage take Rajasthan to third spot in points table
Talking point: The struggle of Buttler, Samson, Hetmyer in the second half made it tough for RR
Apart from Yashasvi Jaiswal, none of the batters made any contribution in the second half of the season for Rajasthan as Jos Buttler after 2022 season where he managed four centuries ended with four ducks in 2023. Sanju Samson too hasn’t come to the party in the second half of the season.
Shimron Hetmyer started well in this season but he didn’t get enough chances to bat and when he got, he failed to contribute as before today’s innings, he has just 33 runs in his last five innings. These batters need to step up highly at the business end of the season.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the game between RCB and RR in IPL 2023
Maxwell shows sheer aggression with 33-ball 55 run knock
With the dismissal of Virat Kohli in the seventh over, RCB needed someone to come and batted freely with aggression to lift up the energy. Glenn Maxwell who has been in excellent touch this season did the trick.
Maxwell began with a beautiful six against Ravichandran Ashwin over long-on before drilling Yuzvendra Chahal for a boundary through the square region. The Australian batter smashed Sandeep Sharma for back-to-back boundaries over short third man and deep square leg before whacking Ashwin for another six down the ground. Maxwell now has 140 T20 runs in 69 balls against Ashwin besides getting dismissed twice.
Chahal who has dismissed Maxwell thrice besides going for 65 T20 runs in 46 balls, was smoked by Maxwell for a six over deep square leg to celebrate his 18th IPL fifty. He was dismissed on 54 in 33 balls with the help of five boundaries and three sixes.
Glenn Maxwell now has 2703 IPL runs in 122 games out of which 384 run in 12 games have come in this season.
Read More: IPL 2023, MI vs RCB: SKY, Wadhera chase down 200 against RCB; MI move to third place in points table
Siraj-Parnell pace duo blew away the Royals with combined figures of 4/20
Defending a decent par score, RCB needed their bowlers to step up and pick up some early wickets to put pressure on the Royals and the duo of Wayne Parnell and Mohammed Siraj provided them a bright start.
On the second ball of the first over, Siraj sent back in-form Yashasvi Jaiswal on a two-ball duck who smashed the straight ball into the hands of the mid-off fielder. Wayne Parnell too coming for his first over dismissed Jos Buttler on a two-ball duck who smacked the short ball into the hands of the cover point fielder. Two ball later, Parnell caged Sanju Samson on 4 who slogged the slower ball as Anuj Rawat grabbed a great catch behind the wicket. It was the second time Parnell got the better of Samson besides giving away 16 T20 runs in 12 balls against him.
Coming back for his third over, Parnell sent back Joe Root who was adjusted LBW before the stumps on a personal score of 10. Wayne Parnell finished with 3/10 to have 35 IPL wickets in 31 games while Siraj ended with 1/10 in two overs.
In-form Faf carries his purple form with a knock of 55
One of the main reasons for RCB to do well with the bat has been the incredible form of their captain and opener, Faf Du Plessis who has been really consistent in this season.
Faf struggled at the start with getting no such free deliveries, scoring mostly in singles and doubles before cutting Adam Zampa through square for a boundary before launching him over mid-wicket for a six.
It wasn’t one of those innings from Du Plessis where he cracked those big sixes and boundaries but he kept on running those hard singles and doubles as he celebrated his 32nd IPL fifty, which was the seventh of the season as he finished on 55 runs in 44 balls to now have 4034 IPL runs in 128 games.
Faf is also now the leading run-scorer of the season with 631 runs in 12 games.
Read More: IPL 2023: Veteran Du Plessis, young Yashasvi & impactful Axar among top performers of the season
Points Table Scenario & What’s to Come
With this heavy 112-run win, RCB jumps to number five with 12 points and a boost of net run rate with 0.166 while RR drops down to number six with 12 points and an NRR of 0.140.
Gujarat Titans (GT) will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on May 15 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
IPL 2023 Points Table
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