Kolkata: With a combined age of 37, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi laid down the charge of 205/5 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium like an all-consuming gale. First ball, Jaiswal hacked Bhuvneshwar Kumar so high and so deep into the stands that the shot almost muted the stadium with its audacity. Not to be left behind, the 14-year-old Suryavanshi threw his hands at everything, hitting some, edging some, but scoring nevertheless. Jaiswal cantered to a 19-ball 49 while stitching a 52-run opening stand in 4.2 overs, a start that Rajasthan Royals couldn’t have frittered away. Or so they thought.
The follow-up act had to be equally good. Between Riyan Parag and Nitish Rana, 38 runs were added in 20 balls and suddenly Royals were ahead of the asking rate by almost three runs. First ball of Krunal Pandya’s first over, however, Parag tried to slog sweep but got a massive miscue instead. Pandya was again to the fore four overs later, this time dismissing Rana who picked Kumar at short fine leg after he nudged around a while. But once Shimron Hetmyer was removed by the unrelenting Josh Hazlewood, the onus was on Dhruv Jurel to finish the chase.
Forty needed off 18 balls, Jurel lifted Kumar over his head for a six. Shubham Dubey matched it with an equally sizzling six, helping a short ball on leg over deep. Two more boundaries from Jurel and Royals had 22 runs in that over to bring down the equation to 18 from 12. But Hazlewood returned with a two-wicket twist in tow. Jurel was sent back after a timely review prompted by wicketkeeper JItesh Sharma who had spotted an edge that was assumed as a bump. Next ball, Jofra Archer lobbed a simple catch to Rajat Patidar, and Hazlewood finished that over conceding only one run. Royals couldn’t recover from that setback, handing RCB a welcome 11-run win.
For RCB to score at 10 runs per over isn’t surprising, but considering this came at home, on what mentor Dinesh Karthik felt was a ‘difficult pitch’ must be satisfying. The toss was lost again though, for the fourth time in a row at home no less, and Royals asked the home team to bat. Phil Salt though found it tough, getting an early life—Parag putting in a good dive but not holding on to a low catch off a chip—but not capitalising on it.
Kohli was beaten on the top edge by a 146 kph delivery from Archer and then nearly chopped on to his stumps for a streaky four but once the English pacer went short, he pulled him over square leg for a spectacular boundary. Tushar Deshpande, Riyan Parag and Sandeep Sharma were all hit for fours but as always Kohli’s graft stood out as RCB finished the Powerplay on 59/0. Salt’s dismissal brought on Padikkal who hit the ground running, smoking a 26-ball 50 before spooning Sandeep to Nitish Rana at mid-off. Jitesh Sharma added 20 off 10 balls and Tim David scored 23 off 15, propelling RCB in the last four overs.
In hindsight, that second-wicket partnership of 95 looked like where Royals probably lost considerable ground. Add to it sloppy fielding from Royals as Padikkal was dropped in the 13th over by Deshpande who spilled his slog sweep the moment his hands hit the ground.
It only added more impetus to RCB’s scoring as they kept hunting for boundaries when not working the gaps for easy runs. Royals didn’t do that once Pandya got rid of Parag. Jurel was struggling to put bat to ball, and with Hetmyer not getting enough of the strike meant the asking rate slowly crept back to what it was at the beginning of the chase.