Royal Challengers Bangalore 3-123 (Chris Gayle 49, Saurabh Tiwary 25*, Shane Watson 2-11) beat Rajasthan Royals 117 (Rahul Dravid 35, Stuart Binny 33, RP Singh 3-13, Vinay Kumar 3-18) by seven wickets.
Royal Challengers Bangalore maintained their top position in the IPL 2013 chart by defeating Rajasthan Royals convincingly at their home ground.
The innings of Rajasthan Royals was restricted to 117 with two balls to spare and Royal Challengers Bangalore powered 123 runs with seven wickets in hand in 17.5 overs.
Vinay Kumar (Royal Challengers Bangalore) was announced ‘Player of the match’ for his deadly bowling in the game.
The 27th match of the Indian Premier League was played on Saturday, April 20, 2013, at M Chinnaswammy Stadium, Bangalore.
Earlier, Virat Kohli, the skipper of Royal Challengers Bangalore, won the toss and invited his rival team to bat first. The decision paid off since the dangerous opener of Rajasthan Royals, Shane Watson, was gone for just six runs. Their captain, Rahul Dravid, got together with Ajinkya Rahane and they added 1 six and 2 fours in the coming overs. The second wicket fell at 26 in 5.2 overs when Rahane was caught by Tillakaratne Dilshan off Jaydev Unadkat for 14 and was replaced by Stuart Binny. The score board was kept alive with the regular boundaries by the batsmen and Binny got 13 runs in the 9th over with 1 four and 1 six.
The second wicket contributed 40 runs when Stuart Binny was caught behind by Arun Karthik off Vinay Kumar for 33 from 20 balls with 1 six and 4 fours. Brad Hodge joined in next with Dravid who kept on accumulating runs until the total touched 97 in 14.4 overs. Rahul Dravid was caught by Ravi Rampaul off Murali Kartik for 35 scored from 31 with 5 fours. Brad Hodge scored 13 runs whereas the last six batsmen were unable to reach the double figures. The entire team was sent back to the pavilion for 117 runs in 19.4 overs.
Vinay Kumar and RP Singh were the star performers with three wickets each, Ravi Rampaul held two whereas Jaydev Unadkat and Murali Kartik claimed one wicket each.
Tillakaratne Dilshan and Chris Gayle took off smoothly as the first hit a couple of fours in the second over. Gayle opened his arm with one boundary in the next over and Dilshan added another 3 fours in the following overs. The first wicket gave a prosperous beginning of 53 runs in 6.4 overs as Tillakaratne Dilshan lost his wicket for 25 off 22 with 5 fours. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers went out cheaply for 1 and 7 runs as Saurabh Tiwary associated with Chris Gayle.
The duo changed the strategy of the game and kept the score board cruising towards the destination. Tiwary dispatched the first six of the match in the 15th over and the score went past the hundred runs mark in the 16th over. Tiwary hit 2 fours in the first three deliveries of the 18th over as Gayle sent the fifth ball flying over the rope and won the game for his team. Chris Gayle remained unbeaten for 49 off 44 with 1 six and 4 fours and Saurabh Tiwary secured his end with 25 from 29 comprising 1 six and 2 fours. The total touched 123 runs with 13 balls still remaining in the 20 overs game.
Shane Watson was the top wicket taker with two and James Faulkner got one wicket whereas all other four bowlers were unable to take any wicket.
Royal Challengers Bangalore triumphed by a big margin of seven wickets and is enjoying the top ranking in the competition so far after grabbing 10 points from seven matches.
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