IPL 2018, RR vs RCB: 4 Reasons why Royal Challengers Bangalore lost to Rajasthan Royals
The 53rd match of the IPL saw Kohli's RCB take on Ajinkya Rahane’s Royals. This was the biggest match of the IPL for both the teams with a spot in the playoffs on the line.
Rahane won the toss and chose to bat first on a dry Jaipur pitch. He took a bold decision and sent Archer to open the batting along with Tripathi.
But Archer’s meagre IPL with the bat continued as he got out for a duck. Rahane and Tripathi built steadily but Umesh Yadav struck twice in a single over to shift the pendulum in RCB's favour.
A late cameo from Gowtham took RR to a decent total of 164. Chasing 164, Kohli got out cheaply but Parthiv Patel and AB De Villiers scored at a good rate and kept the match in RCBs favour.
Gopal got both Parthiv and the in-form Moeen in a single over which took the momentum out of RCBs chase.
It was the beginning of a dramatic collapse as the RCB batsmen succumbed to some world-class wrist spin bowling and RCB eventually lost by 30 runs.
Here are the four reasons for their loss.
#1 Shreyas Gopal’s bowling
Until this match, Gopal had experienced mixed fortunes in this IPL. At the start of the IPL, he was on a roll with his first four wickets being Raina, Dhoni, Kohli, De Villiers.
Then the batsmen figured him out and he went for runs. He was dropped for a few matches but got a huge opportunity to prove himself against world class players like Kohli, ABD.
Throughout his spell, he flighted the ball beautifully inviting the batsman to go for a big shot and reaped rewards for his efforts with four wickets.
The highlight of his spell was his second over where he first got Patel with a slider then got Ali’s wicket with a googly and leapt to take a wonderful return catch.
In his last over, he beat De Villiers defence with another googly and it was a night he will remember for a long time.