Royal Challengers Bangalore made it four out of four as they thrashed Rajasthan Royals by 10 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
In a completely one sided contest RCB openers Devdutt Padikkal and Captain Virat Kohli made the most out of a loose bowling attack from the Royals. Shreyas Gopal, who has had a great record against Kohli, started the proceedings with the ball for RR. However, the RCB skipper launched the Leggie for a six in his opening over. Padikkal then began his assault on the RR bowlers and got solid support from the other end by Kohli. The 20 year youngster smashed his maiden IPL century scoring 101 off just 52 balls, slamming RR bowlers all over the park. His sensational ton that featured some classic cricketing shots was dazzled with 11 fours and 6 sixes. Kohli let Paddikal take the lead in the chase and extended his support from the other end of the strike with his 72 off 47 laced with 6 fours and 3 sixes. RCB thus breached the competitive target of 178 scoring 181 without the loss of any wicket in 16.3 overs.
Earlier, despite getting off to a poor start after being reduced to 43/4 in 7.2 overs, RR's lower-middle order played some sensible cricket and guided their side to a competitive 177/9 in their 20 overs. RCB Pacer Mohammed Siraj striked early, with two crucial wickets of the in form Jos Buttler (8) and David Miller (0) inside the powerplay that accounted for some serious damage to the Royals while Kyle Jamieson sent Manan Vohra back to the pavilion as RR could only manage 32/3 in the powerplay stage.
RR Captain Sanju Samson (21 off 18 balls) fell prey to Washington Sundar right after the powerplay, handing a simple catch to Glenn Maxwell at short mid-wicket. This accounted for Samson’s third consecutive flop show after hitting a century in RR's season opener against Punjab Kings. RR's sinking ship then got a lifeline as Shivam Dube (46 off 32 balls), Riyan Parag (25 off 16 balls) and Rahul Tewatia (40 off 23 balls) made valuable contributions to pump life in the innings and power their side to a decent total.
Dube and Parag's fifth wicket partnership added 66 runs that helped RR breach the 100-run mark. Tewatia then played the all important knock of 40 off 23 balls packed with some fine hitting and took his side to 170 before walking to the pavilion. RCB bowlers did a decent job as Siraj scalped 3 for 27 while Harshal Patel, though leaked 47 runs, claimed three wickets to his name.
