Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) reached the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the second consecutive season. They defeated Gujarat Titans (GT) by 92 runs at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium, Dharamshala on Tuesday, May 26.
Shubman Gill won the toss and elected to field first, in his opinion dew could play a role in the second innings. Venkatesh Iyer started the innings with some tempting strokes before being dismissed for 19 runs in seven balls. Virat Kohli broke loose after losing his opening partner and scored 43 runs in 25 balls. Devdutt Padikkal also made a great start, but both of them were dismissed by Jason Holder in the ninth over.
Rajat Patidar And Krunal Pandya united and clean bowled the GT bowlers with some wonderful balls. After the latter was out for 43 (28) and Tim David was out for four, Patidar took the responsibility of taking his team to a huge score in the first innings. The RCB captain remained unbeaten after scoring 93 runs on 33 balls. After enduring a tough campaign so far, Jitesh Sharma also showed glimpses of his former form as he scored 15* off five balls. The defending champions finished on 254/5.
Sai Sudarshan and Shubman Gill added 17 runs inside three overs before the former was out hit wicket by Jacob Duffy for 14. Shubman and Jos Buttler went through the next two overs as GT was staring down the barrel with all his famous top threes in the hut.
Except Rahul Tewatia, everyone else who batted could not reach double figures. His knock of 68 off 43 balls helped Gujarat reach a respectable total of 162. However, the margin of defeat was still a huge margin of 92 runs.
Here are the highlights from Qualifier 1:
Rajat Patidar targets GT bowlers
Rajat Patidar has been in great form for RCB and it is quite clear that he enjoys the extra responsibility that comes with captaincy. When he came to bat, RCB lost two wickets early but he did not allow GT bowlers to put pressure on his team. He lived a charmed life as GT failed to catch him. In the end, he scored an unbeaten 93 runs off 33 balls with the help of five fours and nine sixes.
Jason Holder's double strike and Rahul Tewatia's courageous innings went in vain
The performances of Jason Holder and Rahul Tewatia were a ray of hope for GT on Tuesday. While Holder took the wickets of set batsmen Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal in the same over, Tewatia played a stormy innings of 68 runs in 43 balls, while his fellow batsmen were out one after the other.
RCB made a team effort with the ball
The decision to bring Jacob Duffy back into the team proved to be a masterstroke. The Kiwi pacer took 3 wickets for 39 runs in four overs. Bhuvneshwar, Rasikh Salam Dar and Krunal Pandya also contributed with two wickets each, while Josh Hazlewood took the only wicket of Jos Buttler, who scored 29 runs off 11 balls.
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