De Villier, Mandeep and bowlers helped Bangalore to beat Rajasthan and be alive in the tournament.

Published on: May 20, 2015

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Rajasthan Royal comprehensively to qualify for the Qualifier 2 and they will now play Chennai Super Kings on Friday in Ranchi. It was AB de Villiers and Mandeep Singh show today for the Royal Challengers.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 180/4 (de Villiers 66, Mandeep 54*) beat Rajasthan Royals (Rahane 42, Smith 12) by 71 runs.

Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Rajasthan Royal comprehensively to qualify for the Qualifier 2 and they will now play Chennai Super Kings on Friday in Ranchi. It was AB de Villiers and Mandeep Singh show today for the Royal Challengers. They put on a century stand to recover Bangalore’s batting and put a mammoth total on big occasion. Both de Villiers and Mandeep scored half centuries and that too at a brisk rate which helped Bangalore to up the run rate and reach 180 runs in their 20 overs quota. In reply Rajasthan Royal could only manage 109 before bundling out.

Opting to bat first, two batting pillars of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gayle and Kohli got out early. They were reduced to 46 for 2 in the eighth over. But Mandeep and de Villiers added 113 runs for the third wicket in just 67 deliveries. Mandeep was the aggressor early in the partnership but as the inning progressed de Villiers got his rhythm back and started smacking the ball. The pair accumulated too many runs in the last seven overs. De Villiers scored 66 runs off 38 deliveries with the help of four boundaries and four sixes and got out in the penultimate over of the inning. Mandeep 34 balls 54 runs unbeaten inning was laced with seven fours and two sixes.

Dhawal Kulkarni took two wickets for 28 runs in his four overs and he didn’t allow the batsmen to score freely. He kept Gayle and Kohli quite early and then took their wickets later.

Chasing 181, the inform batsmen Shane Watson was caught behind the wicket in the second over of the inning and the score then was just 14. Sanju Samson was promoted up the batting order but he could only manage 5 runs off 8 balls. Baring Ajinkya Rahane 42 runs, no any Rajasthan’s batsmen made any significant contribution. Smith and Nair scored 12 runs each. In this way Rajasthan Royals were all out on 109 in the 19th over.

Aravind, Harshal Patel, Wiese and Chahal took two wickets each. Starc took a wicket of Chris Morris.

This game was literally quarter finals for both the teams. Losing by 71 runs, Rajasthan Royals are not out of the tournament. Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Chennai Super Kings in another do or die game. Winner of that game will play Mumbai Indians in the finals at Eden Garden, Kolkata.

Man of the Match: AB de Villiers

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