IPL 2023: Faf, Maxwell, Harshal shine as RCB beat RR by 7-run

BENGALURU: A late charge led by a cameo from Dhruv Jurel was not enough for Rajasthan Royals as a century stand between captain Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell set up a thrilling seven-run win for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.

Invited to bat, Maxwell (77 off 44 balls) and du Plessis (62 off 39 balls) shared 127 runs for the third wicket to power RCB to 189 for 9 in 20 overs.

Devdutt Padikkal (52 off 34 balls) struck his maiden fifty of the season and Yashasvi Jaiswal made 47 for a 98-run partnership for the second wicket but the Royals was lagging behind in the run chase before gaining momentum in the last five overs.

Jurel played a small cameo of 34 not out off just 16 balls (2x4; 2x6) as the Royals scored 61 runs off the last five overs, losing three wickets in the process. But it fell short by seven runs in the end, reaching 182 for 6 in 20 overs.

The Royals needed 20 runs off the final over bowled by Harshal Patel but could score only 12.

Harshal Patel (4-0-32-3) was the pick of the RCB bowlers while David Willey (4-0-26-1) and Mohammed Siraj (4-0-39-1) also played their parts.

RCB dealt a huge blow to RR when Siraj bowled a nip-backer to beat the defence of the dangerous Jos Buttler, cleaning him up for a two-ball duck in the first over.

Having scored consistently in the last few matches, Padikkal ended his drought of a half-century as he struck one six and seven fours during his innings. Padikkal was dismissed by Willey, with Virat Kohli taking his 100th catch in the IPL.

Padikkal’s opening partner Jaiswal played some spectacular strokes in the powerplay post which RR was placed at 47 for 1.

Both Padikkal and Jaiswal perished in quick succession and in that phase, RR also could not find a boundary with Willey keeping it tight.

Earlier, du Plessis and Maxwell’s century stand threatened to take RCB to a huge total before RR fought back to restrict it to 189 for 9.

Du Plessis and Maxwell had put on 115 runs from 50 balls against Lucknow Super Giants and 126 from 61 balls against Chennai Super Kings.

But RCB stuttered once the momentum was broken after the dismissal of du Plessis, run out off a brilliant direct throw from Yashasvi Jaiswal in the 14th over. The home side collapsed from 139/2 to 189/9, losing seven wickets for 50 runs.

Du Plessis extended his overall tally to 405 runs in just seven matches with his fifth half-century -- the most for any batter so far. His 39-ball knock had eight fours and two sixes.

On the other hand, Maxwell struck his third fifty of this IPL to make a 44-ball 77 (6x4s, 4x6s) but the rest of the RCB batters squandered the platform set up brilliantly by its top order.

BRIEF SCORES: Royal Challengers Bangalore 189/9 in 20 overs (G Maxwell 77, F du Plessis 62) bt Rajasthan Royals 182/6 in 20 overs (D Padikkal 52, Y Jaiswal 47, H Patel 3/32)