IPL 2018: Ajinkya Rahane wins the Battle of Royals, Virat Kohli bows out

Rajasthan Royals had a brilliant day at work. From winning the toss to reading the pitch right and cruising past Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Ajinkya Rahane’s boys have kept their chances of making it to the playoffs alive. On a slow and turning track at the SMS Stadium, spinner Shreyas Gopal weaved deception around RCB’s star players and upset their plans to take the team home by 30 runs. 

The Player Of The Match Shreyas Gopal ended with four wickets at an economy of meagre 4.00. He was complemented well from the other side by spinner K Gowtham (1 wkt) and pacers Ben Laughlin (2 wkts) and Jaydev Unadkat (2 wkts). The priced wickets of the intimidating duo of Kohli and AB de Villiers were grabbed by Gopal and Gowtham. With it, half of the task was complete for Ajinkya Rahane.

Earlier, it was the opener Tripathi who coalesced a quickfire in partnership with Rahane. The former smashed the RCB bowling to itty bits on his way to 80 off 58 balls. After Rahane departed, it was Heinrich Klaasen who played the role of a second fiddle and contributed crucial 32 off 21 balls. Providing the finishing touch, Gowtham lit up the Royals’ innings with a cameo of 14 runs from just 5 balls.