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IPL 2024: Rajasthan Royals stay alive, prolong Virat Kohli-RCB’s title wait

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Synopsis: Royals end losing streak with a nervy chase, after virtuoso displays from Ashwin and Boult

Keeping everything for a little too late sums up their campaign. Their total of 172 was inadequate. Challengers conceded 46 runs before plucking the first wicket but dug deep and nearly made a match out of it, though partially helped by Royals’ witless batting in the middle overs.

In the space of four balls, the cruising Royals invited chaos. Yashasvi Jaiswal batted with poise until he could not resist scooping Cameron Green. His body lost its shape and he was too early into the shot. A thin edge was not to escape the gloves of Dinesh Karthik.

For much of the season, Sanju Samson, the Royals captain, had batted with wisdom and common sense, besides a sense of purpose to reclaim the long-awaited title. Perhaps, the Jaiswal dismissal, against the run of play, distracted him. Perhaps, his mind went blank. He danced out of the crease and tried to smash a ball, that landed not in a different post code but in a different country, and was stumped. Samson shook his head in anger, perhaps sensing the change of tide.

Two youngsters were thrust into the resurrection act. Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel seemed perfectly capable of steering them through. The equation was achievable — 62 runs off 42 balls. Challengers were still the outsiders in the game, but in a burst of pure athleticism, Virat Kohli flung a bullet throw from deep square leg to facilitate Jurel’s run-out. He sprinted to his left, swiftly picked up the ball, turned around and flung in a throw so precise that Cameron Green just had to rattle the stumps. In the heat of the moment, the Aussie almost messed it up, but a bit of his palms were in contact with the ball when the stumps were disarrayed, with Jurel short of the crease.

Belief buzzed for Challengers; it has been their trusted virtue during their comeback run. But Parag and Shimron Hetmyer didn’t fuss and took the game deep. A 17-run over from an otherwise probing Green was enough to swing the contest to their side. Hetmyer heaved the first ball over long-on; Parag then carved him over cover before guiding him between the wicketkeeper and short third man. The equation of 47 off 30 balls suddenly came down to 30 off 26. Though Mohammed Siraj later reignited hopes with a double-wicket over, taking out both Parag and Hetmyer, it was too late.

Festive offer

Swinging Boult, spinning Ashwin

Trent Boult and Ravichandran Ashwin. Two cricketing artists with contrasting methodologies. A left-arm seamer and an off-spinner. A devotee in the altar of swing bowling, the other an alchemist in the spin lab. One is slight in build, the other stockier. Together, they stabbed, stifled and stung Challengers.

The defining metrics picture a telling story. Boult conceded one boundary; Ashwin none. The latter grabbed two wickets in one over to batten down the hatches on Challengers in the middle overs; the other furnished the first breakthrough after an unrewarding exhibition of sublime Powerplay bowling.The biggest measure of influence: Boult conceded only 16 runs in four overs; Ashwin 19. That’s the game, right there.

The Kiwi swung the new ball and kept the batsmen guarded. Boult was brutally precise, laser-like, switching between full, good length and back-of-length. A frustrated du Plessis thought he could pull a hard-length ball to the midwicket fence. It turned out to be ill-advised as it skidded onto his bat and the South African holed out to Powell’s spectacular catch.

It came with the Challengers total at 37. But Kohli engaged the crowd with pristine hitting. A hook of Avesh Khan frenzied them. To their despair, he succumbed to a slog-sweep, a staple stroke of his this IPL. From there on, their innings slow-burned, with the odd flicker of thrill. The reason was the thrift and cunning of Ashwin. The mountain of experience has instilled in him the wisdom of knowing which ball to bowl when and against whom. He bowled mostly into Green’s body, quicker than he bowled to Kohli and later Rajat Patidar, thus denying him the opportunity to swing freely down the ground. Green is not much of a sweeper, and could only tickle singles. Patidar is more familiar with quality spin bowling, so was teased with change of trajectories, release points and speed. Later in the spell, Ashwin resorted to the carrom and reverse-carrom ball variants. The latter nearly yielded a wicket, but for Dhruv Jurel’s greasy palms that spilled a miscued shot from Patidar. But he consumed Green soon after, with a carrom ball at 98 kph that he looked to clump over extra cover.

A standard off-break on length, a shade flatter than he would bowl in a Test match, and 10kph slower than its predecessor followed. Glenn Maxwell, in an unwise moment, swung wildly, his feet nowhere near the pitch of the ball, and inevitably miscued. At 97 for 4 in a pressure game, Challengers’ winning run seemed to have run into a dead end. Though Patidar and Mahipal Lormor helped put on a competitive show, it was always going to be insufficient. But the match was lost right to two virtuosos of their crafts, producing a full-blown show of trickery.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 172/8 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 34, Virat Kohli 33, Mahipal Lomror 32; Avesh Khan 3/44, R Ashwin 2/19, Trent Boult 1/16) lost to Rajasthan Royals 174/6 in 19 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 45, Riyan Parag 36; Mohammed Siraj 2/33) by 4 wickets



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