Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis said the team will be extremely motivated for the last two games of the league stage in order to make it to the playoff stages. RCB kept themselves alive in the playoff race after their comprehensive win of 112 runs against Rajasthan Royals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Sunday, which also boosted their Net Run Rate.
RCB posted a par score of 171 runs after Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell scored 55 and 54 runs respectively and added a crucial alliance of 69 runs. In fact, RCB could only manage 42 runs in the powerplay overs on a difficult pitch but Maxwell was able to hit the ground running after joining forces with Faf du Plessis.
Anuj Rawat added the finishing touches to the score with a fine little cameo of 11-ball 29 after Mahipal Lomror and Dinesh Karthik were dismissed cheaply while Michael Bracewell could manage a run-a-ball nine.
On the other hand, RCB bowlers were right on the money in the second innings as they skittled out the Rajasthan Royals for only 59 runs to win by a huge margin. Wayne Parnell was the chief destroyer of RR innings as he returned with impressive figures of 3-10 in the three overs he bowled.
Furthermore, Michael Bracewell and Karn Sharma bagged two wickets apiece for RCB as RR failed to find any kind of batting impetus in the run chase.
Faf du Plessis said in the post-match presentation, “Really good for our NRR. Tough pitch. We batted first and assessed the conditions. We batted in the powerplay and thought 160 will be a good score. We have had a good set up till the 15th over. But we managed to capitalize on the momentum shift at the end. Great job.”
He added, “Bracewell would want to bowl on this every day of the week. We needed a left-arm spinner. May be Shahbaz could have been an option. Wrist spin could have been an attacking option. Hopefully, we can set it up for the last game at the Chinnaswamy. Today was a good one for the team. They needed this confidence to go into the last two games.”
Royal Challengers Bangalore will next take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad on Thursday.
