Agency, April 25: Royal Challengers Bangalore secured their first home victory in the Indian Premier League (IPL) after defeating Rajasthan Royals by 11 runs in a thrilling encounter on Thursday night.
Chasing a target of 206 runs, Rajasthan Royals could only manage 194 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. For Rajasthan, Yashasvi Jaiswal top-scored with 49 runs, followed by Dhruv Jurel with 47, Nitish Rana with 28, captain Riyan Parag with 22, Vaibhav Shardul with 16, Shubham Dubey with 12, and Shimron Hetmyer who chipped in with 11 runs.
Josh Hazlewood was the standout performer with the ball for Bangalore, taking 4 wickets for 33 runs in his 4 overs. Krunal Pandya claimed 2 wickets, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal took one wicket each.
Earlier, after losing the toss and being put into bat, Bangalore posted a competitive total of 205 for 5 in their 20 overs. Virat Kohli led the charge with a superb 70 off 42 balls, which included 8 fours and 2 sixes. Devdutt Padikkal scored 50, Phil Salt added 26, Tim David contributed 23, and Jitesh Sharma made 20 runs.
For Rajasthan, Sandeep Sharma picked up 2 wickets, while Jofra Archer and Wanindu Hasaranga took one wicket each.
With this win, Bangalore climbed to third place in the standings with 12 points from 9 matches. Rajasthan, on the other hand, remain in eighth place with just 4 points from the same number of games.
