Royal Challengers Bengaluru survived a mighty scare at home, at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday, to script a third straight win on the trot in IPL 2024 as they completed a double against Gujarat Titans with a four-wicket victory. RCB were certainly the favourites to chase down a paltry 148, especially after captain Faf du Plessis smashed a blitzkrieg half-century to stitch a 92-run opening stand inside the powerplay. But Gujarat threatened with six quick wickets before Dinesh Karthik and Swapnil Singh took Bengaluru home with 38 balls to spare.
Du Plessis and Kohli notched up 10 fours and seven maximums against the new ball to rack in 92 runs before RCB pressed the self-destruction button halfway as they lost last match centurion Will Jacks, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green between the sixth and 10th overs for just 20 runs. Little (4/45) and spinner Noor Ahmad (2/23) were the chief perpetrators as RCB slipped from 92 for 1 to 112 for five. Ahmad then got rid of Kohli as RCB wobbled further to 117 for six but Karthik (21 not out, 12b) was cool under pressure as the hosts notched their overall fourth and third win in a row of this season.
With the win, RCB jumped to the seventh place on the points table with eight points from 11 matches, and kept their mathematical chances of making it to the play-offs alive.
Earlier in the evening, RCB bowlers put on a stellar show to reduce GT to their lowest-ever powerplay score of 23 for three. David Miller (30, 20b) and Shahrukh Khan (37, 24b) tried their best to drag GT out of the woods with a well-paced 61-run alliance off 37 balls for the fourth wicket, before Rahul Tewatia (35, 21b) and Rashid Khan (18, 14b) added 44 off 29 balls for the sixth wicket. However, the tourists were folded for a paltry 147 in 19.3 overs.
IPL 2024 updated Purple Cap list:
Despite 16 wickets falling in a thriller at the Chinnaswamy Stadium between home team Royal Challengers Bengaluru and visitors Gujarat Titans, the top 10 in the Purple Cap has remained the same with Jasprit Bumrah of Mumbai Indians still the leader with 17 wickets in 11 matches, followed by Sunrisers Hyderabad’s T Natarajan.
