The Royal Challengers Bangalore slipped yet another place on the points table after the 23rd day of the IPL2017 when they took on the Gujarat Lions in Match no 31 at their home ground; the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Here is what happed on day 23 of the tenth Indian Premier League and the implications it has for the teams in the tournament.
Gujarat Lions captain Suresh Raina won the toss for his team and chose to put the Royal Challengers Bangalore in to bat. RCB’s star openers skipper Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle were off to a less than encouraging start and looked shaky and hesitant. They playing uncharacteristically slow for their 8 and 11 runs respectively. Andrew Tye’s two wickets off two successive balls (Gayle and Travis Head) and the unfortunate run out of A B DeVilliers did not help. The hosts were always struggling; it took Kedar Jadhav (31 of 18), Pawan Negi (32 off 19) and Aniket Choudhary (15 off 12) to get to the modest score of 134.
Though openers Ishan Kishan (16 off 11) and Brendon McCullum (3 off 6) would have given the Gujarat skipper some jitters, Raina himself came in and steadied the innings with his 34 off 30 remaining not out till the end. It was Aaron Finch who took the match away from RCB. He bludgeoned the opposition bowlers with 72 off 34… his 50 was the fastest ever for a GL player. Ultimately the visitors won with 7 wickets and 37 balls to spare.
Catch of the Match award was given to Ishan Kishan. The Maximum Sixes award for his 6 sixes and the Stylish Player award were picked up by Aaron Finch. Tye was named man of the math for his two wickets in consecutive balls.
This is the first time the team has had all their batsmen dismissed in consecutive matches. The team with stars such as Gayle, Kohli and DeVilliers seems to buckle under pressure each time. There were no stand out performances from any of the RCB players against the Gujarat Lions. RCB are closer than ever to being eliminated altogether from the competition.
The reason RCB are not at the bottom of the table right now is because they have one extra point than Delhi Daredevils for the washed out game (and because DD has played 3 fewer matches than RCB).
After yesterday, Raina is the new Orange Cap of IPL2017. He now has 309 runs from the tournament just ahead of Gautam Gambhi of KKR (305).
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