Royal Challengers Bengaluru pulled off a stunning four-wicket win over Gujarat Titans in the IPL 2024 clash at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday. Faf du Plessis and Vijaykumar Vyshak shone as RCB registered their third consecutive win of the season to boost their playoff chances.
Vyshak and Yash Dayal produced brilliant bowling performances to bowl out Gujarat to 147 while bowling first. Opens Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis then gave RCB a sensational start by adding 92 runs for the opening wicket in just 35 balls.
Shubman Gill‘s Gujarat Titans made a strong comeback with Joshua Little claiming four big wickets and Noor Ahmad dismissing Virat Kohli. But Dinesh Karthik and Swapnil Singh’s late cameos boosted Bengaluru to a crucial win with 38 balls remaining. A win boosted Bengaluru to seventh position in the points table with four wins in eleven matches while Gujarat slipped to ninth spot with eight points.
After being forced to bat first, Gujarat lost their top order in powerplay overs with Mohammed Siraj claiming big wickets of Shubman Gill and Wriddhiman Saha. Gujarat made a comeback with David Miller and Shahrukh Khan scorching 61 runs for the fourth wicket with the latter top-scoring with 37 runs off 24 balls.
Bengaluru made a late comeback with Yash Dayal and Vijaykumar Vyshak claiming two wickets each to bowl out Gujarat to a 147 total in 19.3 overs.
Chasing a low-scoring target, RCB openers Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis exploded from the very beginning. The veteran duo added 92 runs in just 35 balls for the opening wicket with du Plessis smashing an 18-ball fifty, the second fastest for Bengaluru in their IPL history.
Joshua Little, playing his first match of the IPL 2024, gave Gujarat a breakthrough in the sixth over with du Plessis’ wicket and that led to Bengaluru’s unexpected collapse. Bengaluru went 92/0 to 117/6 within flash seconds with the Irish pacer taking four wickets and Noor Ahmad removing Virat Kohli who scored crucial 42 runs off 27 balls.
But Bengaluru avoided further collapse with Dinesh Karthik and Swapnil Singh adding unbeaten 35 runs for the seventh wicket. Karthik smashed 21* off 12 balls and Swapnil finished the game with a six off Rashid Khan in the 14th over to boost Bengaluru to a dominant four-wicket win.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru Playing XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Will Jacks, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Karn Sharma, Swapnil Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal (substituted by Rajat Patidar), Vijaykumar Vyshak.
Gujarat Titans Playing XI: Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Shubman Gill (c), Sai Sudharsan (substituted by Vijay Shankar), David Miller, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Noor Ahmad, Mohit Sharma, Joshua Little.