RCB high on Josh

Midway through Rajasthan Royalsrsquo runchase at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday night it seemed as if Royal Challengers Bengaluru were headed for a fourth successive home defeat Riyan Paragrsquos men were making a strong fist of hunting down the hostsrsquo 205 for five having reached 110 for two after nine oversKrunalrsquos impactful bowlingThatrsquos when the first of many twists unspooled Parag was dismissed off the first ball of the 10th over by leftarm spinner Krunal Pandya whose four unchanged overs pegged the visitors back and left them needing 40 to get off the last three overs That became 18 from two when Bhuvneshwar Kumar was smashed for 22 in the 18th over by Dhruv Jurel and Shubham Dubey But in a final decisive passage Josh Hazlewood got rid of Jurel and Jofra Archer off successive deliveries in a 19th over that went for just one this after packing off Shimron Hetmyer in the 17th and Yash Dayal expertly closed out the last over to restrict Rajasthan to 194 for nine and consign them to a fifth straight defeat this time by 11 runs Their sixth win of the season catapulted Rajat Patidarrsquos men to third in the standingsAndy FlowerHazlewood had been sent on a hiding to nothing in his first spell by Yashasvi Jaiswal whose 19ball 49 and an opening stand of 52 in 26 deliveries with 14yearold Vaibhav Suryavanshi had got Rajasthan off to a flier Hazlewood had the last laugh though hurrying Jaiswal on the pull and forcing him to hole out to midwicket the first indication that the Aussiersquos night was about to changeThe tall rightarm quick extracted excellent bounce like Archer had done previously and turned the game on its head by taking three for seven in the 17th and 19th overs combined Reward for his heroics was the Player of the Match award for figures of four for 33lsquoJosh has great skillsrsquoldquoBoth those overs showed the class of the guyrdquo Andy Flower the RCB head coach crooned ldquoHersquos a class operator hersquos a worldclass bowler He is great under pressure in any format of the game he thinks clearly and hersquos got great skill I know hersquos known for his heavy length bowling but hersquos got some great allround skills He mixes in those yorkers wide yorkers slower balls and he seems to know what type of ball to bowl at the right time Itrsquos great having a guy like him in our side in our squad and part of a very strong threepronged attackrdquoThe other two pace cogs are Dayal and the experienced Bhuvneshwar whose expensive last over didnrsquot cloud Flowerrsquos opinion ldquoBhuvirsquos been superb this season and Yash was outstanding again today That last over with 17 needed he showed outstanding skill and composure under pressure to repeatedly bowl yorkers Those three quicks have been great for us so far this season Theyrsquove got some more work to do obviously to help us in this last third of the league matches and Hazlewood certainly leads from the front in that regardrdquoatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params