Royals tumble as Kohli & Co. bundle out hosts for 59 to strengthen playoff hopes

Rajasthan Royals RR dished out one of the most inexplicable batting performances of the Indian Premier League as they were dismissed for just 59 suffering a massive 112run defeat to Royal Challengers Bangalore RCB here on SundayChasing 172 for a win RR suffered a stunning batting collapse to be bundled out in just 103 overs for the thirdlowest total in IPL history with only Shimron Hetmyer 35 off 19 balls and Joe Root 10 off 15 balls scoring in doubledigit figuresIt was RRrsquos secondlowest total as they just about managed to go past their earlier lowest of 58 against the same opponents in 2009 by one runRCBrsquos Wayne Parnell is ecstatic after claiming the wicket of RR opener Jos Buttler yesterday PicAFPRR batters failed to give a fight as they kept on playing shots when the situation demanded to stick for a while on a slow and tricky wicketRCB bowlers exploited the lack of application by RR batters and game sense as all of them returned with wickets Wayne Parnell was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets for 10 runs from his three overs Michael Bracewell and Karn Sharma took two wickets each while Mohammed Siraj and Glenn Maxwell got one eachRCB jump to 5th spotWith the win RCB jumped to the fifth spot with 12 points from 12 matches to be in contention for a playoff berth while RR moved down to sixth with 12 points from 13 matchesRR lost five wickets for 25 runs in the Powerplay with Parnell taking two including that of Jos Buttler 0 and captain Sanju Samson 4But it was Siraj who had opened the floodgates by getting the wicket of inform Yashasvi Jaiswal 0 The youngster failed to control his shot and offered a simple catch to Virat Kohli at midoff in the second ball of the RR run chaseEarlier captain Faf du Plessis and Maxwell struck halfcenturies as RCB posted a challenging 1715 after opting to batDu Plessis 55 off 44 balls and Maxwell 54 off 33 balls continued their strong form on a slower pitch but RR produced a disciplined bowling effort to stop RCB to a competitive totalAlso Read Royals crumble to big defeat as RCB reign supreme to stay in playoff huntAnuj Rawat hit 29 not out off just 11 balls down the order to take the RCB total past the 170 mark as they added 51 runs in the last five oversAustralian leftarm spinner Adam Zampa 40252 and pacer KM Asif 40422 were the most successful Royals bowlers while Sandeep Sharma got one wicketSamson has lsquono answerrsquoSamson had ldquono answerrdquo to the dismal performance his batters dished out on SundayOn the floundering campaign in the second half of the IPL Samson said ldquoThat is a great question actually I was thinking about it and where it went wrong Sorry I do not have an answer for thatrdquoRCB skipper Du Plessis said the improvement in the net runrate after the big win will do his side a world of good ldquoWe needed it in terms of the NRR It was a really difficult pitch when we batted first Even in the Powerplay the ball was keeping low and we felt that 160 would be a good score Those hits towards the end pushed us to a very good score We have not quite managed to do it finish off strongly wellrdquo he saidBrief scoresRCB 1715 in 20 overs F du Plessis 55 G Maxwell 54 A Zampa 225 KM Asif 242 beat RR 59 all out in 103 overs S Hetmyer 35 W Parnell 310 M Bracewell 216 K Sharma 219 by 112 runs