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Rajasthan Royals eliminate Royal Challengers Bengaluru to set up knockout against Sunrisers Hyderabad
Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) came into the IPL 2024 Eliminator with six successive wins behind them, and Rajasthan Royals (RR) with five successive win-less games. But there really is no such thing as momentum in sport, and certainly not in a sport as fickle as T20.
Royals won an important toss, and their bowlers delivered a superb performance to restrict RCB to 172 at a venue where dew makes chasing significantly easier than setting targets.
It was a game of two halves, as RR got over the line with an over to spare despite a number of nervy moments in their chase.
It was also a game of two ends. One square boundary in Ahmedabad was significantly longer than the other, and the RR bowlers used this asymmetry brilliantly. RCB scored 51 for 6 in their odd-numbered overs, when the longer boundary was to the leg side for the right-hand batter, and 121 for 2 from the other end.
It wasn’t a coincidence that Trent Boult, Ravichandran Ashwin and Avesh Khan, RR’s best bowlers on the night, did the bulk of their bowling from the favourable end.
The imbalance existed even when RR batted: 111 for 1 in ten overs from one end, and 63 for 5 in nine overs from the other. It helped RR that they had right-left pairs occupying the crease for longer than RCB did, but not to a massive extent.
In the end, it came down to the total RCB put on the board Faf du Plesis their captain, admitted that they were about 20 runs short. He felt it was a 180 pitch when RCB batted, and a significantly higher-scoring one, thanks to the dew, when RR chased.
RR are now through to Qualifier 2 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Chennai on Friday. For RCB, this is another trophy-less season but one that will be remembered fondly for many years to come.
The game of two ends began early. Boult swung the new ball in an opening spell of three overs, and was inch-perfect with his lines and lengths: no room for the batters to free their arms, and no slot balls or long-hops. He conceded just six runs and two leg-byes in those three overs, and had du Plessis caught at deep midwicket to end an opening stand of 37.
At the other end, though, RCB clattered 42 in three overs. Virat Kohli using his feet routinely to step out or make room, looked ominous while rushing to 30 off 19 by the end of the powerplay.
Boult gave way to Ashwin from the end with the long leg-side boundary (for the right-hand batter), and that end continued to be hard to score off. Ashwin bowled beautifully, bowling at high pace, either into the pitch or right up at the batters’ feet, offering no room, and primarily using his carrom and reverse-carrom variations against RCB’s right-hand batters.
But he was also aided by the end he bowled from, and the fact that his first two overs came soon after RCB had lost big wickets. He bowled the seventh over soon after Boult had taken out du Plessis, and the ninth immediately after Kohli had fallen to Yuzvendra Chahal.
Kohli’s slog-sweep has been one of the stories of IPL 2024. The shot, brought out of cold storage after many years, has allowed Kohli to overturn a long-standing issue of slow scoring against spin, and given him an extra gear through the middle overs. On this day, though, he was out to his first slog-sweep, caught on the midwicket boundary.
RCB kept playing their shots when they could attack the short leg-side boundary, and took Chahal for 13 in the tenth over and Avesh for 13 in the 12th. In between, Dhruv Jurel, running in from long-on, put down a sitter to reprieve Rajat Patidar when he miscued a big hit off Ashwin.
But Ashwin didn’t let RR worry about that miss for too long, inducing a mis-hit from Cameron Green in the 13th over, his fourth, and following up with the dismissal of Glenn Maxwell, who ended a lean season with the bat by attempting to hit his first ball for six and picking out long-on.
Chahal bowled another expensive over, conceding 19 in the 14th, and when Patidar hooked Avesh for six at the start of the 15th – it was RCB’s first boundary in an odd-numbered over – it looked as though a 190-ish total was possible. But Avesh got a shortish delivery to get big on Patidar next ball, and caused him to miscue to a backtracking mid-off fielder.
He could have had two in two, producing a perfect first-ball in-ducker to have Dinesh Karthik adjudged LBW only for the decision, reviewed by the batter, overturned when the third umpire seemed to mistake bat hitting pad for an inside edge on to pad.
Karthik remained scratchy while scoring 11 off 13 in what is likely his final innings at the senior level, Avesh eventually getting him with a hard-length legcutter that climbed steeply on him in the 19th over. Mahipal Lomror gave RCB a bit of impetus towards the end with 32 off 17, which featured two leg-side sixes off Chahal, but their total of 172 seemed inadequate at the innings break.
There were two dropped chances early in the chase. The first was a difficult one – Green throwing himself to his left at slip and putting down an edge from Yashasvi Jaiswal in the third over – and the second a sitter – Maxwell shelling Tom Kohler-Cadmore at deep square-leg in the fifth. The two openers peppered the boundary either side of those misses – Yash Dayal particularly unfortunate to concede three fours to Jaiswal soon after having him dropped off his bowling – and RR ran to 45 for no loss by the end of the fifth.
Lockie Ferguson ended the powerplay with an excellent sixth over, conceding just two and bowling Kohler-Cadmore with a slower yorker. RR were still well on top, though, a fact they emphasised when Jaiswal and Sanju Samson took 17 runs – including a six and two fours, all towards the shorter boundary – off Swapnil Singh’s left-arm spin in the seventh over.
Green came on in the tenth over and began to make a serious impact with his hard lengths, conceding just 11 runs in three overs while having Jaiswal caught behind while attempting a scoop. He also helped run Jurel out, fumbling a brilliant, one-bounce throw from Kohli in the deep but somehow managing to break the wicket with the ball still in contact with his hands.
At the other end, RR lost Samson, leaving his crease too early to be stumped off a deliberate off-side wide from Karn Sharma. At the end of the 14th over, Royals were four down and needed 58 off 36.
One big over would close that gap, and it came in the 16th, with Shimron Hetmyer and Riyan Parag taking 17 off Green’s fourth. Then Hetmyer hit Dayal for a pair of fours in the 17th, bringing the equation down to 19 off 18.
There was still time for one last twist, however, with Mohammed Siraj bowling Parag for 36 with a full, straight one that he played across, and finishing the over by inducing a miscue from Hetmyer.
It left Royals needing 13 from 12 with two new batters at the crease, and an unlikely RCB win was still on the cards.Royman Powell though, finished it off, finding a bit of luck early in the 19th with a pair of edged fours off Ferguson before completing the job with a stylish straight six.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 172/8 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 34, Virat Kohli 33, Cammeron Green 27, Mahipal Lomror 32; Ravichandran Ashwin 2-19, Trent Boult 1-16, Sandeep Sharma 1-48, Yuzvendra Chahal 1-43, Avesh Khan 3-44) lost to Rajasthan Royals 174/6 in 19 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 45, Riyan Parag 36, Tom Kohler Cadmore 20, Shimron Hetmyer 26; Mohammed Siraj 2-33, Cameron Green 1-28, Lockie Furgeson 1-37, Karn Sharma 1-19) by four wickets.
(Cricinfo)
South Africa won their first away T20I series under Shukri Conrad, and second successive bilateral series, with a convincing performance over New Zealand in Christchurch. Put in to bat, they posted the highest total of the series of 187 for 4- and defended it with a six-player attack to seal the series 3-2.
After poor batting performances in the second and third T20Is,2 South Africa went from good to better in the next two. Three of South Africa’s four highest partnerships of the series came in this match, and they have unearthed a potential future star in Connor Esterhuizen. He scored back-to-back fifties in matches four and five and anchored their efforts in the decider. While Zak Foulkes and Josh Clarkson were economical, the rest of their attack conceded at over nine runs an over. Offspinner Cole McConchie’s 0 for 48 was the most expensive.
New Zealand were without their first choice top five and also had to do without Tom Latham, who was due to lead them but fractured his thumb in the third T20I. They were never really in the chase against a disciplined South African effort. None of their batters scored more than Bevan Jacobs’ 36 and they only had one partnership which threatened: 52 between Jimmy Neesham and Jacobs for the fifth wicket.
Overall it was a messy affair on both sides, with nine dropped catches in the game, the most for any men’s T20I as per ESPNCricinfo’s ball-by-ball data logs since June 2018
Rubin Hermann has been involved in half of South Africa’s top stands and looked set for a big one today. Early in his innings, Hermann took down Ben Sears no matter what length he bowled and took 14 runs off four balls. Later, he showed his strength against spin when he joined Esterhuizen in targeting McConchie. But then Hermann did not hit a boundary for 12 balls and needed to take it on. When Sears went hard length, Hermann pulled but got his timing wrong and skied the ball towards mid-off. Nick Kelly ran from mid-on, made his ground and then stuck out one hand to take a superman catch, flying low to the ground. Hermann was out for 39, and the second-wicket partnership was broken on 59.
While Hermann’s promise only peeped through, Esterhuizen went from excellent to exceptional and topped up his maiden international half-century from game four with a new career-best: 75 off 33 balls in the finale. His on-side dominance was on display, as he scored 52 runs in that half of the ground, including five of his six sixes. The biggest ones came off McConchie who he hit back over his head, then over midwicket and over square leg. In total, Esterhuizen scored 21 runs off 8 balls but wasn’t shy to show what he could do against the quicks either. In the last two overs, he took 25 runs off Kyle Jamieson and Sears. His innings ended when he tried to send a Sears full toss to Neesham with two balls to go and he ended the series with a total of 200 runs, 100 more than his nearest competitor, Devon Conway.
It’s been a tough few months for Jason Smith. He only played one game at the T20 World Cup, despite being a first-choice pick in the squad and has not managed to get one score over 20 in five innings on this tour. And then things seemed to become tougher. Smith was at extra cover when Dane Cleaver, on 1, backed away from a Gerald Coetzee ball and smashed it to him. It was hit hard and could have taken some holding onto but Smith let it burst through his hands. Luckily for him, three overs later, the chance to do better came. Ottneil Baartman drew a leading edge from a Cleaver and the ball looped to him at point. He made no mistake and Cleaver was dismissed for 22. New Zealand were 46 for 2 after the powerplay and well behind the chase.
Contrastingly, Coetzee has had a wonderful 10 days after missing out on T20 World Cup selection and recovering from a torn pec muscle. He finished as the joint leading wicket taker, and the one with the lowest economy rate in the series. In today’s match, he didn’t concede a boundary until the final ball he bowled, and by then New Zealand were out of the game. Coetzee bowled two overs with the new ball, for 11 runs, and should have Cleaver’s wicket and then returned for the 17th and 19th overs. His penultimate over was a mix of quick short balls with the odd change of pace and cost two runs. Reward came in his last over, when he had Josh Clarkson caught off a leading edge at cover and McConchie caught at long-on trying to clear the ropes off a cross seam ball. Coetzee finished with 2 for 21 in four overs.
Brief scores:
South Africa 187 for 4 in 20 overs (Tony de Zorzi 12, Wiaan Mulder 31, Rubin Hermann 39, Connor Esterhuizen 75, Dian Foresster 21*; Zak Foulkes 1-22, Ben Sears 2-37, Josh Clarkson 1-14) beat New Zealand 154 for 8 in 20 overs (Tim Robinson 25, Dane Cleaver 22 , Nick Kelley 14, Bevan Jacobs 36, James Neesham 24, Josh Clarkson 13; Gerald Coetzee 2-21, Wiaan Mulder 2-28, Ottneil Baartman 2-33, Keshav Maharaj 1-35)by 33 runs
(Cricinfo)
Russia has launched the largest aerial attack on Ukraine over a 24-hour period since the war began, hitting cities across the country with 948 drones.
Ukraine’s Air Force said 556 drones had been fired since 09:00 local time (07:00 GMT) on Tuesday, in an unusual daytime attack which killed at least three people and injured dozens.
In the western city of Lviv, the 16th century Bernardine monastery – part of a Unesco World Heritage site in the city centre – was damaged, local officials said.
In the neighbouring Ivano-Frankivsk region, a maternity hospital was hit.
Those strikes came after an overnight Russian attack left five people dead. Ukraine said 392 drones and 34 missiles were fired.
In his video address on Tuesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the scale of the latest attacks “clearly shows that Russia has no intention of really ending this war”.
Russia’s military has not publicly commented on the attacks.
A video posted earlier on Tuesday by Lviv authorities showed a fire burning through the roof of a residential building near the Bernardine monastery.
Separate footage posted on social media showed a drone flying lower over the city and hitting the residential building.
Lviv regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said 32 people were injured in the Russian attack.
In the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, two people were killed and another four – including a six-year-old child – were injured, local officials said.
Various buildings – including a maternity hospital – were damaged in the regional capital.
Ternopil – another western Ukrainian city – was also targeted on Tuesday. A number of direct hits were reported by regional authorities, but no casualties.
In the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, one person was killed and 13 injured, regional head Nataliya Zabolotna said.
In the overnight Russian attacks, five people were killed when Russia targeted 11 Ukrainian regions.
Ukraine’s Air Force said it had managed to shoot down most of the Russian drones and missiles – but admitted that there were multiple direct hits across the country.
Yurii Ihnat, spokesman of the Ukrainian Air Force, said late on Tuesday that a “large number of drones” had entered Ukrainian airspace from the north of the country, “effectively moving in columns”.
“The geography of the strikes during the daytime was broader than at night… It can be said this was one of the largest attacks within a 24-hour period,” he said.
While more than four years of war have left virtually no corner of Ukraine untouched, the west of the country has been hit comparatively less intensely and frequently than other areas nearer the Russian border in the east.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the war continues unabated, with Moscow launching near-daily attacks on cities across the country.
Also on Tuesday, the governor of Russia’s western Kursk region said one man was killed and 13 people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on an agricultural enterprise.
Talks brokered by the US and aimed at reaching at a peace settlement have stalled since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran in late February.
“Amid the news the world is drowning in every day, we will not let Ukrainian grief get lost, become just another statistic, a headline that will be casually skipped over,” wrote Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska on social media.
(BBC)
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