The addition of Mitchell Starc certainly has added some belief to the RCB bowling unit no doubt, but what will really please Kohli is the how the others supported him. Chahal has been bowling well throughout the tournament, picking up two wickets tonight as well. Harshal Patel and Iqbal Abdulla bowled really well to starve the opposition of chances to hit big. Rajasthan for once didn’t have the cushion of a solid opening stand as Rahane was out leg before wicket to Patel. Shane Watson too perished soon, looking to take the attack to Chahal.Steve Smith couldn’t hit the big ones as he failed to convert the start. That he was the top scorer at just 31 runs, is a pointer to Rajasthan’s troubles. Faulkner could have done some damage late on, but he was dismissed thanks to a diving one handed catch by Dinesh Karthick.
Chris Gayle made his comeback to the team and was looking bood hitting four boundaries, but was outfoxed by Shane Watson, looping a simple catch to the wicket keeper.But there were no further hiccups for RCB as skipper Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers, who finally got his chance to bat up the order played sensibly to ease their way to victory.Kohli looked in command the way he batted, while AB too stroked the ball around at will. The RR bowlers couldnt do any damage and looked short of ideas as they ran out of runs to defend. A surprisingly one sided affair, it turned out to be in the end.
Mitchell Starc picked up the MoM award for his figures of 3/22, but all his wickets came in the final two overs with the damage was already done by then.It seems RCB are faring better away from home with two wins in two, less pressure perhaps.As for RR, the demons of last season will be at the back of the heads of Dravid & Co and they will lose their top spot, if CSK beat KXIP later tonight.
srikantkk 