Bengaluru: Captain Faf du Plessis (62) and Glenn Maxwell’s (77) century stand threatened to take Royal Challengers Bangalore to a massive total before Rajasthan Royals fought back to restrict them to 189 for 9 in their Indian Premier League match here on Sunday.
Maxwell and du Plessis added 127 runs for the third wicket in only 66 balls, which was the third time the pair crossed 100-run mark in seven matches so far this season.
Earlier, du Plessis and Maxwell had put on 115 runs from 50 balls against Lucknow Super Giants and 126 from 61 balls against Chennai Super Kings.
But RCB stuttered once the momentum was broken after the dismissal of du Plessis, run out off a brilliant direct throw from Yashasvi Jaiswal in the 14th over. The home side collapsed from 139/2 to 189/9, losing seven wickets for 50 runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Du Plessis extended his overall tally to 405 runs in just seven matches with his fifth half-century — the most for any batter so far. His 39-ball knock had eight fours and two sixes.
On the other hand, Maxwell struck his third fifty of this IPL to make a 44-ball 77 (6x4s, 4x6s) but the rest of the RCB batters squandered the platform set up brilliantly by their top order. Dinesh Karthik (11) was the only other RCB batter to score in double digits.
Royals bowlers were particularly impressive in the final five overs as they pulled things back with a disciplined effort, while also affecting two run-outs.
None of the Royals bowlers could, however, trouble either Maxwell or du Plessis, who batted with utmost ease.
The two batters came together when RCB were put in a spot of bother by Royals pacer Trent Boult (2/41), who rocked them early twice in his first two overs.
Boult gave a perfect start to RR when he pinned Virat Kohli (0) in front of the wickets for the first breakthrough on the first ball of the game, which was his 100th overall wicket in IPL.
The left-arm pacer then returned for a second over and had Shahbaz Ahmed (2) caught at short midwicket by Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Du Plessis and Maxwell counterattacked, with the RCB captain taking a special liking for Sandeep Sharma (2/49), hitting him for three fours and two sixes in two overs.
Maxwell also took the aggressive route to help RCB make the most of the powerplay, at the end of which they were 62/2.
Royals spin pair of Ravichandran Ashwin (1/36) and Yuzvendra Chahal (4-0-28-1) did a decent job.
