IPL 2018: AB de Villiers spared but Virat Kohli slams batsmen as RR knock out RCB
Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals (RR) knocked Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday with a comprehensive 30-run victory in their last league match.
Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal mopped up Bangalore's top order with 4-16 as Virat Kohli's team was bowled out for 134 in 19.2 overs, losing its last nine wickets for only 59 runs.
Rahul Tripathi had earlier scored a 58-ball knock of 80 runs and perfectly fit in the shoes of Jos Buttler, who returned to England for the first Test against Pakistan.
Captain Ajinkya Rahane (33) won the toss and chose to bat in front of home town supporters. South African Heinrich Klaasen (32), playing his third match of the season, also made useful contributions in lifting RR's total to 164-5.
Rajasthan Royals finished the league stage with 14 points and kept alive their hopes for a place in the playoffs.
RCB needed a win to have a chance of progressing but exited the tournament with 12 points and eight defeats in its 14 games.
"It was a strange one, great position at one stage but the way we fumbled it wasn't ideal," Kohli said. "Disappointed to not finish this off after we were cruising, just to see the way it unfolded after that hurts."
"We wanted to strengthen the middle-order which hasn't happened, it hasn't been our strength and we need to do that going into the next few seasons," Kohli said of his side which has not won the IPL since its inception in 2008.
"The responsibility cannot be taken up only by AB all the time. He certainly scored runs, but others need to contribute around him, and didn't show enough composure," he added.
Off-spinner Krishnappa Gowtham (1-6) bowled intelligently with the new ball and had Kohli clean bowled in his second over before AB de Villiers (53 from 35) and Parthiv Patel (33) put the chase back on track.
But Shreyas hurt RCB badly when he broke the half-century stand by having Patel stumped and then caught Moeen Ali off his own bowling in the ninth over.
And when De Villiers was also stumped by Klaasen off Shreyas in the 13th over, Rajasthan slipped to 98-6.
Seamers Ben Laughlin (2-15) and Jaydev Unadkat (2-27) ran through the tail in quick succession as Bangalore was bowled out with four balls to spare.
Earlier, Tripathi hit five fours and three sixes and featured in a 99-run second-wicket stand with Rahane off 69 balls after Rajasthan's plan of promoting Jofra Archer as opener failed.
Umesh Yadav (3-25) had Archer caught behind for zero in his first over before Tripathi and Rahane rebuilt the innings.
Yadav returned and had Rahane and Sanju Samson dismissed off successive deliveries. However, Rajasthan still managed to score 63 runs off the last seven overs and that proved enough for its spinners to defend.
