During the 53rd match of the 11th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals’ Rahul Tripathi scored his third IPL half-century, his career-best performance, in a must-win encounter.
Opening the batting with a new opening partner in Jofra Archer, Tripathi lasted for 20 overs to register an unbeaten innings. Taking calculated risks, he laid a foundation to his innings and then then converted it into a substantial knock.
Rajasthan Royals had scored 45-1 in the powerplay. Out of which, Tripathi had contributed 26 (18). At the halfway mark, the Royals score was 74-1. Subsequently, Tripathi had scored 43 (32). On the penultimate delivery of the 12th over, with a couple of runs off Colin de Grandhomme, Tripathi completed his half-century.
Having lost Ajinkya Rahane (33) and Sanju Samson (0) in the 14th over, he was seen unhindered in his approach. He complemented Heinrich Klaasen and Krishanappa Gowtham as both of them played crucial cameos for the Royals.
As Rajasthan scored 164-5 in their allotted quota of 20 overs, Tripathi ended up scoring 80* (58) with the help of five fours and three sixes. His strike rate of 137.93 might not be on the higher side but without him playing throughout the innings, the Royals would have struggled to put a decent total on the board. Watch the highlights of his innings:
https://twitter.com/videos_shots/status/997817185736179713
Watch how Twitterati reacted on his innings:
Shane Warne wasted Rahul Tripathi down the order for most of this IPL. If he’d jettisoned D’Arcy Short earlier and let Tripathi bat at his favourite position, @rajasthanroyals may have already been through #RRvRCB
— Hemant (@hemantbuch) May 19, 2018
In their last game of the season (most probably the last), Rahul Tripathi has shown the RR management how they wasted him by batting him down the border. A decent knock of 80* today on a slow pitch scoring almost half of his side's runs. #IPL2018
— Shubh Aggarwal (@shubh_chintak) May 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/ThatCricketBuff/status/997807255922749441
https://twitter.com/_EternalSalman_/status/997800973241274370
Tripathi back to his best, now that he is opening. Imagine RR made him play at 5 initially. Brainfades. #IPL2018
— Manya (@CSKian716) May 19, 2018
https://twitter.com/MenInBlueDvotee/status/997798394973257728
Tripathi back at the top, clear role and see him do well. At times, teams complicate stuff far too much.
— Nikhil 🏏 (@CricCrazyNIKS) May 19, 2018
A continuous opener Tripathi would have helped RR much better.
— Mr. A 🇮🇳🏏 (@cricdrugs) May 19, 2018
This Tripathi has some skill. Just needs to show better batting aptitude.
— Bharath Ramaraj (@Fancricket12) May 19, 2018
