The sixth week of the IPL 2018 was an extremely intense one for all the teams which still have not booked their place in the playoffs. Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab are the teams in the mid-table scramble who are still not confirmed not in the top four. With the race heating up, it was one team that managed to win all three matches and keep their campaign alive.
After being in grave danger of getting knocked out, Royal Challengers Bangalore emerged with stellar performances in their last few matches. They have won their last three consecutive matches and now are at the fifth position in the table. In total, they have won six matches and lost seven. Their last match against RR will be do-or-die.
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Match Details
Playing at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, on 12th May, RCB faced the youthful Delhi Daredevils team. Rishabh Pant’s explosive 34-ball 61 and Abhishek Sharma’s surprising knock of 46 from 19 balls took DD to 181/4. For RCB it was the duo of Kohli-ABD that took them across the winning line with both scoring 70s.
RCB then flattened Kings XI Punjab on their home ground in the 48th Match played on 14th May. Batting first, Punjab was all out for only 88 runs with Yadav taking 3 wickets and 3 runouts. Virat and Parthiv then chased the total in only 8.1 overs thus boosting the net run-rate.
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Coming back to the last night, where RCB faced SRH at Bangalore, the table-toppers. SRH asked Royal Challengers Bangalore to bat first and the Bangalore batsmen made most of the first use of the flat pitch. With ABD and Moeen Ali firing, RCB got to 218. SRH tried their best but fell short.
What Worked Well
The strongest aspect of the Royal Challengers Bangalore is definitely their batting. They have two of the best batsmen in the world in their team. Virat and ABD have been spectacular in these matches and have taken them to the cusp of victories.
Their bowlers especially Umesh Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have been in great form and are asking the difficult questions to the opposition batsmen. Their fielding has been good in general with 3 run outs in the KXIP match.
Where from here on
With 13 matches already completed, Royal Challengers Bangalore have only one match left for them in the league stage. They will be playing against RR at Jaipur on Saturday, May 19th.
