Rajasthan Royals continued their winning run as they defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the 19th match of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Sawai Mansigh Indoor Stadium on Saturday.
Jos Buttler starred for the winning side as they go top of the table with eight points from four matches, ahead of in-form Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) who are second but with a much better Net Run Rate (NRR).
IPL 2024 points table
Earlier, the 184-run target didn’t trouble Sanju Samson’s side as they chased down the target with ease in last over with Jos Buttler top-scoring for the winning side.
Despite suffering an early blow as their opener Yashasvi Jaiswal returned to the pavilion for a duck in the first over, the Royals didn’t lose their composure and the 148-run partnership between Buttler and Samson put them in a driving seat.
Samson played a captain innings, scoring 69 runs on 42 balls with the help of eight fours and two sixes while Buttler scored a ton courtesy of 13 boundaries.
Following Samson’s dismissal, RR lost two quick wickets but they had already put themselves ahead and eventually won the match.
Reece Topley managed to bag two wickets for RCB while Yash Dayal and Mohammed Siraj picked one each as the Bengaluru-based franchise’ struggles with the ball continue.
Batting first, RCB got off to a brilliant start as talisman Virat Kohli and skipper Faf du Plessis formed a 125-run stand before the latter departed for 44 runs.
Following Du Plessis’ dismissals, the wickets started falling as two of their next batters, Glenn Maxwell and Saurav Chauhan, departed for 1 and 9 runs respectively.
However, among all the chaos, Kohli stayed on the pitch and helped his side set an 184-run target for RR after scoring a stunning century, 13 runs on 72 balls with the help of 16 boundaries.
While doing so, the 35-year-old became just the first player to complete 7,500 runs in his 242nd IPL innings, which is the most by any batter in the tournament’s history. The second on the list is another Indian, Shikhar Dhawan, who has 6755 runs in 221 matches.
Kohli looked like the old version of himself during the match against RR as the 35-year-old scored his first century of IPL 2024, and his eighth overall, which is the most in the tournament's history. Former RCB batter Chris Gayle is second on the list with six tons.