IPL 2020: Match 15, RCB vs RR – Devdutt’s record, Kohli's first in UAE, RCB’s rare win over RR and more stats

Royal Challengers Bangalore climbed on to the top of the table following a convincing victory against Rajasthan Royals on Saturday. In the first match of IPL 2020 played in the evening, the Rajasthan Royals were restricted to 154/6 after electing to bat first. Yuzvendra Chahal played a key role in RCB’s bowling effort with three wickets. The chase became easy with Devdutt Padikkal (63 off 45) scoring a 34-ball 50 while Virat Kohli returned to form with an unbeaten 53-ball 72 that took RCB over the line with five balls to spare.

Here are all the statistical highlights from RCB’s 8-wicket win in their 200th Twenty20 appearance:

RCB’s first win against RR in a while:

1 – Rajasthan Royals lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore for the first time since their comeback to the league in 2018. Across the last two seasons, RR won three of the four meetings against RCB while another match ended without a result.

2016 – Royal Challengers Bangalore won their first match  plaed in the afternoon in the IPL since the 2016 edition. The RCB team played ten matches in the day across the previous three IPL editions and ended up losing all those ten.

Devdutt’s record:

3 – The 63-run knock on Saturday was Devdutt Padikkal’s third fifty in his 4-match IPL career. He is now the first player in IPL history to record three fifty-plus scores in the first four matches. Devdutt scored 56 on his debut against SRH and a 54 in his previous game against MI but failed in his second game against KXIP scoring only one run.

Kohli bounces back with an unbeaten fifty:

1 – The unbeaten 72-run knock by Virat Kohli was his maiden fifty in the IPL during the matches played in UAE. Kohli played nine IPL games in UAE thus far scoring 195 runs at an average of 27.85.

70 – Number of fifty-plus scores by Virat Kohli in the Twenty20 format thus far; the 3rd most by any player behind Chris Gayle (104) and David Warner (84). Kohli went past his teammate Aaron Finch’s tally of 69 fifty-plus scores.

Chahal equals Vinay:

9 – Number of 3-wicket hauls in the IPL for Yuzvendra Chahal; the joint-most 3-fers by any in the IPL for RCB. Chahal equalled Vinay Kumar’s tally of nine 3-wicket hauls in the IPL for Royal Challengers in this match.

4 – Yuzvendra Chahal now has dismissed Sanju Samson for the 4th time in the IPL. The leg-spinner bowled 29 balls to Samson in the league thus far and conceded only 23 runs in those.

A mixed game for Saini:

37 – The 37 runs conceded by Navdeep Saini are the most runs conceded by a RCB bowler in an IPL match despite bowling a maiden over. The previous most was 32 runs by Dillon du Preez who also took three wickets during the 2009 season game against Mumbai Indians.