Twitter Reactions: Chahal's 3/24 and half-centuries from Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal help RCB cruise past RR

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have found some great momentum in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season. They have defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) to go to the top of the points table with their third win in four matches. While Yuzvendra Chahal did well with a three-wicket haul with the ball, Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli stepped up with the bat to help the team get to the target easily with eight wickets in hand.

After opting to bat first, RR threw away a good start. Jos Buttler started well for them as they added around 27 runs for the opening wicket. But Isuru Udana castled their skipper Steve Smith and soon Buttler walked back giving his wicket to Navdeep Saini. Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Sanju Samson in his very first over to leave the Royals reeling at 31/3 in the fifth over.

It was up to the Indian youngsters and the veteran Robin Uthappa to steer RR to a decent total. Mahipal Lomror, playing his first IPL 2020 game, showed nerves of steel to do well with the bat. He added 39 runs with Uthappa but the latter never looked in the groove and ended up throwing his wicket to Chahal. The case was similar for Riyan Parag who scraped through to 16 off 18.

Lomror, meanwhile, played well to score 47 off 39 balls before the leggie Chahal snaffled him in the 17th over of the innings. At this stage, one felt that the Royals won’t be able to reach 150-run mark. But Rahul Tewatia stepped up to the challenge to slam an unbeaten 24 off 12 balls while Jofra Archer also scored 16* runs to help RR post a competitive total of 154 runs on the board.

Padikkal and Virat Kohli lead the way for RCB

It was a tricky chase for the RCB and they lost their opener Aaron Finch early too. He was caught in front of the stumps by Shreyas Gopal to bring his favourite wicket, Virat Kohli in the middle. The RCB skipper hadn’t troubled the scorers before this game and looked determined to play a big knock.

He started off slowly giving himself some time upfront. At the other end, the young left-hander Devdutt Padikkal was oozing class. The southpaw played some fluent strokes and churned out runs at a brilliant strike-rate. There was no slog at any stage and the ball was hitting the middle of his bat. With his skipper at the other end, Padikkal also showed maturity as they rotated strike in the middle overs.

The duo added more than 100 runs for the second wicket and never let the required run-rate drift away. After getting to the half-century, the heat and humidity got to the youngster as he was castled by Jofra Archer. But the game was in control by then, and Kohli had crossed his first 50+ score as well. He was never going to let all the hard work go in vain.

Kohli accelerated at the perfect time and made sure that the game didn’t go down the wire. He looked in some amazing touch and regained his form at the right time for RCB. The skipper ended unbeaten at 72 off 53 deliveries while AB de Villiers was at the end as the team got over the line in the 20th over comfortably.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: