PTI
AHMEDABAD, April 24
Led by Australia's Mitchell Starc, Royal Challengers Bangalore dished out a disciplined bowling performance to restrict Rajasthan Royals to a modest 130/9 in their IPL match on Friday.
Fast bowler Starc, who was named player of the Cricket World Cup, snapped three wickets, spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal Patel took two each while left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla scalped one at Sardar Patel Stadium after skipper Virat Kohli elected to field.
Put into bat, Ajinkya Rahane (18) and Shane Watson (26) gave Rajasthan a flying start as the duo amassed 36 in 5 overs before the former was trapped in front of wicket by Patel.
Rahane hit two boundaries and a six in his 12-ball innings, while Watson blasted four fours and a six before his attempt to score another six off Chahal ended with a simple catch at the fence by Starc.
New man Karun Nair (16) blasted a six before his 14-ball stay was cut short by a bullet throw from the boundary line by Patel with Kohli doing the needful as Rajasthan slipped to 72 for three.
Deepak Hooda (1) too was cleaned up by Abdulla in the 12th over when he tried to play a slog shot off a straight delivery.
Sanju Samson (4) too followed suit, paying the price for another irresponsible slog-sweep as Yuzvendra Chahal disturbed his stumps. Smith and Stuart Binny then brought up the 100 in the 15th over. The duo tried to up the tempo and picked up a four each but Starc returned and struck twice to send the duo back to the hut as RR were reduced to 121/7.
Smith's mistimed shot landed in the safe hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, while Binny, who was dropped by Abdulla at long on in the 16th over, found David Wiese at deep extra cover.
James Faulkner was then sent back to the pavillion by Patel with wicketkeeper Karthik taking an exceptional catch, diving to his left in the 19th over.
Starc then cleaned up No. 10 batsman Dhawal Kulkarni as RR managed to score 130 in their stipulated 20 overs.
