Bangalore vs Rajasthan Highlights: RCB crush Rajasthan Royals

The target of 190 set by the RCB seemed like an uphill task as the RR were never in hunt for the chase. It was a convincing 46 runs victory for RCB. Put into bat the Royal Challengers surprised everyone by sending Virat Kohli and Dilshan as the openers. Later it was known that Chris Gayle was not fully fit just before the match. Kohli played run a ball 16 before getting out. Mayank Agarwal followed his way back to the pavillion. It is unfair to expect Gayle to explode as he was not fit and as expected he got out for 4. But the partnership of AB De Velliers and Dilshan set the tone for RCB to pile up a huge total of 189. De Villiers in particular played an explosive innings of 58 off just 23 balls and guided his team to a challenging total. The RCB scored 82 runs in the last 5 overs. Both Dilshan and DeVilliers played entertaining innings with their trademark 'Dilscoop' and 'Villiscoop'. At one stage everyone felt that there would be a score of 150 or 160. But thanks to the duo. Dilshan anchored the innings by scoring a crucial 76 off 58 balls.

Chasing a huge score of 190 at an asking rate of nearly 10 an over, the Rajasthan team succumbed to the pressure, excepting Rahul Dravid who played a captain's innings of 58 off 42 balls. Dravid was running short of partners and he got out while playing an unusual shot. Spinner Apanna had done the trick for RCB by picking up all the top four batsmen. Rahane and Shah who played a few match winning performances failed miserably today. There wasn't one decent partnership in the entire Rajasthan innings. One can only feel sorry for Rahul Dravid . The Rajasthan Royals batting looked vulnerable once again. The only saving grace is the Dravid's half century. It was a good captain's knock but that just wasn't enough tonight. It needs to be seen how they could bounce back in the remaining matches.

The RCB team which was dependent heavily on the Gayle force won this match without his contribution and that would instill much more confidence in the team. RCB grabbed 2 crucial points and is at the 6th position with 8 points. The RR team is also with points but RCB clearly looks the stronger one with 3 consecutive wins in a row. Rajasthan scored 143/7 in 20 overs and were defeated by 46 runs, considered a huge margin in the T20 format. Today is definitely a bad day for the blue Royals!

Game changer: AB DeVelliers who scored a quickfire 59 off 23 balls made all the difference to the RCB batting.

Golden run period for RCB: Overs 16-20 whic yielded 82 runs. The RR team never seemed to recover from that big blow.

Brief scores.

RCB: 189/3 in 20 overs(Dilshan 76*, AB DeVilliers 59*) Hogg 2/39

RR: 143/7 in 20 overs(Dravid 58, Binny 20*) Apanna 4/19

Result: RCB won by 46 Runs.

Man of the match: AB DeVelliers, not just for that brilliant knock but also for sharing his award with Apanna for his excellent figures of 4/19. A very good gesture by the great batsman!

Points table still not clear: Top 6 teams share 8 points each and it is still tough to predict the top four teams for the play offs! Want to get clearer picture. Watch today's encounters, some the doubts could be answered:

1) Pune Warriors India vs Delhi Daredevils. Start of play 4:00 PM IST

2)Kolkata Knight Riders vs Deccan Chargers. Start of play 8:00 PM IST.

Live streaming : IPL Live Streaming