Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood was the star with the ball in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 11-run IPL victory at home over Rajasthan Royals, who opted to field on winning the toss Thursday.
Needing 206 to win after Bengaluru had reached 205-5, Rajasthan were cruising until Dhruv Jurel was out to Hazlewood in the 19th over of the chase.
Jurel contributed 34-ball 47 and fell when 17 were needed off as many balls for a win.
Hazlewood dismissed England’s Jofra Archer next ball as Royals were left needing 17 runs off the last over.
Earlier, Indian batting ace Virat Kohli made a strokeful 42-ball 70 to power Bengaluru to a fighting total on a batting belter of a Bengaluru wicket.
Openers Kohli and Phil Salt powered to 59-0 inside the powerplay before Salt was bowled for 26 in the seventh over to leave the hosts on 61-1.
The 36-year-old then combined in a 95-run stand with Devdutt Padikkal before eventually being dismissed in the 16th over by Archer.
Padikkal was also going great guns before getting out soon after scoring a 27-ball 50 as Bengaluru were 161-3.
Rapidly falling wickets towards the end sapped the momentum before significant cameos from Tim David (23) and Jitesh Sharma (20 not out).
Archer was Rajasthan’s leading wicket-taker and ended with 33-1. Sandeep Sharma claimed 2-45 and Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga ended with 1-30.
Rajasthan’s young top-order batsmen kicked off nicely and kept up the required run rate throughout the first half of the chase.
Indian Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal hammered 19-ball 49 before being dismissed by Hazlewood.
His partner at the top of the order, Vaibhav Suryavanshi fell in the innings’ opening over for 16 off the bowling of India seam veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who ended up with 1-50 in his four-over assignment.
Spinner Krunal Pandya bowled a vital spell and scalped both Nitish Rana (28) and Rajasthan skipper Riyan Parag (22) who seemed dangerous after the early dismissals.
Rajasthan were cruising until Rana’s wicket in the 14th over and their batters just couldn’t capitalize on starts unlike the way KKR did when it was their turn to cross the finish line.
“I think we batted very well with the ball… we restricted them really well,” Parag said post the match.
“The way we batted, at the halfway stage I thought we were in the driver’s seat,” he added.
But “We only have ourselves to blame… (The team was) in the driving seat, and we went and blew it”.
Player-of-the-match Hazlewood said he “was just sticking to my strengths”.
“I knew hard lengths were hard to hit so I mixed that (up) with yorkers, change of pace,” he added.