Royal Challengers Bengaluru have never been comfortable at home the past few years. The script didn’t change on Wednesday as they crashed to their first defeat this season.
Their opening match at the Chinnaswamy ended in disaster following a top-order collapse which left them with only 169 runs to defend.
Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill failed with the bat but Jos Buttler put in a superb exhibition of strokeplay as the side reached the target with 13 balls remaining.
Exhilarating Buttler
Englishman Buttler was at his best, smashing five boundaries and six sixes which
left RCB clueless. Sai Sudarshan provided him support in the initial stages during a 75-run stand and then Sherfane Rutherford stayed till the end to pull the chase off in style.
Rutherford tonked Bhuvneshwar Kumar for a huge six over deep fine leg to hit the winning runs but it was Buttler’s famous scoop against Josh Hazlewood over the keeper’s head which left his teammates spellbound.
Coming into a new set-up after having flourished at Rajasthan Royals, Buttler never struggled at No.3. He had been under a lot of pressure, having quit England’s captaincy after his team went down meekly in the Champions Trophy.
He started with a 54 against Punjab Kings in a losing cause and then made 39 versus Mumbai Indians. He took his time to settle down on Wednesday but once he did, there was no stopping him.
Superb spell
For the first time this season, Titans’ Mohammed Siraj seemed to be in his elements on return to Bengaluru, his home franchise for several seasons.
The Titans’ pacers ran through RCB’s top order in the first seven overs to reduce them to 42/4 before Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma and Tim David combined to help them reach 169/8.
Out of the national team since the Border-Gavaskar Trophy in Australia, Siraj had a lot to prove but struggled with his rhythm in the
first two matches this season. But the sight of Virat
Kohli and Phil Salt helped him recover his mojo with the former falling to Arshad Khan cheaply.
Working up appreciable pace, Siraj got the new ball to move and removed Devdutt Padikkal and Salt in his opening spell.
He castled Padikkal who was aiming to go over mid-off. Salt had his moments when he was dropped by
Buttler and then survived a run-out chance but his luck
ran out soon. Having tonked a six over deep mid-
wicket, he was bowled next ball by a 145.9kmph Siraj thunderbolt.
He returned to remove Livingstone (54 off 40 balls) at the death to finish with 3/19 off four overs.