KL Rahul showed that he is adept at playing the game’s shortest format with a match-winning knock in Bengaluru on Thursday.

His classy 93 not out off 53 balls stunned the Chinnaswamy crowd into silence after Royal Challengers Bengaluru were reduced to 30/3 in the fifth over in their chase of 164. But Rahul mixed caution with aggression judiciously to pull it off with 13 balls remaining.

He received good support from Tristan Stubbs (38 not out off 23 balls) as they stitched together 111 off 55 balls in an unbroken fifth-wicket stand.

In good nick

Rahul’s homecoming was to be cherished. He soaked up all the pressure and even a few drops of rain couldn’t hamper his rhythm. He didn’t resort to any slogging and was on 29 off 29 balls at one stage. He completed his half-century off 39 balls.

There were seven fours and six sixes in his knock and ripped apart Josh Hazlewood smashing the Australian for three fours and a six in the 15th over which went for
22 runs.

The Capitals turned to Liam Livingstone to fill the fifth bowler’s quota and he ended up conceding 14 runs in the 13th over which shifted the momentum. They needed 43 off 30 balls but there was no stopping Rahul. He wrapped it up with a six off Yash Dayal.

RCB lose way

Royal Challengers Bengaluru failed to capitalise on the good start following a flurry of wickets in the early stages of the innings after a horrible mix-up between the openers which saw the dismissal of Phil Salt.

It took RCB only 3.4 overs to reach 61 as Salt hammered Mitchell Starc and Axar Patel.

The RCB innings graph was bizzare: 53 in the first three overs, 36 off the final two and 74 in the 15 in between.

They ended up with 163/7 mainly because of Tim David’s pyrotechnics in the last two overs. He finished with an unbeaten 37 off 20 balls.

Spinners rule

Vipraj Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav were disciplined as the home team failed to get them away. Both were relentless in their line of attack and picked up two wickets each.

Virat Kohli fell to young Nigam after he had smashed him over long on for a six. But the leg-spinner was unfazed as he kept tossing the ball up and finally induced him into playing a false shot.