Rajasthan spinners led by Shreyas Gopal dismissed Royal Challengers Bangalore for 134 chasing 165 for victory in a must-win encounter. This loss, unfortunately, ends RCB's IPL campaign this year and it gives RR some hope to go through to the IPL playoffs.
At 75 for 1 in 8 overs, Shreyas Gopal started the slide for RCB as he took key wickets of Parthiv Patel, Moeen Ali and AB de Villiers in the middle overs to stifle the RCB chase.
RCB lost their last 9 wickets for just 59 runs as Rajasthan stayed alive in the tournament.
For Rajasthan, it was Rahul Tripathi's unbeaten 80 which laid the platform for a good score which was lifted and triggered past 160 by Heinrich Klaasen with his quickfire 32.
A desperate attempt by the RCB middle order was not enough as they fell short by 30 runs to end their campaign with a defeat. RCB thus ended their campaign with 12 points with 6 wins and 8 losses under their belt.
Twitterverse had their own opinion regarding the contest. Here are the best tweets on the game.
No Buttler, no Stokes, no worries. #RR
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 19, 2018
A majestic meltdown from #RCB, and a right Royal knees up for #Rajasthan Kohli’s men bridesmaids again.. #RRvsRCB
— mark butcher (@markbutcher72) May 19, 2018
#RCB’s loss will end their campaign. #RR will have to still wait for all other results, for their NRR won’t improved as much. #RRvRCB #IPL
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) May 19, 2018
In absence of Butler & Stokes, gr8 win for Rajasthan.RCB have moved in fits & starts unconvincingly thru season,cracked under pressure today
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) May 19, 2018
What a spell shreyas. #shreyasgopal #topstuff ????????
— Jasprit bumrah (@Jaspritbumrah93) May 19, 2018
Team not taking up the responsibility even in such a must win game and banking just on individual performances. Not how you win games. They can't get you through the line all the time. Story of RCB this year #RRvRCB
— Hemang Badani (@hemangkbadani) May 19, 2018
Bowling apart - Heinrich Klaasen has had a brilliant day at work. Valuable runs and excellent glovework behind the stumps.. Turning track, ball keeping low by didn’t miss a thing. #RRvRCB @rajasthanroyals
— Jatin Sapru (@jatinsapru) May 19, 2018
Had been that kind of tournament for RCB. 59/9 after the 8 th over. Shreyas Gopal was outstanding and I really feel @rajasthanroyals would be delighted with Tripathi coming good at the top. In this line up, he has to open #RRvRCB
— Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) May 19, 2018