Rajasthan Royals go on top of the IPL standings after a brilliant win over Royal Challengers Bangalore at Pune. It is now two disappointing defeats in a row for Faf Du Plessis’s side and they slipped to the 5^th spot. RCB elected to field first after winning the toss and their bowlers did a good job to restrict RR till Riyan Parag smashed it in the last few overs.

The 20-year promising youngster from Assam was trusted heavily by RR and finally, he showed that he can be a match-winner for them in a difficult fixture. Parag’s second IPL fifty helped Royals post a competitive total of 144. RCB changed their top order to send Virat Kohli to open the batting with skipper Faf Du Plessis. But the change did not work out as their big top three got dismissed within 7^th over. Royals defended their score comfortably in the end as RCB bowled out for 115.

Let’s look at the talking points –

RCB found a real fast bowling partnership in Hazelwood and Siraj

Hazelwood is certainly leading the attack for RCB at the moment. He picked up in form Jos Buttler for just 8 runs. It’s now 10 wickets in just 5 games for Hazelwood in this tournament. Josh along with Mohammed Siraj continued to trouble the RR batters as they lost their 6 top order batters within the 16^th over. Hasaranga picked up Samson once again in this game after the RR skipper tried to attack the Sri Lankan spinner. It was 5^th time in 23 balls, that Samson gave his wicket to Hasaranga in the T20s. However it was an off day for Harshal Patel and Shahbaz Ahmed, both of them were most expensive.

 Riyan Parag- the match-winner

Parag has been heavily backed by the Royals franchise over the last 3-4 years. He came into bat in a very difficult situation when his team were 4 wickets down in the 10^th over. All the RR batters found it tough to score on that pitch but Riyan showed his class. The youngster remained patient even though the wickets were falling at the other end.

He saved his best for the last couple of overs to score some boundaries against Hazelwood and Harshal Patel. Parag smashed his second IPL fifty and remained unbeaten on 56. It came when his team needed it most. It was a very relieved celebration for him after that as he knew he can do a lot more than what is expected of him.

“The Royals have shown faith in me for the last three years, and I am paying them back bit by bit. I love the pressure and I am just showcasing my abilities,” said Parag during the post-match presentation. “During the time-out, Sanga came out and we agreed that 140 was a good total on this wicket. We decided to go big in the last two overs. Wanted to target Hasaranga in his second over, but we lost wickets, and so I had to strategize and go after Hazlewood and Harshal,” he added.

Virat Kohli’s failed as an opener as well

RCB decided to send Kohli to open to find his rhythm back but he struggled to middle the ball from the start. He was lucky a couple of times in the first over against Boult, eventually giving his wicket away in the second over against Prasidh Krishna as he got dismissed for 9 off 10 balls.

Kuldeep Sen shines for RR

The 25-year-old missed a few games due to injury in practice, but he came back strongly when the Royals needed him most. Defending a low total of 144, the Madhya Pradesh pacer took 4 wickets with an economy under 6.