It was the 33rd match of IPL 2020, played between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore at Dubai International Stadium Dubai on 17th October. Steve Smith was the captain of Rajasthan while Virat Kohli was leading the Bangalore team. RR captain Steve Smith won the toss and elected to bat first.
From Rajasthan Royals, inning was opened by Robin Uthappa and Ben Stokes with much patience and wisdom. They played with a relaxed mind and offered an excellent start to the team. The first wicket of RR was lost in the form of Ben Stokes in the 6th over. He made 19 runs. Uthappa also got out early. Sanju Samson joined Steve Smith to carry the inning ahead, but once again, he failed and got out at a personal score of 9 runs only. Steve Smith played well with Jos Buttler and Rahul Tevatia. Buttler made 24 runs while Tevatia made 19 runs. At the end of 20 overs, RR made 177 runs at a loss of 6 wickets. From RCB Chris Morris was the highest wicket-taker who got 4 wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal also got 2 wickets. The bowling attack from RCB was good, and hence RR batsmen could not make a big score as they got wickets at regular intervals. RR set a target of 178 runs for RCB to win the match.
From Royal Challengers Bangalore, Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch started the inning, but Finch got out in the 4th over only. He made 14 runs. Virat Kohli joined Padikkal to chase the target, and they both played quality cricket. Padikkal made 35 runs while Kohli made 43 runs. Suddenly the match took a turn where in consecutive two balls, RCB lost two crucial wickets of Kohli and Padikkal. After the fall of Kohli and Padikkal’s wicket, AB de Villiers and Gurkeerat Singh balanced the inning. It was looking like RCB may not secure the required score, but poor bowling attacks from RR made it easy for the batsmen to play well. AB played an excellent inning and completed his half-century while Gurkeerat also made valuable 19 runs. RCB successfully made 179 runs in its inning of 19.4 overs only. From RR Shreyas Gopal, Kartik Tyagi, and Rahul Tevatia, each got 1 wicket. AB de Villiers was declared as the player of the match for his magnificent inning of not out 55 runs in 22 balls, which made RCB win easily.