Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the Rajasthan to move forward towards Final - Journey to the top is not easy and in the Indian Premier League two teams were tied at the Eliminator game where the winning team will move forward while the other will have to go back home. The Eliminator of IPL 2015 was played in Pune. This time around the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals were to meet in this knockout match. After winning the toss Royal Challengers Bangalore decided to bat.
The opening pair of Bangalore this time didn’t work well for the team. Chris Gayle scored only 27 runs in 26 balls and lost his wicket in the last ball of the 6th over. The team was struck at 41/1 in the 6th over. The 8th over again saw the fall of wicket of Virat Kohli after scoring only 12 runs. The innings was left only for AB de Villiers and Mandeep Singh to handle. They scored the most important runs for the team and took them to a score of 159 runs in 19th over. AB de Villiers scored 66 runs of 38 balls before losing his wicket. Mandeep remained not out as he scored 54 runs in 34 balls and took the team to a score of 189 runs. Dhawal Kulkarni took 2 wickets to become the most successful bowler of the game for Rajasthan Royals.
The opening pair of the Royals have been the most crucial when it comes to batting. This time around the Bangalore were able to take the wicket of inform Shane Watson pretty early. He scored only 10 runs before losing his wicket. Sanju Samson too lost his wicket early scoring only 5 runs for the team. The Royals were at 33/2 in 5 overs. Steven Smith too didn’t work well for the team as he scored 12 runs only. The team was suffering for runs as they were able to score only 87/5 in 14th over. The required run rate was increasing and the team tumbled under it. Rahane was the top scorer for the team as he scored 42 runs as Royals lost all their wickets scoring only 109 runs.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 80 runs and moved to the Qualifier 2 to meet the Chennai super Kings in Ranchi. AB de Villiers was named as the man of the match and he also won the Yes Bank Maximum sixes award.