Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), led by Virat Kohli, were fined for maintaining a slow over-rate during their match against the Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2023 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday. This was RCB's second offence of the season under the IPL’s Code of Conduct, relating to minimum over-rate offences, resulting in Kohli being fined Rs 24 lakh, while each member of the Playing XI, including the impact substitute Harshal Patel, was fined Rs 6 lakh or 25 percent of the match fee, whichever was lesser.
RCB won the match by seven runs, posting 189/9 in 20 overs, thanks to Faf du Plessis' 62 off 39 and Glenn Maxwell's blockbuster 77 off 44. Harshal Patel then defended 20 runs in the last over with a crucial spell of 3-32, leading RCB to their fourth win of the season. In reply, Rajasthan Royals didn't get off to the best of starts as they lost Jos Buttler for a duck to Mohammed Siraj. However, Yashaswi Jaiswal and Devdutt Padikkal together collected eight boundaries in three overs, with Jaiswal hitting a huge six off Maxwell as RR reached 41/1 at the end of the Power-play.
Virat Kohli having fun with Trent Boult post match. The two greats of this era __ pic.twitter.com/Gpcd3M6yuy
— Pari (@BluntIndianGal) April 24, 2023
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Jaiswal and Padikkal accumulated 51 runs off the next four overs to take the Royals to 92/1 after 10 overs. However, RCB managed to put pressure on the Royals with their tight bowling as the visitors didn't get a single boundary between 11-15 overs. Samson finally released the pressure valve with a four and a six off Wanindu Hasaranga, but the RCB pacer hit back off the next ball, having Samson caught at short third man for 22 (15). Jurel kept the visitors in the hunt with a counter-attacking 34 runs towards the death overs.
With 20 needed off the final over, Ashwin played a bizarre shot, got a boundary, and went for a double on the next ball. He followed that up with another four and tried to go big on the next delivery but didn't get much elevation and handed a simple catch to the fielder stationed in the deep mid-wicket. RCB sealed the win by seven runs, with two singles coming off the last two balls.
Batting first, RCB suffered two early blows in the form of Virat Kohli and Shahbaz Ahmed. However, Faf du Plessis and Glen Maxwell got into the rebuilding act, taking the Power-play score to 62/2. The duo stitched a 127-run partnership off 66 balls before Du Plessis got run out by Yashaswi Jaiswal's brilliant direct hit in the 14th over. Maxwell fell in the next over for 77. RCB lost their way in the last six overs as RR conceded just 50 runs off the last 41 balls and picked up seven wickets to restrict the home side to 189/9.
