IPL 2022: Prasidh, McCoy, Buttler power Rajasthan to final with 7-wicket win over Bangalore

Ahmedabad, May 27, 2022

After Prasidh Krishna and Obed McCoy's sensational bowling, Jos Buttler played a special knock (106 not out off 60) and led Rajasthan Royals to the IPL 2022 final with a convincing seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore in Qualifier 2 at the Narendra Modi Stadium here on Friday.

It will be Rajasthan Royals' first IPL final since 2008, when they won the title under the captaincy of the legendary Shane Warne.

Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan will now face Hardik Pandya's Gujarat Titans in the final at the same stadium in front of a huge crowd on Sunday.

Excellent bowling by Prasidh Krishna (3/22) and Obed McCoy (3/23) helped Rajasthan Royals restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to 157/8 despite a fighting fifty by Rajat Patidar (58 off 42) in their 20 overs after winning the toss and opting to field first.

Apart from Prasidh and McCoy, Trent Boult (1/28), Ravichandran Ashwin (1/31) also chipped in with one wicket each for Rajasthan while the Faf du Plessis (25 off 25) and Glenn Maxwell (24 off 13) were the only main contributors with the bat for RCB besides Patidar.

Chasing a modest target, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Buttler gave Rajasthan Royals a blazing start. They showed their class and took the RCB bowlers to the cleaners, bringing the 50-run stand for the opening wicket in just 27 balls.

Du Plessis introduced left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed early but it was only to be tonked away by Buttler as shoulders began to drop on the field. Josh Hazlewood dismissed Jaiswal in the final over of the Powerplay, but it didn't have any effect on RR's run chase.

Du Plessis hoped for different results with Shahbaz in the middle-overs, but it wasn't to be as both Sanju Samson and Buttler collected fours and a six as the spinner conceded 35 in his 2 overs. At the halfway stage, RR were 103 for 1, cruising away towards their total.

The RCB skipper brought back Harshal Patel for the 11th over and on the first ball, he got Buttler to nick one behind but Dinesh Karthik dropped a sitter. Samson then piled on the misery with a big six and brought up his 50-run stand.

Hasaranga finally got rid of Samson but it came a touch too late for RCB. The asking rate was already down to just over six and Buttler brought it down further in the 16th over, hitting two sixes of Hasaranga to bring up his fourth century of IPL 2022 - the joint-most by a batter in a single season (with Kohli in 2016).

In the end, it was Buttler who finished off the clinical chase on the first ball of the 19th over by hitting Harshal Patel for a six with seven wickets in hand. During his innings, Buttler (824) also became the third batter after Virat Kohli (973) and David Warner (848) to score most runs in a single season.

Earlier, batting first, RCB had a poor start as Virat Kohli perished early for just 7 runs in the second over, bowled by Prasidh Krishna. Kohli's early departure led to RCB's last match hero -- Rajat Patidar's arrival in the middle. He joined captain Faf du Plessis and they batted sensibly and picked boundaries at regular intervals, taking RCB to 46/1 at the end of powerplay.

During the process, Patidar was dropped by Riyan Parag at backward point in Prasidh's over when the batter was on 13. Taking the advantage of the dropped catch, Patidar continued batting with freedom even after the powerplay and hit few excellent boundaries.

On the other hand, du Plessis who was tied down by RR's spin twins of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal but RCB were still going at a brisk rate. It was McCoy, who gave Rajasthan the next wicket after the pacer got rid of du Plessis, who looked to go big but ended up mistiming the shot and was caught by R Ashwin.

Glenn Maxwell, who came to bat next, showed his aggressive intent and targeted Ashwin and Chahal, hitting them for a six each. The Australian batter was threatening to give RCB's scoring rate a big push but Boult removed Maxwell courtesy a fine catch by McCoy in the fine leg region.

Despite losing wickets from the other end, Patidar continued his impressive run and reached his fifty in 40 deliveries. However, he couldn't carry much longer and departed soon after scoring a crucial 58 as Buttler took an excellent catch near the ropes.

Dinesh Karthik then joined Mahipal Lomror in the middle as Bangalore were eyeing a strong finish in the last four overs. But Lomror failed to deliver and got out to Obed McCoy after scoring just 8 overs.

Prasidh then dismissed Dinesh Karthik (6) and Wanindu Hasaranga (0) in the first two deliveries of the 19th over to derail RCB's innings. McCoy, who came to bowl the last over, conceded just three runs and restricted RCB to 157/8 in 20 overs.

Brief scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 157/8 in 20 Overs (Rajat Patidar 58, Faf du Plessis 25; Prasidh Krishna 3/22, Obed McCoy 3/23) lost to Rajasthan Royals 161/3 in 18.1 overs (Jos Buttler 106 not out, Yashasvi Jaiswal 21; Josh Hazlewood 2/23 by 7 wickets

IANS