Pune, April 22. Star batsmen A.B. de Villiers and Virat Kohli smashed quick-fire half-centuries followed by a disciplined bowling effort which guided Royal Challengers Bangalore to a comfortable 13-run victory over Rising Pune Supergiants in an Indian Premier League (IPL) contest here on Friday.
De Villiers (83 off 46 balls) and Virat Kohli (80 off 63 balls) helped Bangalore post a competitive total of 185/3 in 20 overs. In reply, despite opener Ajinkya Rahane's 60, the hosts lost wickets at regular intervals and could manage only 172/8 in 20 overs.
Kane Richardson (3-13) and Shane Watson (2-31) were the pick of the bowlers for Bangalore, while Harshal Patel and Tabraiz Shamsi claimed one wicket each.
Chasing a challenging target of 186, Pune got off to a disappointing start, losing opener Faf du Plessis (2) and Kevin Pietersen (0 retired hurt) inside two overs. The hosts received yet another blow as the side lost Steve Smith (4), after Virat Kohli ran him out to put Pune in a spot of bother at 18/2 in 2.3 overs.
But opener Rahane along with new batsman and skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni (41) used their experience to best effect to hold on to the wicket and sneaking in with runs to help team post 36/2 after completion of powerplay.
Rahane showed his class yet again with the bat to bring up his half-century in just 37 balls and help team stay in hunt for the run chase.
Dhoni-Rahane combined to post 73/2 in 10 overs.
As Rahane was looking set after striking eight boundaries, debutant left-arm chinaman bowler Shamsi fooled the right-handed batsmen to get him stumped and put Bangalore back into the game.
But as Dhoni was aiming to take on the bowlers, he was dismissed in the 16th over to have the team in trouble.
Thisara Perera hit Patel for 25 runs in the 18th over to put Pune back into the run chase. But the 19th over saw Watson dismissing Perera to have match turned on in favour of the visitors.
Earlier put into bat, Bangalore got off a slow start, losing opener K.L. Rahul (7) in the fourth over to put a breaks on the scoring.
But his opening partner Kohli and de Villiers kept the scoreboard ticking, sneaking in with ones, twos to take the score to 48/1 after completion of the powerplay.
