The quicks first set it up making fine use of the two-paced Chinnaswamy pitch. Then, captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli’s blazing 92-run opening stand in just over five overs helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a four-wicket victory over the Gujarat Titans on Saturday.

That, after a mid-innings collapse when RCB lost six wickets for just 25, which reflects how significant Du Plessis’ 23-ball 64 was.

In what was a crucial game for both sides, the Titans were bowled out for a modest 147 after being put into bat. RCB then reached home with as many as 38 balls remaining, primarily due to the Du Plessis-Kohli opening partnership during which the latter too had maintained a strike rate in excess of 200.

Having registered their third win on the trot moved RCB up to seventh in the standings, while the Titans are now just above the bottom-placed Mumbai Indians and need to win their remaining three matches to stay alive in the competition.

For RCB though, slipping to 117/6 in the 11th over from 92/0 — mainly because of some mindless shots from the likes of Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green off Irish left-arm quick Josh Little — shows why they were languishing at the bottom of the table. The pitch too seemed far better for strokeplay and the Titans’ ace spinner Rashid Khan hadn’t even bowled an over. Yet, RCB had almost self-destructed themselves till Dinesh Karthik and Swapnil Singh guided them home.

Although his Afghanistan teammate Noor Ahmad bowled beautifully, including foxing Kohli (42 off 27 balls) with a floated delivery, Rashid didn’t look too comfortable as Karthik hit him for three boundaries in his opening over. Before coming on to bowl in the 12th over of RCB’s run chase, a member of the Titans support staff was seen attending to Rashid’s right shoulder.

Earlier, Mohammed Siraj (2/29), who had an inauspicious start to this IPL, seemed to be regaining his rhythm at the right time as he jolted the Titans first with the scalps of openers Wriddhiman Saha and captain Shubman Gill. Siraj’s strikes in his first couple of overs were pivotal to reducing the Titans to 23/3 in the Powerplay.

At the same time, even the likes of Yash Dayal (2/21) and Vijaykumar Vyshak (2/23) were able to hit the right areas and lengths which was also key in limiting the Titans.

Having said that, poor application was definitely responsible for the disappointing show from the 2022 champions, especially that of Saha and Gill.