BENGALURU, India: Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood starred with 4-33 in Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 11 run IPL win at home against Rajasthan Royals, who won the toss and chose to field first Thursday.
Chasing 206 to win after Bengaluru’s 205-5, Rajasthan looked comfortable before Dhruv Jurel was dismissed by Hazlewood in the 19th over of the chase.
Jurel scored a 34-ball 47 and was removed with 17 needed off 9 balls for the win.
Hazlewood removed England’s Jofra Archer on the next ball, leaving Royals reeling with 17 needed off the final over.
Earlier, Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli hit a 42-ball 70 to steer Bengaluru to a par score on a batting friendly Bengaluru wicket.
Openers Kohli and Phil Salt raced to 59-0 in the powerplay before Salt was removed on 26 in the seventh over with the team on 61-1.
Kohli then built an important 95 run partnership with Devdutt Padikkal before finally falling in the 16th over to Archer.
Padikkal, who was batting very well, fell soon after a 27-ball 50, with Bengaluru on 161-3.
Quick wickets toward the end took away the momentum before key cameos by Tim David (23) and Jitesh Sharma, who remained unbeaten on 20.
Archer was Rajasthan’s standout bowler and finished with 33-1. Sandeep Sharma took 2-45 and Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga finished with 1-30.
Rajasthan’s young top-order batters started really well and stayed ahead of the required run rate for the first half of the chase.
Indian Test opener Yashasvi Jaiswal hit 19-ball 49 before he was removed by Hazlewood.
His opening partner, Vaibhav Suryavanshi fell early on 16 to India veteran Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who finished with 1-50 in his four-over spell.
Spinner Krunal Pandya bowled an important spell and removed both Nitish Rana (28) and Rajasthan skipper Riyan Parag (22) who looked dangerous after the fall of initial wickets.
Rajasthan were cruising before Rana’s wicket in the 14th over but its batters failed to convert starts into a score to help their team cross the finish line.
“I think we did really well with the ball... We held them back really well,” Parag said after the game.
“With the batting, I thought at the halfway mark we were in the driving seat,” he added.
But “we have ourselves to blame... (The team was) in the driving seat and we let it slip.”
Player-of-the-match Hazlewood said that he “was just sticking to my strengths.”
“I knew hard lengths were hard to hit so I was mixing that up with yorkers, change of pace,” he added.
Australia’s Hazlewood steers Bengaluru to win over Rajasthan
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Australia’s Hazlewood steers Bengaluru to win over Rajasthan
- Chasing 206 to win after Bengaluru’s 205-5, Rajasthan looked comfortable before Dhruv Jurel was dismissed by Hazlewood
- Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli hit a 42-ball 70 to steer Bengaluru to a par score on a batting friendly Bengaluru wicket
Inter thump Como to top Serie A ahead of Liverpool visit
- Strike partnership Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram scored in each half
- “Today we showed how good we are against a really good side in Como,” said Martinez
MILAN: Inter Milan moved top of Serie A on Saturday after hammering high-flying Como 4-0 at the San Siro, ahead of the visit of struggling Liverpool in the Champions League.
Strike partnership Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram scored in each half before Hakan Calhanoglu and Carlos Augusto netted late as Inter eased to a victory which pushed them two points ahead of AC Milan and Napoli who are both yet to play.
Champions Napoli host fierce rivals Juventus on Sunday night while Milan will be favorites to leapfrog back over their local rivals at Torino on Monday.
“Today we showed how good we are against a really good side in Como,” said Martinez.
“We showed just how hungry we are to get as many points as we can... it’s a really good win for us.”
Saturday’s win was the perfect warm-up for Tuesday’s clash with Liverpool, which could be key to whether Cristian Chivu’s team secure direct qualification for the last 16 of the Champions League.
A good sign for Chivu was the strong display by Luis Henrique at right wing-back, which has been a trouble position for Inter since Denzel Dumfries’ picked up an ankle injury last month.
It was Henrique who was key to Martinez’s opener in the 11th minute, the Brazilian surging into the area from his own half, cutting back inside and perfectly feeding his captain who netted a league-leading seventh goal of the Serie A campaign.
And in the 59th minute Thuram added to his brace in Inter’s midweek cup thumping of Venezia with his first league goal since returning from a hamstring injury suffered in September.
France forward Thuram poked home from close range after Federico Dimarco’s corner caused chaos for Como, who had started the second half the better team and should have levelled from one of two great chances for Tasos Douvikas and Alex Valle.
Cesc Fabregas’ Como drop down a place to sixth, six points behind Inter after falling to their first defeat since August, which was made emphatic by Calhanoglu firing home his seventh goal of the season in the 81st minute and Carlos Augusto’s fine volley shortly afterwards.
“It’s hard to analyze when you’ve been beaten 4-0. It’s a heavy defeat... but honestly I didn’t see a huge difference between the two teams tonight,” insisted Fabregas.
“A result like today’s helps you develop... A heavy defeat is when you grow the most and when you learn the most.”
- Fiorentina’s crisis continues -
Fiorentina plunged deeper into crisis with a 3-1 defeat at promoted Sassuolo which left them bottom of the division without a single win this season.
Once the home of players like Gabriel Batistuta and Rui Costa and sixth-placed finishers last season, Fiorentina have collected just six points from 14 matches.
And even with the backing of some 4,000 traveling fans the “Viola” were dreadful in Reggio Emilia, collapsing to an eighth league loss of the league campaign after going ahead through Rolando Mandragora’s ninth-minute penalty.
Cristian Volpato levelled for Sassuolo with a deflected strike five minutes later. Tarik Muharemovic gave the hosts a deserved lead on the stroke of half-time when he was given the freedom of the Fiorentina penalty area to head home his first Serie A goal.
From that point Fiorentina showed nothing to suggest a comeback and Ismael Kone sealed the points for Sassuolo in the 65th minute, shortly after Volpato had a screamer ruled out for a soft looking foul on Fabiano Parisi.
That decision incensed eight-placed Sassuolo’s coach Fabio Grosso who was subsequently sent off for dissent.
Grosso’s counterpart Paolo Vanoli, who took charge of Fiorentina a month ago, screamed on the sidelines to no avail as his team stayed six points from safety with just over a third of the season done.
Raffaele Palladino looks to continue his good start as Atalanta coach, a job he took last month after quitting Fiorentina in the summer, at Verona in the day’s late fixture.
