IPL 10: Bowlers fashion Pune's victory over Bangalore

Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bangalore’s miserable run in Season 10 of the Indian Premier League continued as they fell to a crushing 27-run loss to Rising Pune Supergiant at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, here on Sunday.

Pune, who were restricted to 161/8, were driven home by pacers Shardul Thakur (3/35), Jaydev Unadkat (2/25) and Ben Stokes (3/18) who bowled admirably to keep the dangerous RCB batting line-up under check. The hosts could only manage 134/9.

RCB failed to get going as they lost opener Mandeep Singh for a duck. Skipper Virat Kohli who opened his innings in a flamboyant fashion with a six, survived when he was dropped on 11 by Manoj Tiwary.

But Kohli failed to make use of his lifeline as Stokes got the captain, as a clumsy shot found him caught by Rahane this time to send him back. M.S. Dhoni made no mistake behind the wickets as he uprooted A.B. de Villiers’ (29, 30, 1x4, 2x6) stump before the Pretoria man could do much damage. The RCB line-up, which had terrified bowlers at one time, seemed to have lost their magic, as the boundaries failed to come and the wickets toppled at regular intervals to hand the visitors an easy victory. Earlier, the Pune outfit got off to an ideal start with Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Tripathi building up a solid opening partnership.

The visitors looked set, with Rahane, playing his 100th IPL match, setting the tone along with Tripathi, for an opening partnership of 63 off 46.

But just as the boundaries started to roll, Samuel Badree came to RCB’s rescue, picking up Rahane.