Bengaluru, Apr 2: Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma and Tim David played handy knocks to lead the revival of Royal Challengers Bengaluru, as the hosts posted 169/8 in their 20 overs against Gujarat Titans in match 14 of IPL 2025 at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.

With grass covering around the good length area on a pitch which wasn’t used for last season, it meant the ball seamed nicely for the GT fast bowlers, who exploited it to great effect by hitting the good and back of the length regions and reduce RCB to 42/4.

Jitesh began RCB’s comeback charge by hitting a quick 33 before Livingstone brought out his muscular hits to smash 54 off 40 balls and David unfurled his big-hitting shots to make an 18-ball 32. For GT, Mohammed Siraj was impressive on his return to the Chinnaswamy by picking 3-19 while R Sai Kishore continued his good show by bagging 2-22.

The start was eventful for GT as Virat Kohli brought out a majestic cover drive off Mohammed Siraj for four and was followed by Phil Salt being dropped by Jos Buttler in the opening over. But Arshad Khan brought the smiles back on the GT camp by cramping Kohli on the pull and having him caught at deep square leg.

Bengaluru boy Devdutt Padikkal creamed a cover drive on first ball off Siraj for a four. But the pacer had the last laugh as he got one to nip in and sneak past Padikkal to hit top of off-stump. After Salt survived a run-out chance, he muscled Siraj for a humungous 105m six over mid-wicket roof.

But Siraj again bounced back with a scrambled seam delivery which Salt missed in his bid to charge down the pitch and was left seeing his off-stump being rattled. Rajat Patidar tried resurrecting RCB’s innings with a run-a-ball 12, before he was trapped lbw by a cross-seam delivery from Ishant Sharma.

Jitesh, though, stood up to play a counter-attacking knock for RCB by hitting three fours and a six off Ishant, before taking a boundary each off Sai Kishore and Rashid Khan. Livingstone, on the other hand, hit a four and six while being dropped by Rahul Tewatia at long-on. Tewatia made amends for that dropped chance by holding Jitesh’s catch in the deep off Sai Kishore’s bowling.

After Kishore took a catch off his carrom ball to dismiss Krunal Pandya, Livingstone and Tim David found their groove by hitting Rashid Khan for a six and four respectively. After David muscled Kishore for six, Livingstone smacked Rashid for three sixes, last of which got him his fifty in 39 balls, as the leg-spinner conceded more than 50 runs for the fourth time in IPL.

However, shortly after reaching his fifty, Livingstone attempted to slash a short and wide ball off Siraj, but nicked behind to Buttler. Despite his fall, RCB managed to cross the 160-mark, as David struck Krishna for two four and six in the final over, before the batter’s off-stump was uprooted by a searing yorker from the pacer.

Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bengaluru 169/8 in 20 overs (Liam Livingstone 54, Jitesh Sharma 33; Mohammed Siraj 3-19, R Sai Kishore 2-22) against Gujarat Titans.

(IANS)

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