Faf Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell scored fine half centuries as Royal Challengers Bangalore beat the Rajasthan Royals by 7 runs at the M.Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Sunday.
After being sent into bat, RCB lost Virat Kohli for a golden duck as he was trapped leg before wicket by Trent Boult.
The left-arm pacer also dismissed Shahbaz Ahmed (2), who pulled a short delivery to Yashasvi Jaiswal at midwicket.
The pair of Du Plessis and Maxwell brought the innings back on track with a third wicket stand of 127 runs before the former was run out by a direct hit from Jaiswal at extra cover.
Maxwell was then caught at backward point by Jason Holder while attempting a switch hit off Ravi Ashwin for a blistering knock of 77. His knock came off 44 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes.
RCB lost a bit of momentum in the final stages, but still managed to reach 189/9 in their 20 overs.
Chasing 190, Mohammed Siraj drew first blood by cleaning up Jos Buttler for a duck.
Devdutt Padikkal along with Yashasvi Jaiswal added 98 for the second wicket before the former was dismissed by David Willey for a well made 52.
Jaiswal fell soon after, miscuing a full toss from Harshal Patel to Virat Kohli for 47. Shimron Hetmyer (3) was then run out by a superb direct hit from Suyash Prabhudessai.
Dhruv Jurel along with Ravi Ashwin kept the Royals hopes alive with a 25 run stand for the sixth wicket.
With 20 needed off the final over Ashwin slammed Harshal Patel for two boundaries to bring the equation to 10 off the final three balls. The off spinner eventually holed out to a slower delivery from Harshal to Prabhudessai, as the Royals eventually fell 7 run short of the target.
Royal Challengers Bangalore 189 for 9 (Maxwell 77, du Plessis 62, Boult 2-41, Sandeep 2-49) beat Rajasthan Royals 182 for 6 (Padikkal 52, Jaiswal 47, Jurel 34*, Harshal 3-32) by seven runs