Royal Challengers Bangalore recovered from a mid-innings jolt to finish with 158 for four, having been asked to bat first by Rajasthan Royals captain Ajinkya Rahane.
Virat Kohli returned to open the batting along with Parthiv Patel after slotting himself at No. 3 in the last two matches, while young leg-spinner Prayas Ray Barman, Shivam Dube and Marcus Stoinis made way for Akshdeep Nath, Navdeep Saini and Colin de Grandhomme respectively.
Kohli was the batsman who had most of strike early on, facing 20 balls in the first four overs. While he wasn't able to rotate strike like he is used to, he found the boundary thrice in that period and helped Bangalore get off to a solid start. Patel got in on the act in the fifth over, driving and cutting Jofra Archer for three fours and collecting 14 runs.
Royal Challengers finished with 48 runs in the powerplay and had two set batsmen in the middle to push for a bigger score.
Shreyas Gopal, who was introduced into the attack in the seventh over, gave Rajasthan the opening by removing Virat Kohli for 23 with a googly. AB de Villiers was his next victim, having him caught and bowled with a ball that seemed to stop on the South African batsman. He wasn't done yet and another googly did the trick for him, this time getting Shimron Hetmyer nick behind to Jos Buttler.
Patel then held the innings together and, with support from Stoinis, helped Bangalore recover from losing three for 25 in the space of four overs.
He set about regaining momentum with a pull for six off Ben Stokes and a trademark cut off the front foot to collect 12 runs off the 13th over.
Stoinis didn't need long to get going and he used his long levers to hit a six off a length ball from Archer. While Patel and Stoinis ensured RCB didn't lose wickets going into the final five overs, they didn't manage to score runs in a heap either.
Only two fours were hit from overs 15 to 17, with RCB reaching 125 for three.
Patel holed out to long-on off Archer in the 18th over, but Moeen Ali, the new batsman, ensured Bangalore finished with a flourish. He added 18 runs off nine balls with two fours and a six to help his team add 33 runs in the final three overs, with 17 coming off the final over alone, taking Bangalore to 158 for four.
Gopal was the pick of the Rajasthan bowlers, finishing with three for 12, his best figures this IPL season. Archer and Aaron hemorrhaged 63 runs in their five overs for the return of just one wicket.
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