Maxwell fires again as T20 World Cup approaches

Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell made an unbeaten 50 off 30 balls as the Royal Challengers Bangalore scored a comprehensive seven-wicket win over the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.

Maxwell smashed three fours and a six in one over from South African multi-million dollar signing Chris Morris, who went for 50 from his four overs.

It was the right-hander's second fifty in as many games and is a good sign for the Australian ahead of the start of their T20 World Cup campaign in around three weeks.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Srikar Bharat also scored 44 as Bangalore eased past Rajasthan's 9-149 with 17 balls to spare.

Rajasthan had been cruising along at 1-91 at the halfway mark of their innings, but were then pinned down as spinners Shahbaz Nadeem and Yuzvendra Chahal grabbed four wickets between them.

Harshal Patel, the tournament's leading wicket-taker, stretched his wickets tally to 26 by claiming 3-34. The right-arm fast bowler even came close to his second successive hat-trick before claiming all his wickets off his last six deliveries.

"We have come back strongly in two back-to-back games with the ball, which is a great sign," RCB skipper Virat Kohli said. "In both games the opponents were 56-0 in the Powerplay, but in both games we took wickets to ensure the opposition does not get away."

Bangalore is now third with 14 points and needs just one more win from its remaining three league games to go reach the play-offs. Rajasthan is seventh with eight points from 11 games.

Rajasthan seemed to set up a challenging total after West Indian opener Evin Lewis (58) smashed three sixes and five fours in his 37-ball half century.

But Englishman George Garton, playing in his debut IPL game, removed Lewis in the 12th over when the batsman top-edged a pull shot to wicketkeeper Bharat.

Australian Daniel Christian (1-21 from two overs) had already dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal for 31.

Nadeem and Chahal then ran through the middle order and lower order before Patel provided a perfect finish by claiming three wickets in the last over of the innings.