The high-profile Australian trio of Shane Watson, Steve Smith and James Faulkner have failed to fire Rajasthan Royals to a win against Mitchell Starc's Royal Challengers Bangalore, who now go through to the IPL tournament qualifier.
Rajasthan went down to Bangalore by 71 runs in the Indian Premier League match at Pune on Wednesday night.
They were all out for 109 in 19 overs after Bangalore gave them 180 to chase in the knock-out match to play Chennai Super Kings.
Bangalore chose to bat with South Africa's AB de Villiers top scoring for the match with 66 in a 113-run partnership with Mandeep Singh, who scored 54.
Watson and Faulkner bowled for four overs each but took no wickets for a cost of 32 and 42 runs respectively.
When they batted, Watson managed 10 runs, Faulkner four and Smith 12, as all three failed to ignite a meaningful runchase.
Starc took 1-22 runs in four overs.
"I think a fair bit went wrong for us tonight," Rajasthan skipper Smith said.
"We started well with the ball, but they got away from us. I thought AB and Mandeep batted beautifully. I thought 160 was a par score on that wicket.
"I don't think we had the momentum going into the back end of the tournament."
Bangalore will now play Chennai in a qualifier to reach the final against the Ricky Ponting-coached Mumbai Indians who are already through after a resounding nine-wicket win over David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad on the weekend.
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