RCB pulled off a miraculous victory in their third game of the 2022 Indian Premier League, as they handed table-toppers RR their maiden defeat in the league this season. Dinesh Karthik was brilliant yet again and proved his worth with an unbeaten 23-ball 44 in a situation where the match seemed to be out of RCB’s reach. His innings turned out to be the difference between the two sides in the end, as the Bengaluru franchise wrapped up a four-wicket victory with five balls to spare.
Rajasthan initially rode on Jos Buttler’s brilliance, with the Englishman amongst the runs yet again, scoring an unbeaten 70, along with crucial contributions from Devdutt Padikkal and Shimron Hetmyer to post a competitive total of 169.
RCB skipper Faf du Plessis won the toss and went with the popular choice of bowling first. The decision reaped the rewards early on as some loose shots from Yashasvi Jaiswal led to David Willey making a mockery of the youngster’s stumps. Devdutt Padikkal did extremely well against his former franchise, announcing himself with a six off Mohammed Siraj early on.
Buttler and Padikkal added runs at a good rate throughout the initial phase of the game before the latter departed for a 29-ball 37, falling prey to the notoriously clever Harshal Patel, who provided RCB with a much-needed breakthrough. RR skipper Sanju Samson was the next to walk in, but he could last for too long, as Wanindu Hasaranga bowled a beautiful delivery to the Kerala man to set up a simple caught-and-bowled chance.
Shimron Hetmyer then joined Buttler in the middle. The two struggled to get the runs flowing in the initial phase of their partnership but started playing the big shots as the end of the innings approached. The dew was playing a major role towards the end of the Rajasthan innings, and the batsmen took full advantage of this fact, taking the last two overs from Siraj and Akash Deep for a whopping 42 runs to reach a total of 169.
RCB must have been expecting themselves to make short work of the 170-run target, and their start certainly seemed to suggest exactly that. Du Plessis and the southpaw Anuj Rawat started off in a terrific fashion, scoring boundaries at will as the scoreboard was ticking along at an excellent pace. The two added 50 for the first wicket before skipper du Plessis fell in the seventh over, followed by the wicket of Rawat as well, both affected by former RCB players Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini.
David Wiley, who came in at No.4, then made a potentially costly error, as his hesitation led to Virat Kohli being stranded in no man’s land, following which he himself was knocked over by the former RCB veteran for a duck no less. All hopes that RCB had in the game were dealt a huge blow, as Sherfane Rutherford was taken care of by Kiwi speedster Trent Boult, at which point an RCB win seemed impossible.
However, Shahbaz Ahmed and Karthik had other plans. With 82 needed off 48 balls, Dinesh took the attack to his Tamil Nadu teammate R Ashwin, smashing him for 21 runs in his final over. Karthik further annihilated Saini to bring the equation down further, as Shahbaz also got a crucial boundary.
Ahmed struck a further two fours and two sixes in the next few overs to bring the challenge down to a possible stage, when he was dismissed by Trent Boult. Karthik further continued to exhibit the wealth of experience he has, as he took care of the tricky situation with masterly ease, as RCB wound up an eventually comfortable victory by five wickets.
Brief scores
Royal Challengers Bangalore 173/ 6 in 19.1 overs (Ahmed 45, Karthik 44*; Chahal 2/15) beat Rajasthan Royals 169/3 in 20 overs (Buttler 70*, Hetmyer 42*; Patel 1/18) by four wickets.
