The in-form Dinesh Karthik played yet another sublime knock and scored a half-century, saving Royal Challengers Bangalore the blushes against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. Karthik was unbeaten on 66 off 34 deliveries, having hit five fours and as many sixes, to drive the RCB total to a healthy 189/5. For RCB, Glenn Maxwell also scored a half-century.
RCB had been bolstered by the return of Harshal Patel, who had been away briefly due to the passing away of a relative recently.
Batting first, the Royal Challengers Bangalore had a bad start, losing early wickets. Left-handed Anuj Rawat was the first to depart for a golden duck as Shardul Thakur struck. Soon after, Faf du Plessis followed suit with Khaleel Ahmed accounting for the RCB captain for 8 runs.
If that wasn’t enough, RCB lost Virat Kohli, two deliveries after the powerplay ended, when he was run out for 12 of 14 balls. Among the top 3 in RCB’s batting, they’d managed only three boundaries, as Delhi Capitals put the squeeze on them.
Glenn Maxwell took charge after that with Suyash Prabhudesai for company at the other end. The Australian’s attacking batting saw RCB add crucial runs under pressure as the middle phase of the innings approached.
The duo put on 35 runs in quick time with Maxwell playing the more aggressive role, steadying the ship a little for RCB. But just at the midway stage, RCB lost Prabhudesai for 6 with Axar Patel striking, and soon after Maxwell, who scored 55 off 34 balls, was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav.
The left-arm spinner has been in fantastic form in the IPL this season and even though he was a little expensive initially, he had bagged a big wicket.
After the mayhem of the first phase of the innings, it was Shahbaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik who had to restart things for RCB. Karthik, understandably, played the more aggressive role as Ahmed was more than happy to feed him the strike.
DK started to go through the gears in the 17th over, smashing Khaleel for a six over cow-corner in a 12-run over. The next over was bowled by Mustafizur Rahman and DK launched into the Bangladesh pacer, smashing him all over the park for 28 runs in an over which saw four boundaries and two sixes, add much needed impetus to RCB’s innings. The last delivery which went for a boundary, also saw DK bring up his fifty of 26 deliveries.
DC and Shardul almost had DK dismissed in the 19th over but an inside edge and a DRS call on the lbw saved the wicket-keeper batter, who went on to make it a 12-run over. Kuldeep took on the final over and started with a dot before DK and Shahbaz made it a good over for RCB with a few big hits to make it a 17-run over. Shahbaz finished unbeaten on 32 while DK’s 66 not out drove them to 189/5. Shahbaz and DK put on a 97-run stand.
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