The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Tuesday pulled off a terrific victory against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) to register their second win in the IPL 2022. The duo of Shahbaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik were the stars of the night, putting up a stellar batting show on display to finish the stiff chase of 170.
Despite a good start, the RCB top-order laid down their arms against the likes of Yuzvendra Chahal and Trent Boult. With 83 required off 45 balls, Shahbaz and Karthik teamed up with a 67-run stand for the sixth wicket. While the former scored a fiery 45 off 26 deliveries, the veteran wicketkeeper-batter returned unbeaten on 44.
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Speaking of the match-winning camaraderie, Shahbaz credited Karthik for shifting the momentum to RCB’s way.
“This is my third season and it’s been a while since I’ve been playing at this position. So now is the time to deliver. The situation was a little tough tonight because the momentum was with RR at one point. But the way DK bhai shifted the momentum our way, made it easy for me. And that momentum helped us close the game,” Shahbaz told reporters at the post-match virtual presser.
Losing four wickets in a space of 11 balls, RCB were in all sorts of trouble before Karthik and Ahmed took the game away from the opposition with 5 balls to spare. After the match, Karthik said that he is not done yet, revealing that not doing well last year motivated him to come good.
“I think I made a conscious effort this year to do justice to myself because the last year, I felt I could have done better. The way I trained was much better this time around. Credit to the person who trained with me. I’m making a conscious effort to tell myself that I’m not done yet. When I went in, we needed 12 rpo and had to keep going. I train for these situations.”
“To stay calm and know whom you can takedown. I’ve tried to play as much white-ball cricket as possible, and prepare as many scenarios as possible. A lot of people have spent time with me in this journey, leading up to the tournament and it’s the work that goes unnoticed mostly. I think T20 cricket, it’s mostly premeditating but you also need to be clear about where to target,” he said.
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