A sensational display of hitting from Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed helped RCB recover from a mini batting collapse and record a four-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League here on Tuesday.
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Jos Buttler hammered half a dozen sixes in his unbeaten 70 off 47 balls as Rajasthan Royals grafted their way to 169 for three after RCB opted to bowl. Losing four wickets in a space off 11 balls, RCB were in all sorts of trouble at 62 for four before Karthik (44 not out off 23 balls) and Ahmed (45 off 26) took the game away from the opposition with a 67-run partnership off just 33 balls. Karthik eventually got the team home in 19.1 overs.
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 take down. I’ve tried to play as much white-ball cricket as possible, and prepare as many scenarios as possible. Lot of people have spent time with me in this journey, leading upto 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.
It was RCB’s second win in three games while it was the first loss of the season for the Royals after consecutive victories. At 55 for no loss in the seventh over, RCB were on course in the run chase before the game turned on its head with the Royals taking a flurry of wickets. The wily Yuzvendra Chahal (2/15), playing against a team he played for seven seasons, was largely responsible for the RCB collapse. He forced an error from Faf du Plessis (29), who mistimed a leg break to be caught at long-on, before cleaning up left-hander David Willey (0) with a classical leg-break.
Chahal also effected the run out of Virat Kohli (5) after a brilliant take and throw from Royals skipper Sanju Samson. Trent Boult then getting rid of Sherfane Rutherford made it 87 for five, leaving RCB in a lot of trouble.
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