Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) registered their second victory of the ongoing IPL season as they defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) by four wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday (April 5).
Asked to bat first, RR rode on opener Jos Buttler’s 70 not out off 47 balls to post 169/3 on the board. Shimron Hetmyer (42*) and Devdutt Padikkal (37) also made notable contributions with the bat.
Harshal Patel was the stand-out bowler for RCB, returning with the figures of 1 for 18 in his four overs.
In reply, RCB got off to a brilliant start as the duo of skipper Faf du Plessis and Anju Rawat put on 55 runs for the opening wicket. Yuzvendra Chahal drew the first blood for RR as he dismissed Du Plessis on 29.
Rawat soon followed his captain back to the pavilion for 26 while the veteran Virat Kohli (5) got run out and David Willey (0) was undone by Chahal with a ripper. All of a sudden, RCB were tottering at 62/4 and it soon became 87/5 with Sherfane Rutherford’s dismissal on 5.
Amid the pressure situation, Shahbaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik stepped up to the plate, stitching 67 runs in double quick time to put RCB on the brink of victory. While Shahbaz fell for 26-ball 45, Karthik (44* off 23 balls) held the one end firmly and took his team over the line alongside Harshal Patel (9*) with five balls to spare.
For showing nerves of steel during the run chase, Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed garnered rich praise from the cricket fraternity on Twitter.
Here are the reactions:
