Dinesh Karthik has been playing the role of a finisher to perfection in the RCB line-up. On Tuesday, he remained unbeaten on 44 off 23 balls to pull off a sensational four-wicket victory against Rajasthan Royals.
RCB were in trouble at 88 for 5 after 13 overs, needing 82 from 42 balls. But Karthik took 19 off Ravichandran Ashwin’s fourth over, which cost 21 in all, and suddenly the momentum turned in favour of Faf du Plessis’s team.
Shahbaz Ahmed also played his part, scoring 45 off 26 balls, including four boundaries and three sixes. Captain Du Plessis was all praise for the team effort.
“To pull it out of nowhere, you need some great characters and DK is as great a character as you can get. His composure under pressure is amazing. He is really calm and such a great asset to us,” Du Plessis said.
“We bowled really well, up to the 18th over and then Jos (Buttler) got some good shots. Got a score which we thought was a bit above-par with the conditions and the surface spinning a bit.
“For me, the great thing about today (Tuesday) once again was our ability to come back to win games out of nowhere,” the South African added.
On Shahbaz, he added: “People think that since Shahbaz is a small skinny guy... but he can smash it a long way. We didn’t bowl him today because of the wet ball and left-handers being around but he’ll definitely play a long part in this season.”
Man of the Match Karthik felt he is reaping the rewards of his solid preparation in the lead-up to the IPL.
“I think I made a conscious effort this year to do justice to myself because last year (when he was in KKR), 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.”
