Karthik, Shahbaz power RCB to four-wicket win against RR

Brilliant display of batting by Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed helped Royal Challengers Bangalore in defeating Rajasthan Royals by four wickets at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday.

Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed

Shahbaz Ahmed’s quick knock of 45 runs and Karthik’s fiery 44 runs provided RCB with their second win of IPL 2022, with five balls to spare. Chasing 170, RCB had a decent start with openers Faf du Plessis and Anuj Rawat stitching a 50-run partnership in 6 overs. They finally faced a blow when Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed du Plessis in the 7th over with the team’s total at 55/1.

Rawat followed the footsteps of du Plessis and departed in the very next over after getting caught by Sanju Samson on Navdeep Saini’s delivery with only 61 runs on the board.

RCB had their worst time during the 9th over as they lost back to back wickets of Virat Kohli, who got run out, and David Willey, who was bowled out by Chahal and left the team’s total at 62/4.

Sherfane Rutherford and Shahbaz Ahmed came to the crease and tried to anchor the innings for some time. Rutherford then got caught by Navdeep Saini in the 13th over, with 87 runs and wickets on the board.

Shahbaz was then joined by Dinesh Karthik and the duo brought RCB back onto the track. They thrashed the RR bowlers and made a quick 50-run partnership.

With just 28 runs left to win from 18 balls, Shahbaz scored 13 runs before getting bowled out by Trent Boult, after playing changing knock of 45 runs off 26 deliveries. Karthik, who was then joined by Harshal Patel, made sure to complete the pending task of bringing RCB home.

Karthik smashed 12 runs in the 19th over and left only 3 runs to be scored in the final over. Harshal Patel, who was standing on the other end, also contributed with a six on the very first delivery of the 20th over and clinched the victory by four wickets.

Earlier in the first innings, Jos Buttler scored his quick knock of 70 runs in just 40 balls, whereas Shimron Hetmyer scored 42 off 31 balls, and brought RR to a total of 169/3. For RCB, David Willey, Wanindu Hasaranga, and Harshal Patel scalped one wicket each.

Brief score: Rajasthan Royals 169/3 (Jos Buttler 70*, Shimron Hetmyer 42*; Harshal Patel 1/18) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore 173/6 (Shahbaz Ahmed 45, Dinesh Karthik 44*; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/15).

Kartik and Shahbaz notched up 67 runs together and helped Bangalore come to the driver’s seat and they never looked back. Though Shahbaz Ahmed perished, Dinesh Karthik made sure he gets his side over the line.