IPL 2022, DC vs RCB: Dinesh Karthik sets up big win for Royal Challengers Bangalore over Delhi Capitals

Dinesh Karthik is not finished yet. He has re-emerged as one of the premier finishers in this season of IPL. About to turn 37 in a couple of months, he is light on his feet as ever while moving in the crease, disturbing the line and lengths of bowlers and making a mockery of the death overs. Saturday night was another freak show which has become usual with Karthik around. Delhi Capitals were his latest prey as he went about pulling Royal Challengers Bangalore out of a hole at 92/5 in the 12th over and then clobbering the young bowling attack to all parts of the ground to score an unbeaten 66 off 34 balls. He put on an unbeaten sixth-wicket 97-run stand with Shahbaz Ahmed as RCB set Capitals a daunting 190-run target.

Karthik’s innings provided enough cushion for RCB to absorb the David Warner and Rishabh Pant’s power hitting who fell for 38-ball 66 and 17-ball 34 respectively. Mitchell Marsh, playing his first game of the season, getting stuck at No. 3 for a 24-ball 14 after an opening stand of 50 off 28 balls contributed to Capitals falling short by 16 runs. Josh Hazlewood was the standout bowler of the night returning figures of 3/28.

Chants of ‘DK…DK’ reverberated around the Wankhede stadium, reminiscent of ‘AB…AB’ while AB de Villiers used to bat in India, and Karthik wasn’t going to disappoint the crowd. In a spell of awe-inspiring improvised batting, which was closest one could get to matching the genius of De Villiers, Karthik helped RCB plunder 74 in the last five overs as Shahbaz enjoyed the onslaught from the other remaining unbeaten on 34 off 21 balls. He displayed a whole array of shots in his innings, reminding the selectors he is still in shape to make it to the T20 World Cup in Australia later this year.