On KL Rahul's Redemption Arc, RCB Coach Hits Bullseye: "More Freedom..."

Following his side's loss to Delhi Capitals (DC), Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) mentor Dinesh Karthik hailed KL Rahul's knock, calling him a "high-quality middle-order batter". KL stamped his authority against his former team at his domestic home ground as his knock of 93* in 53 during a tough-looking chase of 164 runs condemned RCB to their second-successive loss at home on Thursday.

Speaking about the inning in the post-match presser, Karthik said, "Any game you lose, is disappointing. The fact that it is a home game does not make it worse. We tried our best, did not happen. Kudos to KL Rahul, for the way he batted. He got a life today, a half chance. If that had been taken, the game could have gone anywhere. He has been showcasing this skill set while playing in the middle-order for a while now. Well done to him."

"It is challenging to bat at different positions in T20s and he has done really nicely in the recent past. He is a high quality middle order batter. He has tweaked a bit. I have heard he worked with Abhishek Nayar before the IPL and is getting into nice positions to play some nice shots. He always had this skill, nobody doubted it. When he has given himself more freedom, when he has played, it has been nice to watch," he added.

Karthik also said that the wicket was a "sticky" and was a challenging one for batters.

"It was a bit sticky. If you did see after the first four overs, till the 13th over, we were very much in the game. We did had a wobble, but we reached a decent score and they were struggling. One wicket of Rahul or Stubbs, two high-quality international batters, we would have been back. This is a challenging pitch and has not been helping batters much. In the first match, there was dew and it