IPL 2022: Karthik, Shahbaz shine as Royal Challengers humble Rajasthan Royals

Veteran Dinesh Karthik struck an unbeaten 44 off 23 deliveries and shared a crucial 67run partnership with Shahbaz Ahmed 45 as Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in Match 13 of the IPL 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium here on TuesdayRCB was in deep trouble 875 in the 13th over when Karthik and Ahmed came into bat The duo displayed some brilliant cricketing skills to guide their team homeKarthik and Ahmed raised 67 runs off 33 balls to put RCB on course to four points with their second win in three games They hammered 21 runs off Ravichandran Ashwin with Karthik blasting a six and two fours off his statemate He gave similar treatment to Navdeep Saini scoring 16 runs with three boundaries one whipped through midwicket one lapswept to backward square and the third one flipped over short fine legIn the very next over Shahbaz Ahmed squeezed a Prasidh Krishna through short third man and then pulled him over fine leg into the stands for a big six as RCB cruised to victorySkipper Faf du Plessis and Anuj Rawat gave RCB a good start as they raised 55 runs in quick time They struck 16 runs off the third over bowled by Trent Boult du Plessis despatching him for two fours through covers and another the gap between cover and extracover in the while Rawat edged him to third manDu Plessis struck Ravichandran Ashwin for a couple of boundaries before he was out caught by Boult off Yuzvendra Chahal moving to the legside to hit him over his head but mistiming itRawat too did not last long caught by Sanju Samson off Navdeep Saini for 26 offering a faint edge behind as he tried to run the length ball outside offVirat Kohli did not last long run out by Samson as he tried to rush down the wicket even as his partner tried to stop him And Chahar compounded their problems when he castled David Willey off the very next delivery which spun a little and sneaked through the gap between bat and pad RCB were reduced to 624 and it became 875 soon when Sherfane Rutherford 5 was caught by Saini off Boult in the 13th overEarlier Jos Buttler 70 produced another example of powerhitting as he struck a superb unbeaten halfcentury to lift Rajasthan Royals to a belowpar 1693 in 20 oversButtler who scored a century against Mumbai Indians in their previous match blasted four sixes in the last two overs of the innings as he remained unbeaten on 70 runs 42 balls 6x6 He stitched two vital partnerships an 83run unfinished stand with Shimron Hetmyer 42 not out 31 balls 4x4 6x2 for the fourth wicket and a 70run partnership 0ff 49 deliveries with Devdutt Padikkal 37 29 balls 4x2 6x2 which helped Rajasthan Royals set up RCB a target of 170 to chaseButtler found a good ally in Karnataka batter Padikkal as they raised 70 runs for the second wicket to revive the innings Buttler who batted a bit slower than he did while hitting a century during his century against Mumbai Indians got going in the last five overs as Rajasthan Royals added 66 runs in the last five oversThe English batter completed his fifty off 42 deliveries but slammed four of his six hits over the fence in the last two overs sixes off the final two deliveries of Mohammed Sirajs fourth and final over which was the 19th over the Royals innings and then two more sixes off successive balls off the 20th over bowled by Akash Deep He enjoyed a life when David Willey dropped him off Akash Deep when at 11 RCB ended up paying a heavy price for that lapseHetmyer played a good foil to Buttler as they went on repairing the Royals innings once again raising some quick runs in the last five overs as Rajasthan reached a modest totalBrief scores Rajasthan Royals 1693 in 20 overs Jos Buttler 70 Devdutt Padikkal 37 Shimron Hetmyer 42 Harshal Patel 118 David Willey 129 lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore 1736 in 191 overs Dinesh Karthik 44 Shahbaz Ahmed b Boult 45 Faf du Plessis 29 Yuzvendra Chahal 215 Trent Boult 234 by four wicketsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for the dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the contents in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever