Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis compared Dinesh Karthik with MS Dhoni after the former took the team to a three-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders at the Dr. DY Patil Sports Academy, Mumbai on Wednesday.
Seven runs were needed off the final over for RCB to chase 129 runs and Karthik was able to hit a six on the first ball of the 20th over.
DK then finished the match with a boundary to get his team to their maiden win of the season. In fact, Dinesh Karthik was held back by the RCB think tank as David Willey and Shahbaz Ahmed were sent before him in the run chase.
Meanwhile, Harshal Patel made Karthik’s job easier as he scored two boundaries in the penultimate over, which was bowled by Venkatesh Iyer. It was expected to be an easy run-chase for RCB but they had their work cut ou as KKR kept picking wickets at regular intervals to keep their foot in the door.
On the other hand, Dinesh Karthik had also scored a fine cameo of 32 runs off just 14 balls against Punjab Kings in the team’s match of the season. But his efforts had gone in vain as RCB had lost that match by five wickets.
Karthik has all the experience under his belt and he has been a consistent performer in the IPL over the years. The right-hander from Tamil Nadu, has upped his game in the death overs and has been providing the finishing touches in the last couple of seasons of the IPL.
Faf du Plessis added they would have liked to be more convincing in the run-chase but he was delighted to get over the line.
Faf du Plessis said in the post-match presentation, “Very happy. Close small margins games is very important at the start. Small score, we just tried to be positive but very good bowling from their seamers. The ball swung a little earlier but today there was seam and bounce. Two-three days ago, it was 200 and today it was 130. We would like to be more convincing. Just the experience. The runs were never a problem. We just needed to have wickets in hand. DK is as close as it gets to MS Dhoni when it comes to being ice cool. I rely on other people for help. We have great people in the camp. There is good communication in the group. The guys have been great. They have been supportive. They are coming to me with ideas.”
RCB will next lock horns against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Tuesday.
