Faf du Plessis admires Dinesh Karthik: The captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore was wax lyrical about their veteran wicket-keeper batter.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis has quashed impressions around all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed’s physique. A skinny 27-year old player from Bengal, Ahmed has now bailed out Royal Challengers on a couple of occasions in a row.
Third-highest run-scorer for RCB till now, Ahmed has scored 72 runs in two innings at a strike rate of 156.52 including a game-changing 45 (26) with the help of four fours and three sixes against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede Stadium tonight.
Coming in to bat at No. 6 ahead of veteran wicket-keeper batter Dinesh Karthik, Ahmed found himself in the middle with his team needing 108 runs in 67 balls. The equation further reduced to Bangalore needing 83 runs off 45 balls before the pair put together a match-winning 32-ball 67-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
“People think that since he [Shahbaz Ahmed] is a small skinny guy, he can’t hit it long but he can smash it a long way. We didn’t bowl him today because of the wet ball and left-hander being around but he’ll definitely play a long part in this season,” du Plessis told Star Sports during the post-match presentation ceremony.
Faf du Plessis admires Dinesh Karthik for being an asset to RCB
Having won the toss for the second time this season, du Plessis didn’t hesitate to follow a trend of asking the opposition team to bat first. Supported by a comparatively slower surface, Bangalore bowlers made optimum use of the same before a fourth-wicket 83-run partnership between Jos Buttler (70*) and Shimron Hetmyer (42*) punished them.
“We bowled really well, up to the 18th over and then Jos [Buttler] got some good shots. Got a score which we thought was a bit above par with the conditions and the surface spinning a bit,” du Plessis said.
A 55-run opening partnership between du Plessis (29) and Anuj Rawat (26) was followed by the team losing four wickets for just seven runs primarily due to former RCB spinner Yuzvendra Chahal’s bowling figures of 4-0-15-2.
“We started quite well though, but then Yuzi [Yuzvendra Chahal] bowled really well to get them back in. But for me, the great thing about today once again was our ability to come back to win games out of nowhere,” du Plessis added.
du Plessis, in particular, admired Karthik for being an “asset” as RCB winning a couple of points wouldn’t been possible without his impact-generating innings tonight.
“To pull it out of nowhere, you need some great characters and DK [Dinesh Karthik] is as great a character as you can get. His composure under pressure is amazing. He is really calm and such a great asset to us,” du Plessis mentioned.
