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Royal Challengers Bengaluru batting coach Dinesh Karthik. (FILE photo)
As Rajat Patidar hit Musheer Khan’s delivery for a six to close the famous win for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Punjab Kings, the joy among the supporters in Mullanpur and the RCB dugout was quite visible. Since 2016, it is the first time RCB has reached the final of the Indian Premier League. Overall, it is the fourth time in the franchise’s history. However, the franchise is yet to win silverware.
Once again this season, too, they have had their fair share of issues playing in home conditions, but on the contrary, they have been the best team on the road, winning seven games in seven, which is a first time in the history of the tournament as well. Dinesh Karthik, who played the role of finisher for the franchise, has been made the batting coach this season.
“RCB have got through to the finals. If they win that, DK is going to be unbearable. One season as coach/mentor and he’s won it,” Hussain said in jest on the Sky Sports Podcast in a humorous tone. “He’s unbearable at the best of times, he’s going to be doubly unbearable. He’ll be like John Terry, at the front of the RCB trophy presentation holding it there with Virat Kohli,” Michael Atherton added.
RCB, turbocharged against PBKS
From the time they strode onto the ground to the moment they wound up the game, when captain Rajat Patidar hoisted the ball into the stands over deep midwicket, RCB brimmed with purposeful energy. A conviction that hell or high water, they would fly to the final in Ahmedabad with ample time to re-energise for the title tilt, blazed in them.
Not that they would require an upgrading from Thursday’s shellacking of Punjab. For this was their most emphatic performance this edition, remorselessly dismembering the season’s pole-sitter, a night that fuels the night of the dreams. The target of 106 was not worrisome by any stretch of imagination, but they neither took the total complacently nor embraced over-caution. Instead, they took this as an opportunity to emphasise their superiority, to issue a statement. RCB have thrice reached the finals before, but never with this merciless intensity. Bowling was aggressive and penetrative, fielding was all liveliness, fielders braving bruises to block boundaries.
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