Rajat Patidar led Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 14-run win against the Lucknow Super Giants in the IPL 2022 Eliminator at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Wednesday. The 28-year-old batter scored 112 runs off 54 balls in the first innings to take his team past the 200-run mark on a sluggish pitch. Pacer Harshal Patel then led the team’s efforts to restrict KL Rahul’s men to 193. 

Key takeways from the game:

1) RCB’s top-three fail:

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s top trio – Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell – all failed to go big in the Eliminator. Opening the innings, the skipper, Faf, was dismissed for a rare golden duck. Kohli, on the other hand, started off with a well-time flick through mid-wicket. He played cautiously before Avesh Khan got him with a short and quick outside off. 

Also read: IPL 2022: Breaking down Rajat Patidar’s ton vs Lucknow Super Giants

Maxwell came into bat when RCB were 70/2. After being beaten by Ravi Bishnoi on couple occasions, he smoked the leg-spinner down the ground. However, the Aussie was done by Krunal Pandya’s left-arm orthodox in the very next over. 

2) Rajat Patidar goes big:

Patidar was batting on a different pitch, commentator Harsha Bhogale exclaimed. The sound of his bat was pure music. Coming in when RCB were 4/1, the 28-year-old slapped the Lucknow bowlers all over the park on way to a 112 off 54 balls. He smashed 12 boundaries and seven maximums. 

Also read: Watch: Pandya, KL Rahul in heated arguement with umpire over no ball call

“When I time the ball, my focus was on it. The last over of the powerplay when Krunal was bowling to me, my execution went fine then and I got confident afterwards,” the batter, player of the match, said.

3) Harshal Patel’s big return:

Patel had injured his webbing in RCB’s last league game. The 31-year-old finished with figures of 25/1.

“Harshal is the joker in the pack. A special card I can pick. He bowls the important overs. Second last one over from him changed the game for us,” du Plessis praised him after the win.