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Dinesh Karthik was standing at the non-striker’s end when Jasprit Bumrah was running through the Royal Challengers Bengaluru middle-order. Bumrah was on a hat-trick twice – once in the 17th over when he dismissed RCB captain Faf du Plessis and Mahipal Lomror off successive balls and then in the 19th over when he got rid of Saurav Chauhan and Vijaykumar Vyshak. On both occasions, Bumrah couldn’t get the third.
After watching all the carnage from the other end, when Karthik finally got his chance to bat, he promptly hit Bumrah for a six – that was only the second boundary Bumrah had conceded in the day. It spoke a lot about both Bumrah and Karthik.
Faf du Plessis (61) and Rajat Patidar (50) also played an important role in ensuring RCB got close to the 200-run mark. Karthik (53 not out off 23 balls) produced just the kind of knock RCB needed towards the end of the innings.
In a contest where his fellow pacers erred consistently, Bumrah’s accuracy and mastery over variation helped him rule the roost once again.
Mixing up his fiery yorkers perfectly with sharp bouncers, Bumrah snaffled the in-form Virat Kohli (3) early on to extend his ordinary run at the Wankhede Stadium while playing the IPL.
Du Plessis and Patidar banished their poor run with their respective half-centuries while putting on 82 runs for the third wicket, but Bumrah, who bowled three overs post the halfway mark, seemed to have broken the back of RCB’s resistance with a terrific spell.
But Karthik, who took a liking for Akash Madhwal (1/57) to collect 38 runs off his two overs, finished with five fours and four sixes.
Seeing Karthik produce another masterclass of a finishing act, former MI captain Rohit Sharma decide to have some fun. The stump mic caught Rohit teasing Karthik with a T20 World Cup comment.
“Shabash DK! T20 World Cup mein selection ke liye push karna hai isko. Dimagh mein chal raha hai iske World Cup. (Well done DK! He is pushing for a spot in the T20 World Cup. His mind is occupied with the thought of the World Cup),” Rohit was caught saying on the stump mic to Karthik.
Karthik had grabbed the wicketkeeper’s spot in India’s last T20 World Cup campaign in Australia with an impactful performance in the IPL. This time too, the veteran cricketer is showing no signs of slowing down. But another T20 World Cup will be too steep a climb as Karthik has already announced that this IPL will be his last.
He, however, has not said anything about his plans to retire from international cricket. But at the age of 38 – he will be 39 at the time of the World Cup in June – it seems a bit difficult for him to pip the likes of Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Jitesh Sharma and Sanju Samson for the keeper’s spot even if he does not announce his retirement.
Coming back to the match, Karthik’s heroics with the bat, was however, not enough to bring RCB back to winning ways. Ishan Kishan went ballistic to make 69 off just 34 balls (7x4s, 5x6s) and Suryakumar dazzled with a 19-ball 52 with four sixes and five fours, as Mumbai Indians overhauled RCB’s 197-run target in just 15.3 overs.
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