Thanks to a swashbuckling maiden hundred from Rajat Patidar, a brilliant Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) side knocked the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) out of IPL 2022.

RCB now face the Rajasthan Royals in the semifinal to decide who goes to the final to face the Gujarat Titans.

Royal Challengers Bangalore 207 for 4 (Patidar 112*, Karthik 37*, Mohsin 1/25) beat Lucknow Super Giants 193 for 6 (K L Rahul 79, Hooda 45, Harshal Patel 1/25)

Luck and peaking at the right time in a long tournament are key factors in winning. RCB were lucky to qualify for the playoffs when Mumbai beat Delhi in their last league game and yesterday in defeating LSG they played like a true champion team that is peaking at the right time.

With rain around LSG had no hesitation in winning the toss and fielding first. RCB lost their captain Faf Du Plessis for a blob and Virat Kohli at the other end was struggling to score any faster than run a ball. To win knockout matches teams need a hero and RCB found theirs in the form of Rajat Patidar. Patidar this year went unsold in the auction in February. RCB brought him in as a replacement for the injured Luvnith Sisodia in early April after the tournament had already started. Patidar made the most of his opportunity at number three with an outstanding 112 not out of only 54 balls. The innings was decorated with 12 boundaries and seven sixes. This innings will be remembered for a long time as it came in a winning cause, in an IPL playoff game, against a good bowling attack and in front of 70,000 screaming fans.

Dinesh Karthik continued his terrific form in the tournament by putting the icing on the cake for RCB with an unbeaten 37 of 24 balls. The duo shared an unbeaten partnership of 92 in only 41 deliveries and helped RCB to 207 for 4 in their 20 overs.

The ever impressive Mohsin Khan was the only LSG bowler to survive the Patidar and Karthik onslaught and finished with supremely impressive figures of 1 for 25 of his 4 overs.

To chase down such a mammoth total, the chasing team requires at least two individuals to make substantial contributions with the bat. For a while it looked like captain K L Rahul and Deepak Hooda might be those two individuals to do it for LSG but Rahul got stuck in rut trying to anchor the innings and Hooda was dismissed trying to keep the asking rate in check. Although Rahul finished with 79 of 58 balls, it was a poor innings in the context of the game i.e. at the start of their innings LSG needed to score at 10.4 runs per over to win the game. Rahul’s 79 of 58 meant that he scored at 8.4 runs per over. This meant that all the other LSG batters had to score at 12.55 runs per over to win the game which proved a huge ask. This is doable if you have players like Tim David, Dinesh Karthik, Liam Livingstone, Andre Russell and Glenn Maxwell in your side but LSG had none of these and fell short of the target by 15 runs. Never the less, it’s been an impressive debut for LSG in the IPL and they should be very proud of their efforts.

For RCB the ever reliable Harshal Patel once again produced a magical spell of 4-0-25-1 to keep LSG at bay and take RCB a step closer to their first ever IPL title. They now play the Rajasthan Royals to decide who will meet the Gujarat Titans in the final. As always the final stages of the IPL delivers unlimited excitement. So sit back, relax and enjoy the action.