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Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)'s wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik was surprised to walk out to the middle before taking his team past the finish line against the Gujarat Titans (GT) at M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday.
Karthik said that he wasn't mentally prepared and enjoyed his tea and cappuccino as captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli provided a promising start with a 92-run partnership for the opening wicket while chasing 148.
Interestingly, RCB suffered a middle-order collapse with four batters scoring in single digits. Karthik walked in when his team was 111/5 and scored an unbeaten 21 off 12 balls to take his team over the line.
Karthik said in his post-match comments:
"Started with a cup of tea and then after about 4 overs, I had my first cappuccino. I thought I wasn't going to bat. I wasn't padded up, I wasn't mentally ready, I was just chilling. And then, things happened and then I had to pad up. I was a touch late but I just managed to make it."
"I backed myself to that" - Dinesh Karthik on taking RCB over the line vs GT in IPL 2024 match
Dinesh Karthik revealed that despite being under pressure, he backed himself to finish off the innings for RCB against GT in IPL on Saturday. He highlighted the importance of rotating the strike instead of just hitting boundaries.
It's a very different sort of pressure, it's one thing chasing down totals in an interesting way and all you need to think about is hitting boundaries," Karthik said.
He added:
"But if there's a lot of time and you need to make sure that playing sensibly is also the need of the hour, then your basic cricketing skills come through, how you are able to hit boundaries without taking risks. Over a period of time, that's been my strengths, so I backed myself to that."
Karthik has amassed 283 runs in nine innings at a strike rate of 193.83, including two half-centuries. He, however, was ignored for India's squad for the 2024 T20 World Cup, scheduled to take place in June.
Click here to check out the RCB vs GT IPL 2024 full scorecard.
