Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar turned the Indian Premier League (IPL) upside down with his 33-ball 93 in the Qualifier 1 clash against the Gujarat Titans on Tuesday. Though Patidar also had luck favoring him early on, with a couple of dropped chances, he truly rose to the occasion and produced a match-winning show for the franchise. As RCB booked a spot in their second successive final, the franchise’s Director of Cricket, Mo Bobat, revealed an intriguing story where he called Patidar a “spin basher” and now the skipper is out to prove a point.
While Patidar was the top run-getter for the Bengaluru side, cameos from Virat Kohli and Krunal Pandyaas well as some fiery powerplay bowling from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jacob Duffyearned RCB a shot at making it back-to-back IPL wins.
Bobat, who spoke to the media in the post-match press conference, had nothing but absolute praise for Patidar, the man who had joined the franchise as a replacement player in 2022.
“I remember at some point last season, I think I called him a spin-basher, and I think he got quite annoyed with me because I was implying that it was only spin. So I think he’s probably trying to prove a point to me. But look, he’s worked very hard on his game. He works incredibly hard with both DK and Andy. And, you know, one of the things about Rajat is he tends to middle the ball quite often. And I think that’s a good sign. So whether he’s facing pace bowling, off the front or back foot, the ball hits the middle of his bat quite a lot. So I think he’s got some really good and sound basics,” Bobat said.
Patidar seems unfazed by the situation around him. He continued to go hammer and tongs even after RCB had lost a few wickets in quick succession. Bobat was in awe of this ‘fearless intent’ being shown by the captain.
“He’s got a pretty fearless intent, which is great to see. And we’ve tried really hard over the last couple of years to try and let that be the identity of our team. You know, you’re not going to win every game. We know how good this competition is, and you’re going to come up against good sides,” Bobat further said.
Be it getting runs from the bats of different players or bowlers delivering wickets at crucial intervals, RCB have ticked most boxes this season. It’s the skipper Patidar who deserves credit for getting the team to perform at this level.
“But if we play true to our identity and we play true to the way, you know, the way we’ve tried to play over the last couple of years, and we can do that under pressure, then I think that’s the thing that we will be proud of. So we’re just trying to do that game by game. And that’s with the bat and ball. You know, we want to score runs aggressively and we want to take wickets, particularly early in the innings.
“So yeah, the boys deserve the credit for that. They’re the ones who are developing this sense of identity. You know, we’ve recruited them because we believed we could do this, and they’re going out and they’re proving it. So they deserve the credit for that. But they’r
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