Rajat Patidar pens history as RCB set qualifier date with Rajasthan Royals

Cricket, bloody hell! If there would have a cricketing version of Sir Alex Ferguson’s iconic quote, nothing would have served this better than the first eliminator of IPL 2022 where the Royal Challengers Bangalore had to fight tooth and nail en route the second qualifier to set up a contest with a familiar foe in the form of Rajasthan Royals.

The weather prediction had heavy downpour on the charts and even before the coin took flight in the wind, the entire congregation at the Eden Gardens, the fans watching from afar and the RCB dugout had frowns on their visages. But then the only downpour that happened were boundaries from the blades of Patidar and Karthik.

A game comprising high drama, thrill blowing through the roofs and a handful of clutch displays that would set the perfect tone for what turned out to be a playoff classic witnessed the Royal Challengers Bangalore hanging in till the end and sealing an emphatic win in the final over riding high on a clinical display from Harshal.

Put in to bat first, RCB would be dealt an early blow as their skipper would depart for a golden duck, allowing Mohsin Khan to extend his extraordinary sequence of claiming important scalps early in the game. However, Faf’s untimely departure would conjure the all-important portal to invite LSG’s doom in the incarnation of Rajat Patidar.

Virat and Rajat would join forces to apply the initial dab of overhaul, helping the Challengers to stabilize their ship after the early jitters. Patidar would bring out the heavy artillery while Kohli would take the best seat in the house to witness the MP batsman's rampage. Despite the fall of Kohli and Maxwell in quick succession in the middle overs, Patidar and Lomror would chime in with a crucial stand that would set the perfect platform for Dinesh Karthik and Patidar to inflict irreversible damage on the Super Giants.

Dinesh Karthik would be fortunate to find himself being grassed by the Lucknow skipper, KL Rahul and what followed was carnage chronicled by the Gods themselves. Patidar penned a knock straight from the pages of fantasies and folklore while Karthik meted out justice to his newfound title of the Finisher Supreme.

Records would tumble like glasshouses ahead of flying shards of metal coming off the eye of a storm as Rajat would become the highest run-scorer as an uncapped player in IPL play-offs, also becoming the only uncapped centurion in the eliminator and the fifth player in the history of IPL playoffs to smash a ton.

With 207 on the cards, RCB would get into business straightaway as Siraj would draw first blood in the form of the menacing Quinton de Kock. Just when it felt that Vohra can be a major threat to the RCB dreams, Hazlewood would belt out a peach to remove the former RCB batter with Shahbaz Ahmed bagging a decent catch.

The Giants would eventually claw their way back to the game as two seasoned Indian internationals would hammer a couple of rollicking knocks to level the equation. Rahul and Hooda would go onto stitch together a painstaking stand of 96 runs. However, it would be RCB’s middle-over king who would produce magic out of thin air with a slower one that would clatter onto the stumps of Hooda to destabilize the chase.

Despite the belligerence from Rahul and Hooda, it felt as if they were an over too late to call the shots and the ask was already turning into a Sisyphean one that would eventually come a cropper. Harshal Patel chimed in with an excellent watershed in the 18th over after going for 6 runs without bowling a single legal delivery.

However, that is the very over which would seal the fate of the tie with the big fish of Marcus Stoinis getting outclassed by Harshal’s variation while Hazlewood following that up with two wickets in two balls featuring the most important wicket of KL Rahul, and Krunal Pandya. With 24 needed of the last 6 balls, Harshal would make it look like a cakewalk despite Chameera’s spasmodic burst of brilliance.

The Royal Challengers will be colliding with the formidable Rajasthan Royals to decide who would meet the reckoning Titans in the grand finale of the IPL 2022.