Dinesh Karthik was subject to the harshest of criticism on social media as he wasn’t able to win the game for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Kolkata Knight Riders at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. Karthik was able to score only 22 runs off 18 deliveries during the 201-run chase which RCB eventually fell behind by 21 runs.
As the power hitter for Royal Challengers in the middle order, Dinesh Karthik is responsible for scoring runs quickly for the team, especially in the later stages. During his team’s innings, he walked out to bat when the score was 113/4 in 11.3 overs with the required run rate under control. But the loss of stand-in captain Virat Kohli’s wicket in the next over made the task difficult for him and the rest of the batters in the team.
When Suyash Prabhudessai joined Dinesh Karthik in the middle at 115/5 in 12.1 overs, RCB fans expected the pair to stitch together a decent partnership and take the team across the finish line. Instead, both Prabhudessai and Karthik could not hit consistent boundaries as the required run rate jumped up every over.
After the dismissal of Suyash Prabhudessai in the 15th over with a score reading 137/6, the seasoned wicket-keeper had to throw caution to the wind. But his efforts were far from enough as he got out in the 18th over to the sheer dismay of the fans as the team needed 47 more runs to victory. Shortly afterwards, Twitter was flooded with criticism for Dinesh Karthik as he failed to win the game for RCB in a run chase this time.
Check out the Twitter reactions here:
Virat Kohli alluded to the errors in the RCB run chase in the post-game interview and said, “Even while chasing, despite losing wickets we were one partnership away from being in the game. We needed one partnership to get us home. We need to be switched on and not give away soft plays.”