Rajat Patidar was the best performer for the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in their Eliminator clash against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday (May 25). He scored the fastest century (49 balls) of the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 to bail RCB out of trouble and power them to a match-winning total. After being asked to bat first in a do-or-die situation, RCB was in some early troubles after the failure of their big guns.
Skipper Faf du Plessis was dismissed on the golden duck while the likes of Virat Kohli (25) and Glenn Maxwell failed to get going too At that stage, a good total was looking out of reach for RCB, but then Rajat Patidar decided to take charge of the innings as he played one of the best knocks in the history of IPL and took his team to a daunting score of 207 for 4.
WATCH – Rajat Patidar Breaks The Fridge Of LSG With His Smashing
Despite the pressure situation, Rajat Patidar kept the momentum up for his team as he went past the 50-run mark in just 28 balls. His next fifty came off merely 21 balls as he completed his century off 49 balls. He also became the first RCB batter and first uncapped player to score a century in the IPL playoffs. Patidar remained unbeaten on 112. His knock came off just 54 balls and was studded with 12 fours and 7 sixes.
Rajat Patidar received apt support from Dinesh Karthik who scored 37 off 23 balls as RCB posted the big total. The score turned out to be more than enough in the end as RCB beat their Lucknow counterparts by 14 runs. LSG skipper KL Rahul scored a fighting fifty but his low strike rate barred his team from getting over the line.
WATCH – Virat Kohli Was Pumped After Josh Hazlewood Dismissed Krunal Pandya
Following the sensational century against LSG from Rajat Patidar, the RCB dugout was cheering wildly and gave him a warm welcome after the end of the innings. However, the case was entirely different from RCB’s previous against Gujarat Titans (GT). In a video going viral on social media, it can be seen that Patidar was totally ignored by his teammates after the completion of the game. He had raised his hand for high-fives but could not get any from his teammates before he started clapping.
Here is the video of the incident:
— crictalk (@crictalk7) May 26, 2022
