Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) registered a nail-biting win over Delhi Capitals (DC) in their final league stage match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 on Friday. Srikar Bharat smashed a match-winning 78 off 52 deliveries and sealed the deal for his side.
Chasing 165, RCB needed six to win off the final ball with Bharat on strike, after a wide, Avesh Khan bowled a full toss on the middle and Bharat managed to hit it straight back over the bowler which cleared the fence and helped to win as well. And, Bharat said that Glenn Maxwell, who was at the non-striker’s end, had trusted him and that gave him a lot of confidence as well.
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Srikar Bharat said: “In the last over, me and Maxi, we were talking to each other with regard to what are the areas we can access, and he was like ‘okay, just watch the ball and get bat on ball.’ And that is exactly what we were doing. The last three balls, I asked him whether to run, and he said no, you go ahead, you can finish it off. That gave me a lot of confidence. And then I was just focused on one ball that was coming next. So I kept it simple, and as a team we did very well, and we pulled it off.”
“When AB walked in, he just said watch the ball, come in to good positions and then work the ball out. So, we were just thinking of building a mini-partnership, which would give a good platform for people walking in next to finish it off,” Bharat further added.
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However, Bharat had impressed while batting at no.3 for RCB, and on Friday he played a match-winning knock to win the match for his team. RCB bowled well to restrict DC to 164/5 after a stunning start by Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw. However, it was Srikar Bharat, who hit three boundaries and four sixes in his unbeaten knock of 78 off 52 stole the show. Maxwell scored 51 not out off 33 deliveries, with eight boundaries as well.
