Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fell agonisingly short of pulling off their highest run chase in Indian Premier League (IPL) history. In the run chase of 223, RCB got all out for 221 and suffered their narrowest defeat in 17 years of IPL. However, despite the loss, they managed to break the all-time T20 record. The score of 221 is the highest all out total in the history of the format. The previous-best belonged to Sri Lanka's SL Army. They scored 218 against Negambo CC in 2018.
This is also KKR’s narrowest win by runs in IPL. Their previous narrowest margin of win by two runs came against RCB in 2014 when they faced each other in Sharjah.
Starc escapes Karn's wrath
In the last over, RCB needed 21 runs to win. Karn Sharma was on strike and Mitchell Starc was handed the ball. First ball, Karn smashed a six over deep backward point. After a reprieve, Karn went on to hit two consecutive sixes. Interestingly, Karn's last IPL boundary came in the 2017 edition. RCB needed three runs off last two balls. Karn got caught and bowled.
Lockie Ferguson walked out to bat with three runs needed off the last ball. He managed to hit the ball towards deep extra cover but could not come back for a couple of runs. Philip Salt removed the bails despite Ramandeep Singh's wide throw to prevent the game from going into super over.
Du Plessis' praises teammates' display
As RCB only have an outside chance of making it to the playoffs, skipper Faf du Plessis chose to look at the positives and lauded his team for a spirited fightback against Shreyas Iyer’s side. He also thanked the fans for their constant support.
“The small things, I am actually proud of the boys tonight, the way we bowled and fielded, we did give away a couple of big overs towards the end, but I thought we kept them down to a par score. We thought we'll go hard in the batting powerplay, find those boundaries at the start of the innings. We were desperate, 10/10 from an effort perspective, the way we put up the effort in the ground, the faces told the story. We've got an unbelievable fanbase, we want to make them happy, we want them to have a smile on their face. We'll have to continue putting in our efforts and try to change things around,” said the 39-year-old.
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