Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) needed a saving grace from Mumbai Indians (MI) to remain in contention for the playoffs and stand a chance to win the coveted Indian Premier League (IPL) trophy for the first time ever. But the unlikely hero in their chase for the playoffs was in fact one of their former players, Tim David, who was released by RCB ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction.
Bought for his base price of Rs 20 lakhs last season, the Singaporean batter played a single match for RCB, scoring one run. He was roped in by Royal Challengers Bangalore as a replacement for Finn Allen in IPL 2021 and played a solitary match in the season.
The hard-hitting batter has played 14 T20Is for Singapore, scoring 558 runs at an average of 46.5 and a staggering strike rate of 158.52. David has a vast experience in franchise T20 cricket, having plied his trade in the Big Bash League, Pakistan Super League, the Hundred and Vitality T20 Blast in England, and the Caribbean Premier League.
The Singaporean was the subject of a three-way bidding war between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Rajasthan Royals, and Mumbai Indians at the IPL 2022 mega auction, and went for a whopping Rs 8.25 crores. But he did not have the best of starts to his season, registering 12 and 1 in his first two games before being dropped.
However, upon being reinstated into the team, the 26-year-old showed his true colours to everyone. David registered scores of 44* (21), 13 (9), 16* (7) 46 (18), and 34 (11) in his last five matches, and accumulated a brilliant strike rate of 216.3. His innings against DC helped MI finish the season on a winning note and also secured RCB's place in the playoffs.
David has now finished the season with the highest strike rate in IPL 2022 among players with a minimum of 150 runs this season — 216.28. He is also only the third batter to finish an IPL season with a 200+ strike rate after scoring more than 100 runs. Others on the list include Brendon McCullum, who hit 188 runs at 204.4 in IPL 2008 and Andre Russell who scored 510 runs at a rate of 204.8 in IPL 2019.
After the match, David also opened up about how his former teammates from RCB supported him and MI, “I got a message from Faf this morning - it was a picture of him, Maxi and Virat all in an MI kit, maybe I’ll get to post that on Instagram later,” the Singaporean big-hitter revealed in the post-match presentation ceremony.
