Shot of the Day - Anuj Rawat muscles Deshpande into second tier at Chepauk - CSK vs RCB IPL 2024

Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik rescued Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) from a precarious situation during Match 1 of IPL 2024 against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on Friday, March 22 at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. After winning the toss and batting first, RCB were left reeling at 78/5 after 11.4 overs. Seeing their team in trouble, the duo got together at the crease and guided their team to a good total of 173/5 in their allotted 20 overs.

Rawat was the top scorer for the Faf du Plessis-led side with his knock of 48 (25) with the help of four fours and three sixes. One of his shots left the commentator Ian Bishop awestruck as he smacked Tushar Deshpande for a maximum on the top tier.

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On the third ball of the 18^th over, Rawat got back on strike as he faced a good length delivery from Deshpande. His eyes lit up seeing the ball in his slot and the southpaw dispatched it with disdain high into the night sky for a maximum. The shot even got praise from commentator Ian Bishop who was at a loss of words to describe Rawat’s meticulous timing and just blurted ‘wow’.

Watch the shot here:

The 24-year-old failed to reach his second IPL fifty as he got run out on the last ball trying to run a byes against MS Dhoni. Rawat and Karthik (38* off 26) got involved in a massive 95-run stand off 50 balls to bail RCB out of trouble.

Mustafizur Rahman's 4-fer left RCB reeling

Earlier, captain Faf du Plessis (35 off 23) got his team off to a good start adding 41 runs for the first wicket off 27 balls with Virat Kohli. However, Mustafizur Rahman (4/29) brought CSK back into the game dismissing du Plessis and Rajat Patidar (0 off 2) in his very first over.

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The left-arm seamer further got rid of Kohli (21 off 20) and Cameron Green (18 off 22) to leave them reeling at 78/5 while Deepak Chahar made Glenn Maxwell (0 off 1) edge one to MS Dhoni in the sixth over.