Royal Challengers Bangalore opened their account on the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 points table with a three-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders. It was a low-scoring affair that went right down to the wire. As RCB lost wickets at regular intervals, KKR seemed at a better position in the back end of the game. However, Dinesh Karthik smashed a six and a boundary off the first two deliveries of the last over to seal the deal for RCB. Overall, he scored 14 off just seven deliveries.

The veteran wicketkeeper even did well in his side’s opening match this season, scoring an unbeaten 32 off 14 balls against the Punjab Kings in a losing affair. With Karthik playing back-to-back fiery cameos, many members of the cricket fraternity are impressed with him and so is RCB skipper Faf du Plessis. The Proteas star lavished massive praises on Karthik and even compared him to former Chennai Super Kings skipper MS Dhoni, who’s also known for his ability to finish games.

“In an ideal world, we would’ve liked to have won more convincingly but a win is a win. DK’s experience helped in the end, cool-calm, runs weren’t really too far away. DK is as close as it gets to MS Dhoni when it comes to being ice cool. I rely on other people for help,” said Du Plessis in the post-match conversation.

Meanwhile, it wasn’t really a convincing win for RCB as the Knight Riders gave them a hard time while defending a modest 128. While Du Plessis admitted the same, the former South African skipper is pleased with the overall result.

“Very happy. Close small-margin games are very important at the start. Small score, we just tried to be positive but very good bowling from their seamers. The ball swung a little more earlier but today there was seam and bounce. Two – three days ago, it was 200 and today it was 130. We would like to be more convincing. Just the experience,” said Du Plessis.

Watch the video here. #IPL #DineshKarthik #MSDhoni #csk
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