Rajat Patidar Stars With Ton As Royal Challengers Bangalore Defeat Lucknow Super Giants In Eliminator

Invited to bat, Patidar, the 28-year-old from Madhya Pradesh, produced an innings for the ages as he towered over his more illustrious colleagues with an unbeaten 54-ball 112-run knock

Little-known domestic bulwark Rajat Patidar literally owned the biggest stage of his nascent career with a magnificent hundred that got Royal Challengers Bangalore within a sniffing distance of title clash after out-batting Lucknow Super Giants by 14 runs in the IPL Eliminator on Wednesday. RCB will meet Rajasthan Royals in the second Qualifier on Friday, which will decide Gujarat Titans' opposition for Sunday's final Courtesy Patidar's 54-ball-112 not out which had 12 fours and seven huge sixes, RCB literally knocked the stuffing out of LSG attack, piling an imposing 207 for 4 in 20 overs. For LSG, the only saving grace was Mohsin Khan's superb figures of 1 for 25.

In reply, KL Rahul's 78 off 59 balls didn't make much of an impact save beefing his individual run-tally as LSG finished on 193 for 6 after 20 overs.

If Patidar's hundred set it up nicely for RCB, no words of praise will be enough for the brilliant Harshal Patel (4-0-25-1), whose 18th over full of wide yorkers and off-cutter variations decisively tilted the match in his team's favour.

Once Josh Hazlewood removed Rahul in the 19th over, RCB team in spirit had already boarded the flight to Ahmedabad.

While Rahul helped himself to three fours and five sixes but his 96-run stand with Deepak Hooda (45) did keep LSG in the fight a total of six boundaries compared to 14 sixes told a different story.