We have hope. Rebellions are built on hope. This famous line from Star Wars summed up our outing in the Garden City as our Titans pushed hard before slipping to a four-wicket loss against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday (May 4).

Our Titans, Shahrukh Khan, (37), Rahul Tewatia (35), and David Miller (30) provided a strong finish to the innings with the bat while Joshua Little (4-45) finished with his best-ever figures in TATA IPL. Our Titans dug deep and fought hard in front of a capacity crowd at the Chinnaswamy.

Put in to bat under testing conditions at the Chinnaswamy, we lost some early wickets to some good bowling. But Shahrukh and Agent Miller made good use of the wicket when conditions got better for batting. They came up with some delightful strokes that took Bengaluru by surprise. Their counter-attacking style had the RCB camp ponder options as our Titans went about their business in a composed manner. 

While Shahrukh continued from where he left off in the last match, Miller was in no mood to let go after being dropped at 23. The two put together a 61-run stand as we inched close to a challenging total. Later, Rahul Tewatia showcased his quality with a 21-ball 35 that included five boundaries and a maximum. He tore into Karn Sharma midway through his innings, making his intentions clear with some big shots.

The target of 148 looked challenging, especially at a venue like the Chinnaswamy where the dimensions of the playing field favour the batters. But that never affected our Titans. 

Though Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis did the bulk of the scoring early on in the RCB innings, our Titans pounced at every opportunity to create panic in the opposition dugout. The RCB captain, Faf du Plessis was the first to fall. After being hit for a few over the ropes, Josh Little came back strong to cramp the South African for room with a short-pitched delivery that he top-edged to Shahrukh at short fine for a regulation catch.

What followed was a procession of wickets with our Titan from Ireland playing the Wrecker-in-Chief. While Noor Ahmad sent the centurion from the previous match, Will Jacks, packing, Josh was truly the Boss as he accounted for Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, and Cameron Green to finish with his best figures in TATA IPL – 4/45.

 
 
 
 
 
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But the drama was still not done! With Noor bhai dismissing Kohli in the 11th over, the pressure was well and truly on the hosts and their tailenders. However, the experienced Dinesh Karthik played with caution to see his side through.

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