On a day where Royal Challengers Bangalore's top stalwarts misfired, a relative unknown had the crowd at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on their feet with a scintillating century against the Lucknow Super Giants during the IPL 2022 Eliminator match on Wednesday, May 25, 2022, night.
Rajat Patidar smashed an unbeaten 112 off a mere 54 balls at an astounding strike-rate of 207.40 as he carved through the entire Lucknow bowling line-up, hitting 12 fours and 7 sixes in a remarkable showcase of world-class batting in what was the biggest game of RCB's season so far.
After Captain Faf du Plessis departed for a golden duck in the first over, Patidar immediately went to work on building a lasting partnership with Virat Kohli.
After hitting two fours off Avesh Khan in the fifth over, Patidar let loose in the final over of the Powerplay when he went after Krunal Pandya, hitting three fours and a six in a massive over that added 20 runs to the total and took the team total past fifty runs.
Kohli's topsy-turvy season continued as he was dismissed for 25 in the 9th over as he holed out to Mohsin Khan off Avesh's bowling, but Patidar remained undeterred as he hammered a six in the very same over.
Glenn Maxwell, the new man in, was dismissed cheaply for 9 off Pandya and Mahipal Lomror fell to Ravi Bishnoi for 14 runs two overs later.
Dinesh Karthik's arrival provided Patidar with the ideal partner that he had been missing and together the pair went about on a hitting spree heading into the death overs.
LSG's 16th over bowled by Bishnoi was the moment in the RCB innings when Patidar smashed three sixes and two fours in five deliveries.
At the other end, Karthik reciprocated by hitting three fours off Aveshm as the runs kept piling in at a frantic pace for RCB.
The milestone 100* came up off Mohsin's bowling in grand style as Patidar pulled a short ball over mid-wicket for six, marking the first century scored in the playoffs by an uncapped player in IPL history.
LSG's woeful fielding saw Patidar being handed three lives as catches kept getting dropped at regular intervals and the batter seemed emboldened as he upped the ante with each miss.
He finished off his innings with a six and a four off Dushmantha Chameera before Karthik took control of the final over and unleashed the finishing blows in trademark style.
By the end of the innings, the pair had put on 92 in 41 balls and scored 84 runs off the last five overs, to help Bangalore post a commanding 207.
The 28 year old's blitz was the difference in a high-scoring Eliminator where RCB beat LSG by 14 runs.
