Karthik's Missed Singles Prove Costly as RCB Falls Short in IPL Thriller

Dinesh Karthik's Missed Singles Cost RCB Dearly in Narrow IPL Defeat, Says Harbhajan Singh

Former India spinner Harbhajan Singh has criticized Dinesh Karthik's decision to decline singles in the final over of Royal Challengers Bangalore's (RCB) narrow one-run defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

RCB appeared poised for victory after Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar forged a century partnership. However, Karthik's reluctance to take singles proved costly, as he ultimately fell to Andre Russell on the final ball of the over.

"I feel DK was a very important player in this match," Harbhajan said on his YouTube channel. "Karn (Sharma) came in and struck three sixes, while they were batting Karthik missed two to three singles and I feel that it proved costly for RCB."

Harbhajan believes that Karthik's missed singles could have made a significant difference in the outcome of the match. "If he had taken those singles then maybe this situation wouldn't have unfolded," he said. "They only needed one run, small things matter."

RCB skipper Faf du Plessis had won the toss and elected to field first. Phil Salt's explosive 48 in 14 balls gave KKR a strong start, but wickets fell regularly at the other end. Shreyas Iyer (50), Rinku Singh (24), Andre Russell (27*), and Ramandeep Singh (24*) contributed valuable runs to take KKR to 222/6.

RCB lost Virat Kohli (18) and du Plessis (7) early, but Jacks (55) and Patidar (52) revived their hopes with a 102-run partnership. However, their efforts proved insufficient as Karthik's missed singles ultimately cost RCB the match.

Tags: #IPL, #RCB, #KKR, #DineshKarthik, #HarbhajanSingh