“He messed up the opposition’s plan” - Sanjay Manjrekar on Rajat Patidar’s blazing ton in IPL 2022 Eliminator 

Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar reckons that Rajat Patidar took full advantage of not being one of the big names in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) batting line-up in the IPL 2022 Eliminator against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG).

According to Manjrekar, while the focus was heavily on RCB's star batters like Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell, Patidar played a high-risk knock to catch Lucknow off guard.

The 28-year-old No. 3 batter smashed an unbeaten 112 in only 54 balls, a sensational knock which featured 12 fours and seven sixes. Sent into bat after losing the toss, RCB put up an imposing total of 207 for 4 and then restricted LSG to 193 for six.

Sharing his views on Patidar’s match-winning knock, Manjrekar told ESPNcricinfo that the right-handed batter demonstrated a fearless approach and also played some high-quality cricket. He said:

"Rajat Patidar played a high-risk game. He attacked Krunal Pandya in the 6th over and was relentless in his attack after that. He messed up the opposition’s plan. There is always greater focus on the big names like Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell, so that helped Patidar. Not only did he play high-risk cricket and maintain a great strike rate, his batting ability was on display as well.”

Patidar and Dinesh Karthik (37* off 23) added an unbroken 92 for the fifth wicket in quick time as RCB went berserk at the death.

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“He always felt Patidar has the potential to play for India” - Manjrekar on his interaction with RCB batter’s coach

During the discussion, Manjrekar also opened up on his chat with Patidar’s coach Chandrakant Pandit regarding the batter’s talent. The 56-year-old stated that his coach has always believed the Madhya Pradesh cricketer is Team India material. Manjrekar said:

“I was speaking to his coach, MP coach Chandrakant Pandit. He told me Patidar always had the power game and is a very calm player. He always felt that Patidar has the potential to play for India. It is really nice to see his performance at this level. Hopefully, he can keep delivering such performances in the future.”

Incidentally, Patidar was not part of the original RCB squad for IPL 2022. He was roped in as a replacement player for the injured Luvnith Sisodia. He has so far scored 275 runs in seven matches at an average of 55 and a strike rate of 156.25.

The right-handed batter was part of the Bangalore franchise last season as well. He played four games and scored 71 runs.