"Theekshana's mystery made Faf history" - Aakash Chopra on RCB's chase against CSK

Maheesh Theekshana dismissed Faf du Plessis in his very first over [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra has highlighted that Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli's early dismissals put the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) behind the eight ball in last night's IPL 2022 encounter.

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) set a massive 217-run target for the Bangalore-based franchise at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Although Du Plessis' side lost a plethora of early wickets, they still took the match close before falling short by 23 runs.

Aakash Chopra reflected on the RCB run chase in a video shared on his YouTube channel. He said the following about Du Plessis and Kohli getting out cheaply:

"It seemed there will be a fight but nothing like that happened because Faf got out at the start. Theekshana's mystery made Faf history, I mean for this match. After that, Kohli finds the only fielder in the deep off Mukesh Choudhary's short ball."

The former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) player praised Shahbaz Ahmed and Suyash Prabhudessai for taking the fight to the CSK bowlers. Chopra elaborated:

"Maxwell comes and plays a few big shots but then he falls prey to Jaddu (Jadeja). Anuj Rawat gets out and it seemed this team might not even make 125 but they started fighting from there - whether it was Shahbaz or Prabhudessai - both of them batted well, took the attack to the opposition."

Just what we needed. 🧿🤞🏻

#PlayBold #WeAreChallengers #IPL2022 #Mission2022 #RCB #ನಮ್ಮRCB #CSKvRCB https://t.co/c3RIvgHB37

Ahmed (41 off 27) and Prabhudessai (34 off 18) strung together an enterprising 60-run partnership after the Royal Challengers Bangalore were reduced to a score of 50/4 in the seventh over.

Click here to view the IPL winners list.

"It seemed RCB were going to lose by a huge margin" - Aakash Chopra lauds Dinesh Karthik for almost doing a miracle

Dinesh Karthik has been in scintillating form in IPL 2022 [P/C: iplt20.com]

Aakash Chopra lauded RCB for not losing the match by a huge margin despite getting off to a disastrous start. He explained:

"But after that, wickets were going on falling. It seemed RCB were going to lose by a huge margin, around 60-80 runs, almost an innings defeat. RCB ensured that it was not a big margin. They lost but saved their honor. Losing by just 23 runs is not too bad, considering that you were chasing 216 and you were 50/4."

The renowned commentator was particularly appreciative of the blazing knock played by Dinesh Karthik that almost took RCB to an improbable win. Chopra stated:

"Karthik's knock - he is playing tiny knocks, he got out for the first time in the tournament but till the time he was there, it seemed at one point that a miracle might happen. He actually allowed you to dream and believe that it is possible."

Karthik smoked 34 runs off just 14 balls, a knock studded with two fours and three sixes. Mohammed Siraj and Josh Hazlewood also added 22 runs for the last wicket to reduce the margin of defeat.