Krunal Pandya emerged as the wounded warrior who stood tall amid adversities to help the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) secure a crucial win against the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Sunday, May 10. At the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium in Raipur, Krunal played a gem of an innings under pressure to help his team chase down a 167-run target on a tricky surface.
The Baroda all-rounder was promoted to bat at No. 5 after RCB lost three wickets inside the power play. Krunal dispatched the third ball he faced for a six and never looked back. He mixed caution with aggression and brought up his first half-century of the season in 32 balls. RCB kept losing wickets from the other end, but Krunal held fort.
Apart from losing partners from the other end, Krunal had to deal with bouts of cramps. He was seen lying on the floor at one point before Ryan Rickelton came in to help. After the physios attended to him, Krunal decided to continue on his quest to help RCB take two vital points.
While his struggles with cramps were evident to everyone, that wasn’t the only thing bothering him. After the match, Krunal shared an Instagram story showing off a massive wound.
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280When Krunal was eventually dismissed for 73 off 46 balls, RCB needed 18 more runs to win in 12 balls with three wickets remaining. Jasprit Bumrah bowled a stunning penultimate over as the equation came down to 15 off the last six balls.
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Raj Bawa bowled four extras in the last over but picked up the huge wicket of Romario Shepherd. Just when it seemed that the match was slipping away from the hands of the home team, Bhuvneshwar Kumar slammed a six to bring them back in the game. Bawa misfielded off the last ball of the match as Bhuvneshwar and Rasikh Salam Dar completed the two runs required for the win.
