In the 13th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Rajasthan Royals by 4 wickets. At one point in the match, RCB had lost 5 wickets for just 87 runs in 12.3 overs, but Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed together snatched the victory from the jaws of Rajasthan Royals. Karthik and Shahbaz shared a 32-ball 67 for the sixth wicket. Karthik scored an unbeaten 44 off 23 balls. He hit 7 fours and a six during his innings.
Shahbaz Ahmed was dismissed for 45 runs in 26 balls. He hit 4 fours and 3 sixes during his innings. Harshal Patel interviewed him on IPL TV after the match. Harshal Patel told Shahbaz, ‘You showed the trailer in the last match. You have shown a slightly longer picture in this match. When will you show the full picture now? On this Shahbaz Ahmed laughed and said, ‘Ji practice for exactly that and the more pictures are left for later, the better it is for me and our team too.’
Shahbaz further said, ‘It was good to win the match in such difficult conditions. Looks great.’ Harshal Patel asked again, ‘When you went to bat, the game was a bit stuck. What did you go to the field thinking then? What was the conversation between you and Dinesh Karthik?’
Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder on this Shahbaz Ahmed Said, ‘The idea was that the ball coming from the spinners was giving a slight grip. That was it not to give wickets to spinners by trying anything. Let us inform that RCB had bought Shahbaz Ahmed for Rs 2 crore 40 lakh in IPL 2022 Mega Auction.
Shahbaz said, ‘Our strategy was that we can attack the pacers a little, because when the dew fell in the second half, the ball was coming to the bat. So it was that as DK Bhai suddenly changed the momentum, it became easy to play with him again. The game got easier for me as I kept playing.