With playoff hopes of Royal Challengers Bangalore hanging by a thread, wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik shared a cheeky throwback picture while extending support to Mumbai Indians, who play their final league stage fixture against Delhi Capitals on Saturday. IPL 2022 Full Coverage
Rajasthan Royals on Friday overtook Lucknow Super Giants on run-rate to finish second in league play. Rajasthan will meet the league-leading Gujarat Titans on Tuesday for a straight shot at the final. While the top two spots are sealed, Lucknow Super Giants, who are in the third position, will meet either Delhi or Bangalore in the Eliminator.
Delhi Capitals (0.255) need to beat Mumbai Indians to pip Royal Challengers Bangalore (-0.253) on a better net run rate. At present, Bangalore occupy the fourth spot in the points table with 16 points, with Delhi being two points away from the top-4 finish.
As Bangalore, the 2016 IPL runners up, keep a close tab on the Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals game, Karthik shared his picture on the MI kit. "Found this in archives," he wrote with the 'fingers crossed' emoji.
{{/usCountry}}As Bangalore, the 2016 IPL runners up, keep a close tab on the Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals game, Karthik shared his picture on the MI kit. "Found this in archives," he wrote with the 'fingers crossed' emoji.
{{/usCountry}}Karthik, who has been revelling in his role as a finisher this season, finished with 287 runs in 14 games at an impressive strike rate of 191.33. At the recent mega auction, Bangalore snapped up Karthik for a hefty sum of ₹5.5 crores. Overall, the experienced keeper-batter has got over 3,000 runs while plying his trade for six teams over the course of his IPL career.
Earlier, Bangalore skipper Faf du Plessis and former leader Virat Kohli also lent support to five-time champions Mumbai. Kohli joked about turning into a Mumbai supporter while du Plessis even chanted 'Mumbai, Mumbai' in a video shared by the IPL following Bangalore's eight-wicket win over table-toppers Gujarat Titans.
"Trying to put our feet up and chill out for 2 days and support Mumbai. We have 2 more supporters for Mumbai, not just 2 but I think 25 more supporters," Kohli told du Plessis. "You might see us in the stadium as well," he added before du Plessis started with the ‘Mumbai, Mumbai’ cheer.
While Delhi have fortune in their own hands, Mumbai look to end a disappointing season on a winning note. Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai have endured their worst season with just three wins in 13 matches so far.