"Anuj Rawat getting retained for next three seasons because of this cameo"

Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) young batter Anuj Rawat played a handy cameo against Rajasthan Royals on Sunday, May 14, at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

The 23-year-old was under scrutiny for not contributing enough runs in the middle order for RCB. The wicketkeeper-batter made just 39 runs in five innings at an abysmal strike rate of 86.67 ahead of the clash against the Royals.

Anuj Rawat came to bat in the 18th over following the dismissal of Glenn Maxwell. He provided a perfect flourish to the team with a 11-ball 29* knock.

The southpaw flicked one towards the fine leg for a boundary off Sandeep Sharma to open his account. He later went for the reverse sweep against Yuzvendra Chahal only to find the top edge racing to the ropes at the third-man region.

Anuj Rawat left the best for the end as he clobbered two sixes and a boundary in the last three balls against KM Asif to propel RCB to a competitive total of 171.

Fans were ecstatic to watch Anuj Rawat smash RR bowlers in the death overs. Many of them took to their Twitter handles to heap praise for the keeper-batter. Here are some of the reactions below:

Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell set the tone for RCB

RCB captain Faf du Plessis (55 off 44 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (54 off 33 balls) steadied the ship in the middle overs and the duo firmly kept ticking the scoreboard.

The 69-run stand between du Plessis and Maxwell was their fifth 50-plus stand this season. For the first time, the pair failed to convert it into a 100-plus partnership in IPL 2023.

Du Plessis also became the 15th player in the IPL history to cross the 4000-run mark en route to his seventh IPL half-century of this season. He consolidated his position at the top of the run-scoring charts with 631 runs in 12 innings.

About the author

Viransh is an Indian Sports journalist, who covers Table Tennis, Hockey, Badminton, Squash and Volleyball at Sportskeeda. His BMM degree in Journalism initially paved the way for his entry into sports writing and he has around 3.5 years of professional experience.

Viransh has a knack of getting on the ground at times in search of stories, but always ensures to verify them from multiple sources and exercises patience when gathering all relevant facts for the stories presented in his articles. His methods have helped build a strong authority in his field and he has interviewed star Indian cricketer Suryakumar Yadav’s club coach Vinayak Mane, and Arjuna Award winning Table Tennis paddler Sreeja Akula.

Viransh's interest in Indian sports piqued after PV Sindhu’s silver medal win at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and was further intensified by Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He admires legendary Indian Table Tennis paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal for his grind, his achievements and his resilience. According to him, Sharath Kamal’s bronze medal at the 2018 Asian Games in mixed doubles with Manika Batra paved the way for a host of emerging stars in Table Tennis.

During his free time, he consumes all forms of sports content and also watches regional Indian cinema.

Know More

"Anuj Rawat getting retained for next three seasons because of this cameo" - Twitter reacts to Rawat's 29* vs RR

Faf du Plessis, Glenn Maxwell set the tone for RCB