'I was mentally prepared:' RCB youngster relishes the finisher's role against Punjab Kings

RCB registered its first win of IPL 2024 when they got past Punjab Kings with 4 balls to spare.

 
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RCB's win against Punjab Kings on Monday brought out several positives for the team. Virat Kohli struck his first half-century of the season  New ball bowlers Mohammed Siraj and Yash Dayal had an excellent outing with the ball and troubled the batters throughout.

When RCB required 47 runs from 22 balls with just 4 wickets in hand, Dinesh Karthik and Mahipal Lomror brought out their best and took the team home without any further hurdles. Veteran Dinesh Karthik has looked in good touch in both the games but Mahipal Lomror's cameo can't be counted out.

The youngster scored 17 off just 8 balls to ease the pressure. The young left-hander from Rajasthan came in as the impact player when RCB had lost Virat Kohli and Anuj Rawat in the space of three balls. But Lomror clipped his first ball for four and made his intentions clear.

Lomror smashed India international Arshdeep Singh for a six and a four in the next over  He showed nerves of steel and played his finisher's role to perfection. Karthik and Lomror stitched together an unbeaten partnership of 48 from just 18 balls to stun the Punjab Kings.

Mahipal Lomror relishes the finisher's role given by RCB

After winning the match for his side, Lomror spoke about the role given to him by his team management. He said that he was prepared to play as a finisher.

“Yeah, this is what the team management wants me to prepare about for this role, and they have communicated really well about this, and they are very clear because we have a really good, strong batting line-up. So that's the only place where they can shuffle and use me. They are very clear about it from the very first day, and I'm also preparing for the same," Lomror said.

The youngster also shed light on the impact player rule and how he prepared himself in the nets for that situation.

“Preparation-wise, the role I used to do in the last few years gave me more balls to bat. But now as an impact sub or low down the order, there's not going to be many balls to play. So my preparations are such that whenever I'm going into nets or whenever I'm training, I just try and hit. I try and hit boundaries from the very first ball and from the word go. So yeah, I'm trying to prepare like that,” Lomror explained.

Lomror also lauded his batting partner Dinesh Karthik and stated how the latter's experience helped both of them to execute their plans to perfection.

“I think batting with him makes things really easy for us because he is an experienced guy, and he has like 15–17 years of experience in the IPL. And he has been doing that role for such a long period of time now, and he has executed his plans really well. He was just telling me to stay calm and just focus on the next ball and focus on the job in hand, not to get over-excited or not to get too aggressive," the 24-year-old added.

Also read: 'It's the experience of keeping calm:' Simon Doull compares star RCB batter's knock with MS Dhoni

The contributions from RCB's middle order batters have been impressive so far. Anuj Rawat, Dinesh Karthik, and Mahipal Lomror all have made good contributions so far. If Maxwell, Green, and Patidar can join the party, this will be a dangerous batting line-up for the opposition.

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