Rasikh Salam Dar’s 4-Wicket Spell Powers RCB Win, But Misses Player of the Match Award

The 23rd IPL 2026 game was contested between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Wednesday. The former won by five wickets and secured first position in the points chart. Bowlers had a great performance, especially Rasikh Salam Dar; however, he could not win the Player of the Match award. This decision was challenged by Aakash Chopra.

Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and elected to field first. Their decision was vindicated when RCB dismissed LSG for 146 runs in 20 overs. There was an excellent performance by all the bowlers of RCB, with special mention being made of their right-arm medium-pacer Rasikh Salam Dar. Dar took 4 wickets for 24 runs in 4 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also took 3 for 27 in 4 overs, Krunal Pandya took 2 for 38 in 4 overs, and Josh Hazlewood took 1 wicket for 20 runs in 4 overs.

RCB won the match by 5 wickets, scoring 149 for 5 in 15.1 overs. It was expected that Rasikh Salam Dar would receive the Player of the Match award after the match, but to everyone's surprise, the award was given to fast bowler Josh Hazlewood. This decision was beyond everyone's understanding, as Dar had a good economy rate and took three more wickets than Hazlewood. Both are crucial in T20 cricket. Therefore, Dar's refusal to receive the Player of the Match award is a strange decision.