There are other massive stars in RCB, but Romario Shepherd, their West Indian bludgeon has begun to garner the rave reviews that were expected of him.
Teammate Jitesh Sharma likened his hitting power to a rhino, and birthed a new nickname ‘Rhino Romario’ for the big hitter after his second fastest 50 of the IPL at the highest ever strike rate of over 378.57.
‘Insaan ke shareer mein rhino ki power (rhino’s power in human’s body). I have never seen such power,” Jitesh told IPL and RCB thereafter, as the Rhino moniker looks like it’ll get stuck.
His innings of 53 from 14 balls had 4 boundaries and 6 sixes – that’s 52 of his 53 runs coming from 10 big shots. It was the fastest 50 for any batter from RCB and IPL’s second quickest.
“I have that attacking nature. And I have the strength. So I guess I am in the rhino in the team. So I take that nickname head on,” Shepherd responded.
As the match went on, RCB socials went with Big Romar. But his 19th over explosion read 6, 6, 4, 6, no ball 6, 0, 4, which was dubbed out of syllabus. That assault finally was the difference between the two teams and the 2 runs and also RCB’s highest total of the season at Chinnaswamy, after Kohli had struck 53 off 29.
Shepherd himself said he was told hit as flay as possible. “I put in my shift. I had an idea of what they were trying to do. Was just trying to hit hard and flat. I had no time to gather information on the pitch but I observed from the dugout and our mentor had given us advice on what to do, so I had a headstart.
I knew how well Pathirana can bowl his yorker and how difficult it is to execute on his slow ball.”
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He was also grateful to Tim David and Rajat Patidar who in the end let him play his way. “They told me I can take the bowler on, hit it all. It’s the way Rajat communicated, he made me feel, ‘I’m the guy’, gave me confidence,” he added.
