"I played with stitches in my bowling hand" - Rahul Chahar on his wicket-less performance before the RCB game

On Friday, Royal Challengers Bangalore locked horns with Punjab Kings at the Brabourne Stadium. And in a must-win encounter for PBKS, they came hard on RCB and, because of the aggressive cricket played, Punjab came out on top.

They won the match by 54 runs and inched one step closer to the playoffs. All the Punjab bowlers did a great job of restricting a dangerous RCB lineup and won the match.

However, just before the match, Punjab leg-spinner Rahul Chahar revealed that he had been playing the previous few matches with stitches in his hand. During a match against Gujarat Titans, he suffered a broken finger when he came in between the throw and stumps during a run-out chance on the non-striker end.

He wasn't able to bowl in that match after that. However, in the next match, it might have affected his performance that he gave away 39 runs in just 3.4 overs, that too without any wickets.

Speaking to the IPL broadcaster, Star Sports, just before the match, Chahar said that taking wickets is not in your hand as a bowler, so he will be looking to work on conceding fewer runs.

The leg-spinner ended the match with a figure of 2/37 in his four overs. He said that he started well in the first half of the tournament, but the last few matches haven't gone his way in terms of taking wickets.

The leg-spinner concluded, "I played with stitches in my hand and that's my main finger. The stitches are still intact but I'll try to better my economy rate."

With a win last night, PBKS now has 12 points on the table and is sitting in the sixth spot. They are left with two more games to play. And if they win those two games, the chances of qualifying will be very clear as a total of 16 points is required for the top four.

But that won't be easy as they will be facing two tough opponents in their next two matches. They will play Delhi Capitals next on Monday, May 16, who are also in a must-win situation.

Then they will face Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 22, who are also looking for a top four position. But with the way they have beaten RCB, it would give them confidence going ahead.