The Royal Challengers Bengaluru have successfully qualified for the playoffs of the 17^th season of the TATA IPL after beating the defending champions Chennai Super Kings by 27 runs on 18^th May at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The Men in Red were expected to be eliminated at the very beginning of the season with their disappointing performances against their opponents. But, *

RCB VS CSK

The Royal Challengers’ campaign started off with a loss against the Super Kings in the opener by 6 wickets. After a decent opening stand, there was a middle-order collapse with the likes of Rajat Patidar and Glenn Maxwell getting out on 0. They managed to score 173 in their 20 due to an excellent partnership between Anuj Rawat and Dinesh Karthik. But, unfortunately, in the second innings, their bowlers let them down helping their opponents race off to a comfortable 6-wicket victory with 8 balls to spare.

RCB VS PBKS

They moved on from that loss to end up with a win in their next match against the Punjab Kings. The Royal Challengers won the toss and put the Kings to bat first. They scored 176-6 in their 20 with their captain Shikhar Dhawan scoring 45. In reply, they faced a few hiccups initially with their captain Faf Du Plessis getting out on 3 followed by the Australian all-rounder Cameron Green. Virat Kohli continued to hold one end in spite of losing partners at the other end. Kohli was the stand-out batter with 77 but he perished in the 16^th over tilting the game in favour of the Kings. But it still wasn’t to be their night. RCB Impact Sub Mahipal Lomror and Dinesh Karthik finished off the proceedings with 4 balls to spare.

RCB VS KKR

The next game against the Kolkata Knight Riders in Chinnaswamy was the game from where things started to go downhill for the Royal Challengers. Put in to bat first, the Men in Red scored 182 off their 20 overs with Kohli being the stand-out batter once again. The KKR openers Sunil Narine and Phil Salt gave them a fiery start scoring 85 in the powerplay. They perished soon after. But then came Venkatesh Iyer who scored a quickfire fifty and completely titled it in favour of the Knight Riders. After he got out, the remaining work was done by the captain Shreyas Iyer and Rinku Singh. The visitors comfortably rode home winning by 7 wickets with 19 balls to spare. It was a game to definitely forget for the home side.

RCB VS LSG

This too was a home game for the Men in Red. This time they were hosting the Lucknow Super Giants. The toss was in the favour of the home team and hence they put the Super Giants into bat first. They scored 181 off their 120 balls with Quinton de Kock scoring 81 and Nicholas Pooran adding the finishing touches with 40 off just 21 deliveries. After a decent start, the in-form Kohli was nipped out early. After a while, du Plessis, Rajat Patidar and Maxwell followed leaving RCB reeling at 58/4 in the eighth over. Once again, the impact Sub Mahipal Lomror tried to bail RCB out of trouble with his quickfire 33 but his dismissal extinguished any hopes of an RCB win. It ended with RCB getting all-out for 153 and LSG winning by 28 runs.

RCB VS RR

This time, RCB were being hosted by the Men in Pink in the “Pink City” (Jaipur) at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. The home team chose to field first. RCB managed to score 183 on the back of a fantastic ton by Virat Kohli and a 44 by the captain. The chase for the Royals didn’t start very well as they lost Yashaswi Jaiswal for a duck. But, after that, it was purely the Butler and Samson show. Almost every over had a boundary as long as they were batting. As soon as the captain Samson fell for a well-made 69, a couple of wickets fell cheaply too. But Butler was still at the crease and towards the end, the question was whether Bulter would get a ton. With 1 to win off the last over and with him on 94, he bought up both his ton and the win in style with a 6 off the first ball. It was a game for RCB to forget as the pitch played better in the second innings and they were once again let down by their bowlers except for Reece Topley who bowled well.

RCB VS MI

They were next hosted by the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium. The same routine of being put to bat first, RCB scored 196 with 3 half-centuries from their captain du Plessis, and other members Rajat Patidar and Dinesh Karthik. In this innings, Mumbai’s pacer Jasprit Bumrah recorded a 5-fer. In reply, the MI openers, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan gave the team an excellent start scoring 72 in the first 6 overs. Ishan Kishan went on to score 69 but eventually perished. Their no. 3 batsman Suryakumar Yadav scored a half-century as well and got out. Eventually, the finishing touches were applied by their newly appointed captain Hardik Pandya and Tilak Verma who took their team over the line with 27 balls to spare. The ground known well for chasing teams winning the matches was once again proved by MI’s 7- wicket victory.

RCB VS SRH

This was a match of records. The highest score in the history of IPL was recorded in this match. Their opponents Sunrisers Hyderabad scored 287 for the loss of just 3 wickets in their quota of overs with a century from their opener Travis Head, a quickfire 67 from Heinrich Klaasen and other contributions from a few others. RCB openers came out all guns blazing scoring 79 off the first 6 overs. But, once Kohli fell, it opened the gates and that led to a top-order collapse from RCB. After that Dinesh Karthik turned up and batted like a dream scoring 83 with hardly any support from the other end. His innings took RCB to 262 eventually leading to a loss by 25 runs for the Men in Red. This was the fifth straight loss for RCB and people’s hopes of them qualifying this year became slimmer.

RCB VS KKR

The Royal Challengers once again faced the Men in Purple but this time in their den. Already having faced a thrashing from them once, fans prayed hard for the Men in Red to emerge victorious this time. Captain du Plessis put the Knight Riders in to bat first after which they scored 222 with the most notable contributions from Phil Salt and leader Shreyas Iyer. In reply, RCB had a horrendous start with the openers getting out for paltry scores. The partnership between Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar made a difference with both of them scoring their respective half-centuries and putting the team in a good position. After both the set batters were sent packing to the dugout in the same over, a few more RCB wickets fell in the next over. They slipped from 137/2 to 155/6 and they had their hopes on Dinesh Karthik. Suyash Prabhudessai played some shots but fell due to the scoreboard pressure. With 31 required off the last, Karthik tried his best to get his team over the line, but, he couldn’t. Surprisingly, in the 20^th over, Karn Sharma scored 3 sixes off Mitchell Starc leading to 3 required off 2 deliveries. Unfortunately, it was a heart-breaking 1-run loss for the Royal Challengers.

*Their turnaround in the last 6 matches over the last few weeks has taken everyone by surprise.

RCB VS SRH

The Sunrisers were hosting the Royal Challengers. After the record-breaking game at the Chinnaswamy, Sunrisers were firm favourites to win this second encounter between the two as well since this time it was in their own den after all. But it wasn’t to be. Captain du Plessis decided to bat first and they breached the 200-run mark in their quota of overs. Notable contributions were from Kohli, Patidar and Cameron Green. In reply, SRH didn’t have the greatest of starts losing their start Travis Head in the very first over. Contributions from Shahbaz Ahmed and skipper Pat Cummins helped SRH reduce the margin of defeat. The bowlers delivered for RCB when it mattered the most of their bowlers getting wickets. But it was a team effort by the Men in Red and with this victory RCB snapped their losing streak. This victory turned all the fortunes in their favour.

RCB VS GT

The Gujarat Titans were playing host to the Royal Challengers. Du Plessis and co. came into the match with confidence from the victory against SRH. They chose to chase down a target set for them. GT scored 200 at the end of 20 overs on the back of an excellent partnership between Sai Sudarshan and Shahrukh Khan with both scoring 50+ runs. In reply, du Plessis got the team off to a good start but perished early. Kohli had other plans. With Will Jacks on the other side, RCB scored 63 runs in the powerplay itself. Initially, it was Kohli doing the bulk of the scoring and within no time, Will Jacks just raced to a 100 and Kohli stayed with 70 not out on the other end taking RCB home with 4 overs to spare. It was a dominating win for RCB.

RCB VS GT

RCB were back in their den, facing the same opponent GT. Same start as the previous match, bowling first. Thanks to the excellent bowling effort, they got the Titans all-out for a meagre 148. RCB fancied their chances to win this match early. They had a tremendous start scoring 92 in the powerplay. At such a stage, with a target like 148, the match was considered nearly done. But, within the next 5 overs, something expected happened which created an air of panic for the RCB players as well as their fans with GT looking on top. They slipped from 92-0 to 117-6 and they had their hopes pinned on their “man for all cries” Dinesh Karthik. He stood up to the expectations and took the home in the 14^th over without any further hiccups. The top scorer for RCB was du Plessis with 64. This win rejuvenated their playoff chances though slim at that stage of the tournament.

RCB VS PBKS

Du Plessis and co once again faced the Kings in Dharamsala this time. They were told to set a target this time. RCB scored 241 in their 20 overs with 92 from Kohli, 55 from Patidar, 46 from Green and cameos from Will Jacks and Dinesh Karthik. The Kings didn’t have a great start losing opener Prabhsimran Singh in the first over. A partnership between Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Rossouw helped Punjab score 75 in the powerplay. But, after this partnership was broken, wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals except for a few handy knocks by some PBKS batters. All in all, it was a collective effort by the RCB bowlers handing them a 60-run victory over PBKS also leading to the elimination of the Kings from the tournament.

RCB VS DC

Facing Delhi Capitals in the Chinnaswamy, RCB decided to set a target for their opponents. Batting out the full 20 overs, with notable contributions from Jacks, Patidar and Green and cameos from Kohli and Lomror they set DC a target of 188 to get from 120 balls. In reply, DC lost David Warner off the opening over. Jake Fraser-McGurk hit a quickfire 21 but his run-out led to a collapse. In between, Shai Hope and Axar Patel stitched a 56-run partnership but that didn’t help either when Hope fell. Axar managed to score a half-century which only helped DC reduce their margin of defeat. RCB won by 47 runs and they managed to keep their playoff hopes alive. It was their 5^th straight win.

Coming to match on May 18, once again, it was a crucial knock-out game. RCB came in with the confidence of winning 5 on the trot but couldn’t be complacent as a loss in this game would destroy their dream of qualifying for the playoffs. They had to win this contest and win by a margin. CSK put their opponents to bat first which meant if RCB had to win, they would have to win by a minimum of 18 runs or more. They had an excellent start with Kohli scoring 47 and du Plessis scoring 54. There were notable contributions from Patidar and Green with cameos from Dinesh Karthik and Maxwell. CSK had a target of 219 to chase. With their batting line-up, it definitely wasn’t impossible so RCB had to be on top right from ball 1 and that’s how they were. On the very first ball of the second innings, Maxwell got the wicket of the CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad. But, soon, a good partnership got going between Rachin Ravindra and Ajinkya Rahane. But Ferguson got Rahane and a mix-up with Shivam Dube led to Ravindra being run out. Soon after Dube perished, Ravindra Jadeja did not still give up, striking cleanly and the tension for the RCB players and fans started. He was soon joined by the man MSD who also struck a few clean sixes increasing panic in the air. But, Yash Dayal, kept his calm and took RCB over the line helping RCB qualify by knocking out CSK.

The kind of cricket RCB have played over the last few weeks leading them to 6 wins on the trot and to the playoffs is highly commendable.

Now, the main part just remains, where the fans hope for RCB to continue playing such cricket and hope to realise “Ee Sala Cup Namdu” dream for the Men in Red.

Image source: ZAP Cricket