Former Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) batsman AB de Villiers last night congratulated his former franchise for reaching the IPL 2024 play-offs.
RCB defeated defending champions Chennai Super Kings in front of the home fans at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium to seal their spot. Last night’s South Indian derby was perhaps one of the best derbies in the history of the Indian Premier League. What was even better was the way Bengaluru tried their best to finish in the top four of the table.
It was one of the best things RCB fans could have ever experienced when their favorite qualified by the slightest of margins. His dream of finally lifting the long-awaited title seems to be getting closer. A double of trophies for the franchise in 2024 seems very possible, but first they will have to overcome two obstacles: the Playoff against SRH and RR and then Qualifier 2.
AB de Villiers sends special message to RCB
AB de Villiers, who reached the IPL final twice with the franchise, first congratulated RCB for their sensational performance against CSK. The South African, as we all know, is a legend in the Bengaluru team and has a special bond with the team’s former captain Virat Kohli as well as the huge fan base.
Therefore, it was quite obvious for AB de Villiers to send a message to his RCB family. He took to X (formerly Twitter) and asked all IPL teams to never write off the team, stating that they are always in the hunt and looking to win. de Villiers also highlighted the turnaround that Bengaluru had in their season and finally affirmed them to go for the Premier League title.
“Never count out #RCB. What a turnaround! What a performance! Let’s get that title now.” – wrote de Villiers in X.
All RCB players showed their faces at the most important moment
Every RCB player knew what they had to do to reach the IPL 2024 play-offs and that’s why they all played according to it. They did not let their intensity slacken for even a second as even the much-questioned middle-order batting line-up rose to the occasion.
In the first innings, Virat Kohli (47) and Faf du Plessis (54) had a crucial partnership of 78, Rajat Patidar smashed 41 off 23 and Cameron Green contributed 38 off 17. Dinesh Karthik and Glenn Maxwell also shared 30 runs between them . he bowled just 11 balls with a strike rate of over 230.
The bowling department quickly got to work and dismissed CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad for a golden duck. Rachin Ravindra had put up a good fight with his 61 off 37 before being run out in an unfortunate circumstance, Ajinkya Rahane getting out with 33 off 22.
Shivam Dube, Daryl Mitchell and Mitchell Santner failed. Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni did their best but CSK were eventually restricted to 191/7. Bengaluru will now wait for the team that finishes third and it could be Rajasthan or Hyderabad who they will face in the first eliminator.