Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) took on Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a high-voltage virtual Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) knockout match on Saturday, May 18 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
After being invited to bat first in the match, Royal Challengers Bengaluru did a fantastic job and posted a huge total of 218/5 on the board. It was excellent batting performances from Faf du Plessis (54), Virat Kohli (47), Rajat Patidar (41) and Cameron Green (38) that helped the team register a good score.
Defending the goal, Rachin Ravindra (61) and Ravindra Jadeja (42) gave RCB a big scare. However, the RCB players held their nerve and restricted CSK to 191/7 to win the match by 27 runs. With the victory, RCB became the fourth team to qualify for the playoffs.
At the post-match presentation ceremony, Man of the Match award winner Faf du Plessis said the atmosphere in Bengaluru was incredible. Talking about the course after the rain break, Faf du Plessis said it was like the course on Day 5 in Ranchi. Faf du Plessis stated:
“What a night. Incredible and great atmosphere, great pleasure to end the season with a win. Batting first, I think it was the hardest pitch I’ve ever played on.”
“Virat and I were talking about 140-150 after returning from the rain break. The communication from the umpires was that there was a lot of rain on the field, they wanted to push the game and that makes sense. And when we got there OMG, I was telling him to Mitch Santner who was like a Day 5 pitch at Ranchi and getting 200 on that was incredible.”
Faf du Plessis praised his batsmen for showing great intent after the initial failure in IPL 2024. Faf du Plessis stated:
“In the last 6 games the batters have hit with good intention and good strike rate. We were slow at the beginning and we wanted more intention and that was incredible.”
Faf du Plessis further said that they bowled as if they were defending 175 and it worked for them. He also admitted that MS Dhoni, who scored 25 runs, gave them a big scare and expressed his desire to give the Man of the Match award to Yash Dayal for his fantastic bowling performance. Faf du Plessis said:
“We were defending 175, it was a bit close, at one point, with MS there, I thought, oh dear, he’s done it so many times. The way we bowled with the ball wet, we tried to change it. I wanted to give him the Man of the Match award. to Yash Dayal. The way he played was incredible for a guy who is quite new, he deserves it. [on what he told Dayal before the last over] Taking the pace is the best option and trusting your skills and enjoying yourself, that’s what you trained for. The yorker didn’t work the first ball and he accelerated again and it worked incredibly well.”
Faf du Plessis said goodbye by talking to the audience and was amazed to see the atmosphere in the place. Faf du Plessis said:
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Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s IPL 2024 journey
The Faf du Plessis-led team began their Indian Premier League 2024 campaign with a defeat at the hands of the Chennai Super Kings in the first match of the tournament. They won their second match against Punjab Kings, but then went on a terrible six-match losing streak, in which RCB did not win a match for almost a month.
During this period, they also played some good cricket, but lack of luck support meant that they ended up on the losing side. Their losing streak consisted of losses against Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants, Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
As RCB looked down and out of the competition, they produced an incredible turnaround and shocked the cricket world. They won 5 consecutive matches and defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals during this period. Virat Kohli was at the forefront of these victories and the victories helped RCB come into playoff contention out of nowhere.
