Virat Kohli’s second consecutive hundred went in vain as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) lost their final league game to Gujarat Titans (GT) by 6 wickets on Sunday. The defeat also ended RCB’s campaign in the Indian Premier League (IPL), allowing Mumbai Indians (MI) to grab the final playoff berth.
RCB have never won an IPL trophy and it would have rankled captain Faf du Plessis all the more as, despite leading the run-getters chart, his efforts went in vain. Speaking after the heart-wrenching loss, the RCB captain Faf du Plessis said it ‘wasn’t one of the best teams in the competition’ and ‘didn’t deserve to be in the semifinal’.
“I am so disappointed that our season ends there. If we take a hard look at ourselves, we’ll be honest in saying that we weren’t one of the best teams in the competition. We were lucky that there were some really good performances throughout the season but, as a whole (and) as a team, we probably don’t deserve to be in the semifinal, if you look at the period of 15-14 games,” in a post-match video posted by RCB on Monday.
“It still hurts. I mean, we tried really hard and unfortunately just fell short. Looking at some real positives in the form of Maxi (Glenn Maxwell) this year, the partnerships we had between myself and Virat, a 50-run partnership in probably every game, the consistency was remarkable.
RCB v GT Game Day ReviewCaptain Faf, players and the coaches reflect on the #IPL2023 season and send in their gratitude and regards to the 12th Man Army, after match that brought an end to our campaign this year.#PlayBold #ನಮ್ಮRCB pic.twitter.com/8Vst2kRZLV
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) May 22, 2023
“Siraj had a great campaign, so some really, really high positives and some areas in the game where we were consistently not great, I think,” the RCB skipper added.
RCB head coach Sanjay Bangar said the team’s early exit despite some outstanding performances from Kohli, Faf, and Siraj was difficult to comprehend.
“It is indeed very disappointing because there were some outstanding performances. We had to finish a couple of close games but couldn’t. We found ourselves in a very tight corner towards the end but (it) doesn’t take away anything from the guys who performed,” Bangar said.
“The performances put (up) by the team… we were really a fighting unit, a very attractive unit throughout the tournament, just that very disappointed that we could not progress in the tournament,” he added.
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