With a bad streak of 9 losses out of the 11 matches, IPL 10 has proven to be one of the biggest nightmares for the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore.
First team to start the season, playing defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad, RCB were expected to be the biggest challengers for the title this time round. But with a firm hold of the last spot in the standings, the squad could be forgiven if they’ve already got their return tickets booked.
Disappointing though as their season may be, RCB have still managed to be part of some of the epic matches of this season:
History Made in Kolkata
In their worst time at the IPL, Virat’s team still ended up creating IPL history at the Eden Gardens, in April.
But on the wrong side of history!
The RCB slated one record under its belt – of getting bowled out for the lowest-ever IPL total of 49.
It was in this particular match held on 23 April against the Kolkata Knight Riders that three RCB players, including Virat Kohli, were dismissed for a duck and none of the batsmen managed to make it to a score of double digits.
Six days later, RCB succumbed to another low score of 96/9 in 20 overs, giving away an easy win to Rising Pune Supergiant.
The only difference between the two matches? Virat Kohli’s performance.
The RCB captain managed a score of 55 runs against Pune while the other eight batsmen got out for single-digit scores.
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From Final (2016) to the Bottom of the Standings (2017)
From a team which gave a tough fight last year to defending champions SRH in last year’s IPL finale, this season has been disappointing not only for the supporters of the franchise but also for its very own team members.
AB de Villiers was noted saying that he not only loves India as a country but also loves playing for the happiness of his Indian fans. AB de Villiers said:
There are a lot of excuses which we can make. But at the end of the day, we just did not play well. The best teams don’t always win trophies. Zaheer Khan once told me, ‘cricket is a funny game’.AB de Villiers
What Went Wrong – From the Horse’s Mouth
After the team got bowled out for an embarrassing total of 49, Captain Kohli called the team’s performance ‘hurtful’.
He also said:
As professionals, we are expected to play much better. I cannot say anything. This is just not acceptable.Virat Kohli
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While Virat Kohli has also gone on record to state high expectations as one of the reasons behind the disappointing performance of RCB, a common RCB fan feels that the team hasn’t been able to perform as a unit, thereby not providing support to the captain who has been trying to fetch a win for his team.
While some superstitious cricket fans in India feel that the team was jinxed for this IPL season, experts and analysts suggest that the reason behind the sloppy performance could be unsteady team fixtures coupled with injured top-class captains and players.
Shane Watson, a player who could have helped change the fate of the team was kept out of the side for most of the matches, since he didn’t fit into the team’s preferred combinations and KL Rahul will miss the entire tournament due to injury.
Even if we give RCB a benefit of doubt, it’s the match againt SRH which got washed out could have further lowered the hopes of the team.
Though RCB’s journey of qualifying for the playoffs has come to a sad end (as they are the first ones to have been disqualified), the team still has some chance of ending on a stronger note by winning the remaining three matches against KXIP, KKR and DD on 5, 7, 15 May respectively.
Hopefully their performance in these last few matches would make the players gain some confidence for them to start off again next year, thereby, leaving their fans with sweeter memories of RCB in IPL 10 to bank upon until then!
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