One loss led to another and before Royal Challengers Bangalore knew it, their season was over even before it began. Few teams can recover after losing their first six games and so it was with Virat Kohli and Co.
All the talk at the start of the season was how AB de Villiers and Kohli would need support from the other players but as the losses piled up, the RCB skipper also had no answer to his side’s dismal show.
RCB finished at the bottom with 11 points, 4th place-holder Sunrisers Hyderabad had 12 points
RCB remained unbeaten in five of their last six games and they wrapped up a disappointing season with a 4-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad, the same team that had hammered them by 118 runs in the first game.
Kohli’s deputy, AB de Villiers, before flying back home said that RCB was just a win short of making to the knock-outs.
RCB ended eighth out of eight teams but their tally of 11 points was the highest for any bottom-placed team in the tournament’s history. Rajasthan Royals also finished with 11 points but remained ahead of RCB because of a better run-rate.
“It’s a fantastic way to finish, very sad to see that we were one win away from possibly making it to the knockouts. Crazy to see how close the margins are in this tournament. But it was a nice way to finish, there was a lot of talent we discovered this year.
Looking forward to next season, just want to thank everyone at the Chinnaswamy and the RCBians for supporting us through thick and thin,” de Villiers, who quit international cricket last year and plays franchise only cricket now, was quoted as saying by Times Now.
De Villiers himself was in a good form this season with 442 runs from 13 games at an average of 44 and strike-rate of 154. He smashed five half-centuries with the highest score of 82 not out. He ended up as the second highest scorer for RCB this season after captain Kohli who scored 464 runs from 14 games. De Villiers slammed 26 sixes and 31 boundaries while scoring his runs.
