Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB)'s fairytale run in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 came to an end on Wednesday. Up against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Eliminator contest, RCB were beaten by a fair margin, with Sanju Samson's men sealing their progression into the Qualifier 2. With the defeat, RCB's hopes of lifting the IPL title for the first time also came to an end, with the franchise remaining unsuccessful for the 17th season in a row.
Seeing RCB bow out in first round of the playoffs, former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) star Ambati Rayudu took a brutal swipe at the team.
During the Star Sports broadcast of the match, Rayudu could be heard saying: "IPL Trophy are not won by celebrations and aggression. IPL Trophy is not won by just beating CSK. To win the IPL trophy you will have to play well in the Playoffs".
After the conclusion of the game, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis admitted being proud of the run his team produced to qualify for the playoffs.
"With the dew coming, we felt we were short with the bat. Did think we were 20 runs shy of what was a good score. Credit to the boys - they fought really well. That's all you can ask for. If you look at naturally assessing the pitch and conditions, you would say it's a 180 pitch because it was swinging upfront and was quite slow.
"But what we've found out this season, with the impact player, the par score isn't enough any more. Also with the dew coming in. Extremely proud. Lot of teams - their wheels would've fallen off after 1 from 9. To come back like that, six games in a row, takes a lot of heart and character. We weren't special tonight in terms of pushing that extra 20 runs with the bat," Du Plessis said after the match.
Courtesy of the defeat, RCB also earned an unwanted record of becoming the team with the most number of losses in the IPL playoffs.