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The Saturday night turned out to be the perfect blockbuster, a roller-coaster of a ride for both Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) fans. RCB emerged victorious and qualified for the playoff as Yash Dayal kept his calm against a legendary MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja in the final over. Once again, former CSK skipper MS Dhoni may have had a bittersweet ending to his career. He got out in the final over and CSK failed to make it to the top four as well.
RCB’s never-seen-before comeback also entered history books of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) league. After losing seven out of their eight games, their chance of reaching the playoff was just one per cent. But RCB got back on the winning track and things started to fall in place for them. Every permutation or combination they wanted to go in their favour did. In the end, it turned out to be a virtual knockout between RCB and CSK with the home team needing to beat five-time champions by 18 or more runs.
In the one minute, 30 seconds long video shared on IPL’s X account, RCB players can be seen getting ecstatic and emotional. Players from the dugout rushed to the middle after Dayal bowled the last ball. Fans in the stands including Virat Kohli’s wife Anushka Sharma celebrated RCB sealing the playoff spot. After celebrating, Kohli got a little emotional as well as seen at the end of the video. In addition, Dhoni was seen in dugout as CSK missed out on eliminator spot by 10 runs.
RCB create IPL record
At Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, RCB beat CSK by 27 runs and booked the fourth available playoff spot. They became the first side ever to qualify for the playoffs after having just one win in their first seven games of the season. They also became the first side to have six successive wins and six defeats on the trot in the same season. Previously, now-defunct Deccan Chargers (2010), Punjab Kings (2020) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) had five consecutive wins and defeats each in a season.
“Coming here tonight, it was set up nicely, CSK vs RCB, unbelievable atmosphere and we as a team will do a lap of honour to thank the crowd for the support. It's really important that we enjoy this, great 6 games in a row and the first goal in the IPL is to get into the knockouts and we have done that, enjoy this but get back to work tomorrow,” Du Plessis said in the post-match presentation.
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