Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) sneeked into the play-offs after Mumbai Indians broke Delhi Capitals' (DC) heart with a five-wicket win in their last IPL match on Saturday.
Already out of contention, MI played partypoopers as they first restricted DC to 159/7 with Jasprit Bumrah snapping three wickets and then returned to overhaul the target in 19.1 overs to knock the 2020 finalists out of the tournament.
While Ishan Kishan (48) and Dewald Brevis (37) kept MI in the hunt, it was Tim David's 11-ball 34-run cameo that brought the five-time champions back into the chase.
Meanwhile, RCB star batter Virat Kohli thanked Mumbai after DC's defeat paved way for Faf Du Plessis-led side to seal the playoff berth.
"Thank you, Mumbai, we will remember this one," said Virat Kohli after the match.
"It was unbelievable. The emotions in the changing room were unbelievable. Thank you, Mumbai, we will remember this one," Kohli said in a release.
RCB had defeated table-toppers Gujarat Titans (GT) by eight wickets in their final league match to keep their hopes alive for a playoff, which depended on the clash between DC and MI.
Delhi needed to win the match to make it to the playoffs but they came a cropper against bottom-placed MI.
RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis said the entire team watched the match together and was cheering each and every move made by the Mumbai team.
"It was so good, I think first of all it was really nice to see that everyone was here from the start of the game, so we watched it together," he said.
"We were all shouting for every wicket that Mumbai got and then when they are chasing every boundary. It's good for everyone to watch together and then the celebration towards the end was awesome to be a part of." RCB will now take on third-placed Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in the Eliminator at Edens Gardens on May 25.
"The last game we played we felt almost like we played our best game of cricket of this campaign so far and that is how you want to enter the knockout stages, so we needed someone to do us a favour and Mumbai did that for us, we are very thankful for that," Du Plessis said.
"Obviously now the work starts again, and we get our work mode back on." RCB has never ever won the IPL and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell feels the team is very close to achieving that dream.
"Amazing result for us tonight. There is just one small step in us going further, we are that close to making history for RCB in this tournament. We needed another team, but from now on it's all us."
