The Indian Premier League (IPL) has entered its final phase and RCB, who initially lost six matches in a row, became the fourth team to make it to the top four in the playoffs.
The match of the night is likely to be between former Indian captain Virat Kohli's team Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and former captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni's team Chennai Super Kings (CSK), who led India to victory in the World Cup. The PL was the most important competition as the winning team would qualify for the playoffs. But there were many ifs and buts.
There were so many that social media users called it not an IPL but a match between India and Pakistan.
RCB's qualification for the IPL play-offs was attributed to Pakistan reaching the semi-finals of the 2022 World Cup and said, "See how the system of nature unfolds."
Chennai Super Kings had all the favorable conditions to make it to the playoffs. He just had to win a match or lose by a narrow margin. But for RCB, reaching the playoffs was no less than winning the lion's share.
RCB needed to win by at least 18 runs or 11 balls first to qualify for the playoffs. After losing the toss, all he had to do was win by 18 runs.
Captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli had scored 33 runs in three overs when the rain started, which lasted only a few minutes but turned the game in CSK's favor as the pitch started favoring the spinners. And the runs that were coming easily became difficult.
Game affected by rain
Just 11 runs were scored in the next three overs and thus RCB's score was 42 for no loss in the first six overs. But then Virat and du Plessis started to increase the pace of runs. Virat came close to his half-century but while checking a shot, he was caught on the boundary by Daryl Mitchell off Mitchell Santner.
Virat scored 47 runs off 29 balls with the help of three fours and four sixes. During this time, he had crossed the 700-run mark in the tournament and had also hit the highest number of sixes in the tournament, 36.
The matter did not stop here. When Faf du Plessis was declared run out by the third umpire in a controversial decision, it seemed that all odds were against RCB. But then aggressive batting from Rajat Pattidar, Cameron Green and later Dinesh Karthik and Maxwell saw RCB post a total of 218 and set CSK a target of 219 but only 201 to reach the playoffs. were needed.
Maxwell, who has not shown his essence in the IPL so far, dismissed the second highest run scorer in the tournament and Chennai captain Rituraj Gaikwad on the very first ball, and then Drill Mitchell also scored four runs in the third over. Returned and thus his team appeared to be playing to qualify instead of winning the match.
After the fall of two wickets, Rehane and Richan Ravindra kept up the pace of scoring runs, but in the tenth over, Ajinkya Rahane got out after scoring 33 runs. RCB looked back in the match once again, but then in the 13th over, Richan Ravindra suddenly ran out. Done.
What happened then? When Du Plessis took a blinder catch from Santner off Mohammad Siraj, hope faded. After him, 'Mr Cool' i.e. Mahendra Singh Dhoni came to the crease and started playing in his own style. Now 17 runs were required in the last over to qualify.
He hit a 110 meter long six off the first ball and the stadium came alive. But on the very next ball, he was caught on the boundary.
Shardal Thakur, who came after him, and Ravindra Jadeja, who hit three sixes and three fours at the other end, could not do anything.
Thus, RCB won the match by 27 runs and became the fourth team to reach the playoffs.
Comparison of RCB with Pakistan team
For the past several days, many social media users wanted to see RCB in the playoffs with all the odds and ends like the Pakistani team.
A user named Abhijeet shared the pictures of Pakistan's 2022 team and last night's RCB celebration and wrote, 'Two great examples of nature's system.'
It should be remembered that the then coach of Pakistan, Saqlain Mushtaq, used the term 'nature's system' for Pakistan's continuous defeats and then victories, on which funny memes were created on social media.
A user named Nasha Rooz wrote: “Believe me this match looked more like India vs Pakistan than CSK vs RCB for the playoffs with Mahi (Dhoni) and Virat at their peak.
Naho has shared a picture and a video with his tweet.
A user named Aayush wrote on X: 'Say what you want but this was probably the biggest match in the history of APL. People's expectations were about the level of match between India and Pakistan.
"You can troll RCB for not winning trophies, but the way they rule the streets, nobody else can.
One user even wrote that RCB's head coach is Zimbabwe's Andy Flower, who has also coached Pakistan. That is, users are leaving no stone unturned to find similarities and similarities with the Pakistani team of RCB.
One user wrote: 'Sure this RCB team is very dangerous, like the Pakistan team of 1992.'
A user named Rashid Ali Bashir wrote that all Pakistanis are supporting RCB because of Virat Kohli.
'Does Virat Kohli have more followers in Pakistan than Babar Azam?'
A user named Raju Roy posted a chart of the current IPL and wrote, 'Whenever I think about RCB's performance in IPL, I always reach for the comparison with the Pakistan team playing in the World Cup. I am
"Being an old fan of RCB, I have high hopes of RCB winning the cup this time provided they don't face Kolkata in the final."
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