“God has a plan, we just have to be honest….”: RCB’s Virat, Faf, Maxwell reflect on playoff qualification

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 19 (ANI): Royal Challengers Bengaluru star batter Virat Kohli, all-rounder Glenn Maxwell and skipper Faf Du Plessis, forming the franchise’s iconic ‘KGF’ trio, discussed the RCB’s brilliant turnaround from their horrid first-half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season to six successive wins to seal their playoff spot.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) completed their fairytale comeback in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) season, securing the playoff spot with a 27-run win over Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at Bengaluru on Saturday.

Following the team’s win, Virat said that God has got a plan, one just needs to be honest with their hard work.

“God has got a plan. So, we just have to be honest to what you are doing and I think we were pretty honest with our hard work. And we got the rewards but I do not want to say anything more than this. we got to focus on the next one,” said Virat in a video by RCB.

Maxwell said that the match was well set by the top order and during the batting, discussions took place in the team about the batting order and he said that the team got the right match-ups at the right time, allowing Dinesh Karthik and Maxwell to express themselves freely with the ball, with “unlimited freedom”.

“Pretty well set up by the boys at the top. I think we had a discussion, I think coach and staff, myself and DK (Dinesh Karthik). I think as the overs started to wear along, there was obviously discussions about who was going and when. I think the timing of each battle sort of went out and ended up being absolutely perfect. It meant DK had more than enough time to, I suppose, have an impact. Obviously, it would have been nice if he could have stayed out there,” he said.

“But I suppose with him getting out, it is just my role to obviously try and take over where he left off. (Cameron) Green was doing a brilliant job at the other end. Maybe a little bit of the frustration of where I was not able to probably kick-start that. I was probably coming in a bit earlier, trying to play a different role, where tonight I had pretty much-unlimited freedom to sort of go out there and… have a bit of fun and smack a couple around and got a bit of luck with the first ball, which does not always happen so it was nice to hit a couple in the middle but there is still plenty of work to do the last three games,” he added.

Maxwell said that during the team’s horrid first half, the team got a reality check of where they needed to change. The bowling and batting departments had honest chats about changing the team’s brand of cricket.

“The momentum that you can have in T20 cricket is priceless and if we can ride this momentum over the next three games, there is no reason that we cannot take home this trophy,” he added.

Skipper Faf also said that the team had a one per cent chance of qualification at one point and they shifted their focus towards playing better. He also said that qualifying for playoffs after such a bad first half feels like a dream.

“We got six wins on the bounce and even the way that we won tonight with the runs that we needed to win the game by. Incredible achievement. The difference between the first half and the second half is that it has become such a team performance. The whole team is performing. The whole batting lineup is scoring at a 160 or higher strike rate, scoring runs. All the bowlers are getting wickets. The fielding has been incredible. So I think that’s what makes it so much more pleasing–that Everyone is contributing,” the skipper added.

Coming to the match, CSK won the toss and opted to bat first. RCB put on a fine score of 218/5 on the board, with skipper Faf Du Plessis (54 in 39 balls, with three fours and three sixes), Virat Kohli (47 in 29 balls, with three fours and four sixes) put on a 78-run partnership, setting a fine platform for Rajat Patidar (41 in 23 balls, with two fours and four sixes) and Cameron Green (38* in 17 balls, with three fours and three sixes) to put on a 71-run stand for the third wicket.

Cameos from Dinesh Karthik (14 in six balls, with a four and six) and Glenn Maxwell (16 in five balls, with two fours and a six) took RCB to a 200-run plus total.

RCB needed to restrict CSK below 201 runs to qualify for the playoffs and surpass their net-run-rate.

In the run-chase of 219 runs and the task of scoring 201 runs at least to book the top four spot, CSK lost two wickets early and were reduced to 19/2. Rachin Ravindra (61 in 37 balls, with five fours and three sixes) and Ajinkya Rahane (33 in 22 balls, with three fours and a six) put up a 66-run stand to bring the side into the game.

RCB sunk CSK to 129/6, but a partnership between Ravindra Jadeja (42* in 22 balls, with three fours and three sixes) and MS Dhoni (25* in 13 balls, with three fours and a six) threatened to take the match away from RCB. However, Yash Dayal defended 11 runs in the final over, restricting CSK to just 191/7 in 20 overs.

RCB is in fourth place with seven wins and seven losses, with 14 points. CSK is in the fifth spot with seven wins and seven losses, but they have slid down to fifth due to a lower net-run rate.

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