Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore on Sunday (Oct 3) joined Delhi Capitals (DC) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) as the third team to make the play-offs in the ongoing edition of the IPL being played in the UAE.
The 'Red and Black' brigade made it to the last four stage after beating Punjab Kings by six runs in an encounter played at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Much to RCB's credit, it has been a second season in succession when 'Kohli and Co.' have crossed the first frontier and made it to the play-offs. RCB had finished fourth in the last edition of the IPL after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the play-off eliminator.
RCB's play-off berth comes on the back of a collective team effort headlined by the stellar bowling performance of their medium pacer Harshal Patel, who deservingly owns the Purple Cap as the leading wicket-taker.
The batting unit comprising a plethora of T20 stalwarts has been scoring runs consistently to set some daunting totals and chase down herculean targets.
While skipper Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal have been consistently providing the fireworks up the order, Glen Maxwell and AB De Villiers have put on quite the show with their blistering stroke play in the middle order to provide the late impetus in their power-packed batting armoury.
The batting has been backed well by the bowling unit which has bowled some terrific match-winning spells. The flavour of the season has been medium pacer Harshal Patel, who has outfoxed the best of the batsman with his deceptive change of pace. Patel has been the chief tormentor with the white cherry, picking up a bagful of wickets to script some memorable wins.
Spin king Yuzvendra Chahal has been the partnership breaker for RCB in the middle order with his bagful of tricks. 'Yuzi' seems to have answered back the selectors on his World Cup snub by being in prime wicket-taking form in the business end of the season. The supporting cast has not been bad either as Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj and Shahbaz Ahmed have been among the wickets.
In a nutshell, RCB has finally learnt to overcome their tag of being a team dependent on individual brilliance and have relied on collectivism as their winning formula. The end result is there for everyone to see.
