The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) made a perfect fairytale turnaround in this 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2024 with a 27-run victory to knock out the defending champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in both the team’s last league game of the season.

With the sixth win on the bounce, the RCB team promoted themselves to the fourth position in the points table with seven wins in this edition in their allotted 14 games, at a net run rate of +0.459. By the last week of April, the 2016 runners-up side were struggling at the bottom of the table with six consecutive defeats.

However, with quite a few special contributions from their players in the second half of the tournament, the RCB team made their way into the ninth playoffs in the history of the IPL.

‘I’ve felt sorry for RCB fans’- Matthew Hayden predicts Bengaluru’s fate for the rest of IPL 2024

RCB started their campaign with a solitary victory in the first eight games, as a few defeats by huge margins almost broke their dream of finishing among the top four. But they turned back from that position.

Also Read: ‘There Is So Much To Learn From…’- Rajat Patidar Credits Veteran

Their two successive wins against the Gujarat Titans by nine wickets, and by four wickets in both away and home clashes respectively gave them the belief, and since then they never looked back as any of the team members was putting their hands up in every single game during the second half of the season.

The former Australia opener, Matthew Hayden believes that this ongoing edition of the IPL could be the season where RCB could end their 16-year-long wait for a trophy after their thrilling victory against the Super Kings in the last over.

While in a chat with Star Sports, the former CSK batter talked about how much he loved the spirits of the team. The retired left-handed aggressive batter also feels that this well-balanced and disciplined victory over CSK was the perfect game for RCB.

‘It’s really great to watch, actually, encouraging to watch.’ Matthew Hayden said during a chat with Star Sports. ‘I’ve always felt a little sorry for RCB fans if I was being perfectly honest because they come so far to see this the ninth time they’ve been in this playoffs.’

‘And they’ve been bridesmaids, you know, a number of times. So, you know, this might be the year.’ The former Australia and CSK opener expressed. ‘They seem to be just a side that is extremely well, um uh, disciplined and it’s routine. Now, that was almost the perfect match for RCB this evening.’

Also Read: IPL 2024: Trent Boult Overtakes Bhuvneshwar Kumar With A New Record In IPL History

Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis have led the team in the opening position with so many special knocks. The former RCB captain is also the leading run-getter of the ongoing season with 708 runs in 14 innings at an average of 64.36 and a strike rate of 155.60 with five half-centuries, and one hundred against the Rajasthan Royals. Even Du Plessis too has been in fine touch with 421 runs in 14 innings at a strike rate of 163.81 with four fifties in this IPL 2024.

The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) will now play the Eliminator against either Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) or Rajasthan Royals (RR) on May 22 at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.