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RCB have been eliminated from IPL 2018. (Source: BCCI)
“We need to be smarter with composing our team. The responsibility cannot be taken up only by AB (de Villiers) all the time. He certainly scored runs, but others need to contribute around him,” said a frustrated Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli after the match on Saturday as his team bowed out of the tournament after yet another defeat at the hands of Rajasthan Royals away from home. RCB has been one team that has surely disappointed its fans. Having won just six of their 14 matches, RCB needed a win in their last encounter against RR to stay in contention of making it to the playoffs. But they failed to succeed in this last league match and were eliminated.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have failed to put a halt on the scoring rate of opponents. They have given away 200+ runs thrice in the tournament and one of them came while defending – defending 205, RCB were thumped by CSK by 5 wickets.
Read: Mumbai Indians pay for close losses
What didn’t work for RCB
Royal Challengers Bangalore’s think tank would regret their decision of not roping back KL Rahul and Chris Gayle. Rahul was in sublime touch and played some brilliant knocks for his side in this edition of the Indian Premier League. In 13 matches, he scored 652 runs at an average of 59.27. Gayle, on the other hand, also started gloriously to score 368 runs in 10 matches at an average of 46. But more than the batting, RCB’s bowling is what became a major reason for their concern. The bowling unit produced just one standout performance when they bundled out Kings XI Punjab for 88 and later won the match by 10 wickets.
Read: Problems in squad selection hurt Delhi Daredevils
No one except Umesh Yadav was in the list of top-10 bowlers. Umesh scalped 20 wickets in 14 matches. The next bowler from RCB was Yuzvendra Chahal who picked up 12 wickets from 14 matches.
Apart from their bowling performances and death overs woes, RCB lacked a solid middle order batting. Mandeep Singh and Colin de Grandhomme did chip in with some quick runs on some occasions but their efforts went in vain eventually.
Read: How Kings XI Punjab fell apart after a good start
What worked for RCB
The positives that the RCB franchise can take from this edition of the IPL is that they have some good players warming the benches in the dugout and need to take firm decisions in forming a perfect XI. For instance, they can’t put someone like a Moeen Ali or Quinton de Kock on the bench.
Standout Players
Without a doubt, skipper Virat Kohli was one of the consistent performers for RCB. He struck 530 runs in 14 matches, averaging 48.18. AB de Villiers isn’t far away from the skipper, in fact he averages more than Kohli in this IPL. De Villiers scored 480 runs in 12 matches at an average of 53.33. Umesh Yadav had 20 wickets to his name at a good economy of 7.86.
League stage performance: 6 wins, 8 defeats, 12 points (sixth place)
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