Former India captain K Srikkanth said that RCB overcelebrated their victory against CSK which got them a place in the Eliminator.
The Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) dream of winning their first Indian Premier League (IPL) came to an end on Wednesday as they lost to the Rajasthan Royals by four wickets in the Eliminator. RCB had pretty much been the story of the league stage, having staged a seemingly improbable comeback to make it to the playoffs. RCB had won six matches on the trot after losing all but one of their first eight matches of the season.
RCB had gone into the Eliminator on the back of a six-match winning streak. (AFP)
The last act in this winning streak was ensuring that they beat Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by more than 18 runs in their last league match of the season. The victory ensured that RCB snatched the last playoff spot away from the five-time champions. The RCB players deliriously celebrated the victory, an act that was met with mixed reactions. While some felt that RCB deserved to celebrate in this manner considering the enormity of what they have achieved, many felt that the team was overdoing its celebrations and also criticised them after MS Dhoni walked off without shaking hands with the opposition.
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With subsequently RCB losing the Eliminator, former India captain Krishnamachari Srikkanth said that they shouldn’t have “posted unecessary videos & showed off too much” after their victory against CSK which only guaranteed them a spot in the playoffs and nothing more. “In life when you are doing well keep your mouth shut and keep going, when you make noise out of something you are doing you cannot do that work,” said Srikkanth on his Youtube channel.
‘If you played well congrats, if you played poorly then take the criticism’
RCB were first undone by RR’s spinners, particularly former CSK man Ravichandran Ashwin starving them for runs. Ashwin ended up with figures of 2/19 and won the player of the match. “They were posting unecessary videos and showing off too much (after the win against CSK). That’s why (Ravichandran) Ashwin came and destroyed them, thats why in cricket you need to shut ur mouth and play.
“If you played well congrats, if you played poorly then take the criticism but you should never open your mouth and show aggression. They are going on congratulating themselves for qualifying for the playoffs and for the great comeback, CSK and MI have done this so many more times. CSK and Mumbai have both come from nowhere and won titles. These guys won six matches and as soon as they qualified they got knocked out,” said Srikkanth.
RR had gone into the match on the back of a winless run that extended to five matches, in stark contrast to what RCB had done before the Eliminator. RCB were restricted to a score of 172/8 but they made RR work to get to the target. In the end, Rovman Powell finished the chase off with a six off the last ball of the 19th over.
