RCB vs CSK: Faf du Plessis admits MS Dhoni gave RCB a huge scare, declares Yash Dayal as the real 'Man of the Match'

Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) took on Ruturaj Gaikwad-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a high-voltage virtual knockout match of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) on Saturday, May 18, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

After being invited to bat first in the match, Royal Challengers Bengaluru did a fantastic job and posted a huge total of 218/5 on the board. It was terrific batting performances from Faf du Plessis (54), Virat Kohli (47), Rajat Patidar (41), and Cameron Green (38) that helped the team register a good score.

Defending the target, Rachin Ravindra (61) and Ravindra Jadeja (42) gave a huge scare to RCB. However, RCB bowlers held their nerves and restricted CSK to 191/7 to win the match by 27 runs. With the win, RCB became 4th team to qualify for playoffs.

At the post-match presentation ceremony, Faf du Plessis, who won the Player of the Match award, said that the atmosphere in Bengaluru was unbelievable. Talking about the pitch after the rain break, Faf du Plessis said that it was like the Day 5 pitch in Ranchi. Faf du Plessis stated:

"What a night. Unbelievable and such a great atmosphere, such a pleasure to finish off the season with a win. Batting first, I think it was the hardest pitch I have ever played on. 

" Myself and Virat were talking about 140-150 after we came back from the rain break. The communication from the umpires was there was a lot of rain on the pitch, they wanted to push the game and that makes sense. and when we came back my god, I was telling Mitch Santner it was like a day 5 pitch at Ranchi and to get 200 on that was unbelievable."

Faf du Plessis showered rich praise on his batters for showing great intent after the initial flop show in IPL 2024. Faf du Plessis asserted:

"The last 6 games the batters have batted with good intent and good strike-rate. We were slow earlier on and we wanted more intent and that was awesome."

Faf du Plessis further said that they bowled like they were defending 175 and it worked for them. He also admitted that MS Dhoni, who scored 25 runs, gave them a huge scare and expressed his wish to give the Player of the Match award to Yash Dayal for his terrific bowling show. Faf du Plessis said:

"We were defending 175, it got a bit close, at one stage, with MS there, I thought, oh dear, he has done it so many times. The way we bowled with the wet ball, we tried to change it. I wanted to give the Man of the Match to Yash Dayal. The way he bowled was unbelievable. For a man who's fairly new, he deserves it. [on what he told Dayal before the last over] Pace off is the best option and trust your skills and enjoy, this is what you trained for. The yorker did not work the 1st ball and he went back to pace off and it worked unbelievably well."

Faf du Plessis signed off by talking about the crowd and he was left awestruck looking at the atmosphere at the venue. Faf du Plessis said:

"[on the crowd tonight[ It's crazy, even when we weren't winning the fans were here. We felt in the changeroom we felt it was something we had to get right. Coming here tonight, it was set up nicely, CSK v RCB, unbelievable atmosphere and we as a team will do a lap of honour to thank the crowd for the support. It's really important that we enjoy this, great 6 games in a row and the first goal is to get into the knockouts, enjoy this but get back to work tomorrow."

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's IPL 2024 Journey 

The Faf du Plessis-led side started off their campaign in the Indian Premier League 2024 by bagging a loss at the hands of the Chennai Super Kings in the tournament opener. They won their second match against the Punjab Kings but then went on an awful 6-match losing streak, which saw RCB not winning a match for close to a month.

During this period, they played some good cricket as well but no support from the luck meant that they finished on the losing side. Their losing streak consisted of defeats against Kolkata Knight Riders, Lucknow Super Giants, Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai Indians, and Sunrisers Hyderabad. 

As RCB were looking down and out of the competition, they produced an unbelievable turnaround and shocked the cricket world. They went on to win 5 consecutive matches and defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals during this period. Virat Kohli was at the forefront of these wins and the wins helped RCB come into contention for playoffs out of nowhere.