Sunil Gavaskar, a former cricket player, and Kevin Pietersen are amazed by Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s remarkable 2024 Indian Premier League comeback. Up to the halfway point of the competition, Faf du Plessis and company had the worst season, going winless in seven out of eight games.
But after their unwavering run of losses, the club wrote a history by winning one game after another in a do-or-die fashion and storming into the postseason, something that had only appeared mathematically possible. Gavaskar acknowledged the team’s resilience and confidence in spite of their wounds, calling their performance “nothing short of phenomenal”.
“RCB has accomplished really amazing things. Absolutely amazing. First of all, it takes a unique kind of person to think they can recover. The players who inspire the other members of the team the most are the top players, like Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis. It doesn’t take long for other team members to sense that we’ve lost everything. Seniors have the final say, and I believe they have fulfilled their duties. They have demonstrated how to achieve it. Gavaskar stated on Star Sports Cricket Live that “Faf and Virat have played extraordinary cricket.”
Sunil Gavaskar also recognized the opposing narrative of Rajasthan Royals, the team that RCB will face in another decisive match when they square off in the Eliminator at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
The Sanju Samson-led Royals were the club to beat up until halfway through the competition. They were at times even four points ahead of the teams in second place in the league table. But in the time that followed, the Royals’ form collapsed as abruptly as RCB’s did, as they dropped four straight games to waste the momentum they had worked so hard to generate.
However, Rajasthan has dropped their last four or five games and had a poor performance in their most recent encounter. They haven’t been practicing, then. Now, it can end up being another one-sided game tomorrow unless they do something exceptional, as KKR did tonight, despite not playing for eleven days. “I worry that RCB, who are playing outstanding cricket, will easily defeat RR in another one-sided match,” Gavaskar continued.
Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, who co-panelled with Gavaskar, offered his opinions on the RCB vs. RR elimination match. “RCB is performing better than they have ever performed in cricket. They have placed themselves in a position where momentum is entirely on their side. They have bowlers who are bowling well, fantastic batting from the batsmen, and the best team captain Faf du Plessis has ever had. Therefore, I find it extremely difficult to believe that Rajasthan will fight back.
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“Jos Buttler, who is such a significant player, is gone. It’s a huge loss when you open with Yashasvi Jaiswal and you know how much he admires Jos. The fact that the England players have to withdraw from this competition and aren’t present on the larger platform is honestly rather depressing. The players would undoubtedly enjoy taking the bigger stage here in Ahmedabad before traveling to Chennai for the championship game. It’s just terrible that some of the biggest players in the world won’t be present because this tournament deserves that.”