Indian Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal recently sat for an interview with a famous YouTube podcast “The Ranveer Show.” There he spoke about his playing career and personal life and he also shared his experience as a player of RCB and why they could not win the Indian Premier League.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) experienced a string of unfortunate events in the Indian Premier League (IPL) Finals of 2009, 2011, and 2016, which left them without an elusive championship title on all three occasions.
In the 2009 IPL Final, RCB faced the Deccan Chargers. The match witnessed a valiant effort from the RCB batting lineup, with Anil Kumble leading the team with passion and determination. However, the Chargers’ bowlers were relentless, restricting RCB to a modest total.
Despite spirited bowling from RCB in response, they couldn’t break the Chargers’ resolve, eventually losing the game by just six runs.
In 2011, RCB had another shot at glory, facing the mighty Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the final. Chris Gayle, the standout player for RCB that season, was expected to unleash his explosive prowess, but he fell early in the match. RCB’s batting crumbled under pressure, setting a below-par total for CSK to chase. Despite some spirited bowling, RCB’s hopes were dashed as CSK clinched the title.
In 2016, RCB had a star-studded lineup featuring the likes of Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, and Chris Gayle. They faced the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the final. Kohli’s record-breaking season and a fierce batting performance helped RCB post a formidable total.
However, an inspired innings from Sunrisers’ David Warner denied RCB once again, as they finished as runners-up.
The IPL Finals of 2009, 2011, and 2016 were a testament to RCB’s talent and fighting spirit, but fate seemed to favor their opponents, denying them the coveted trophy and leaving them to lament their bouts of bad luck in these crucial matches.
“In 2016, we had the best chance as we had Chris Gayle and KL Rahul. We lost the final. We won 6 of the 7 games at last. I got my first purple cap in the Qualifier match against Delhi, just for two days. The equation was that if we lost, we’ll be out of top 4 and if we won, we’ll finish second.” – Yuzvendra Chahal said.
“We won the match and went on to the final. We were playing at Chinnaswamy but lost the match by 8-10 runs. That hurt,” said the veteran spinner. Once, we lost 6 matches on the trot, when we won the 7th match, we celebrated as if we won the title.” – Chahal added.
“Cricket also shows you these pictures. This time, Rajasthan was the best team and we couldn’t even qualify. The things that are not in our hand, we don’t think about that a lot,” revealed the leg-spinner.” – Chahal concluded.