How RCB turned around their fortunes in 2024

“There is a one percent chance, and sometimes that chance is good enough. But what matters is what you think about that one percent. Are you willing to give absolutely everything that you have to make that one into 10 and then grow that 10 into 30?” said Kohli to the RCB Womens team midway through the 2023 season when the Women in red had lost 5 games in a row. Cut to the 2024 season for the men in red find themselves with 1 win in 8 games, having a near zero chance to qualify for the playoffs, RCB still make it to the playoffs with 6 wins in a row and sneak in ahead of CSK, DC and LSG on net run rate. But how exactly did RCB manage to pull this off?

With 1 win in 8 games and a horrifying momentum of 6 consecutive loses and a 10th position in the points table, most teams would’ve given up on any chance of qualifying to the playoffs and would’ve already begun planning ahead for the next season with dratic changes in the pipeline. But this team is build different, the fans are the heart and soul for this club. Unlike other teams, RCB do not have fans because of the trophies, they have them inspite of it. These fans only have 14 games to watch their favourite team to play in a year, any chance to watch them play more is a blessing. So obviously the fans did turn up in game 9 expect nothing out of it, but that marked the start of a remarkable turnaround and a change of approach.

This IPL has been different to say the least. With an average score of 189, this has been the highest scoring IPL of all time, with even grounds like Chepauk producing 200 plus scores on a regular basis. A lot of the onus on producing these high scores goes to flat pitches and teams getting smarter about the impact rule. With RCB’s batting lineup and a small ground Chinnaswamy one would imagine that RCB would be one of the teams to set the tournament on fire, but that was not the case, and RCB found themselves tough to get going and buying into this high scoring philosphy.

In the first half of the season, only Kohli and Dinesh consistently performed, while Maxwell contributed with just 32 runs in six innings. Captain Faf du Plessis was inconsistent, and Patidar was still struggling. Replacing Maxwell with Jacks did the trick for RCB, and Jacks contributed with 230 runs with a strike rate of 175 and with a century against Titans. Patidar also found his form by hitting 5 fifties by taking on the spinners. Help finally arrived for RCB and with this they had the highest run rate among the teams since April 25. They were the 6th team in terms of runrate in the middle overs and they improved that to 2nd in the second half .

Bowling has been a weak link for RCB and that also has had a turn around. The bowling attack has come alive, especially with Siraj regaining his form. The support bowlers like Dayal and Ferguson, the Kiwi have found their rhythm after a slow start. Swapnil also has been an emodiment for the change of RCB fortunes and RCB has been winning a lot more with him in the lineup. RCB took the least wickets in the powerplay in the first 8 matches but they took the most wickets in the powerplay in the remaining six games amongst all teams. RCB pacers also had the worst economy in the first 8 games but they have the best economy in the last 6 games of the season. Stats have backed up the effectiveness of this change of fortunes.

All of this momentum had built up for a final showdown against CSK, the arch rivals for the team. RCB always found beating CSK difficult because of a mental barrier. The question CSK asked RCB was whether they had the mental strength to beat them in a knockout game? Will the rain stop the momentum for RCB? Can they beat CSK while batting first and have a cushion of 18 runs? RCB answered the call very well, they were not afraid of CSK and they did not let the rain stop the momentum in batting and they produced a challenging total of 218, with CSK needing 201 runs to qualify. RCB set the tone early by getting the captain on the first ball and it was getting clear that RCB is definelty winning this game by the 14th over. The job however was not done yet as RCB had to win the game by a margin of 18 plus. With 17 runs needed in the final over and Dhoni and Jadeja at the helm, the odds were still in favour of CSK. Dhoni hit the first ball for a massive six, however, Dayal focused on his ‘process and execution’, dismissing Dhoni with a slower ball and conceding only one more run in the over. With this win, RCB pulled a comeback to remember for the ages fueled with an infinite amount of will, desire, and belief.

Going into the knockout stages, teams will be scared of RCB with this winning juggernaut. Rajasthan have lost 4 of their last 5 games, KKR have not played a game since the last 10 days, with both of their last games being a washout and SRH also have lost a game to the bottom of the table MI. With or without any tophy success, the fans will still remember how good this season has been and I can’t wait to know how this season ends.

As Kohli said it before the season started: “Idu RCB ya Hosa adhyaya !!!!”