The IPL Trophy Dreams Are Over Once Again For The Royal Challengers Bangalore

Another year, another heartbreak! Royal Challengers Bangalore has been eliminated from the race to the finals yesterday by 2008 title winners Rajasthan Royals by 4 wickets at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. Bangalore has performed phenomenally well in the second half of the season after losing 7 games out of 8 and then bouncing back into the tournament with 6 back-to-back wins.  

No doubt! It was a dream season for the Bangalore-based franchise when the former cricketers were criticising them for their poor performance in the start of the tournament and after losing first 7 games out of 8 everybody said how Royal Challengers Bangalore qulalified for IPL 2024 . But with that 1% chance and nothing to lose attitude, they have made it into the playoffs after defeating the 5-time title winners in a do-or-die match at their yard, which has made them qualify for the playoffs. It’s not the first time Bangalore has played like this. 2 years back in IPL 2022, they had a similar kind of performance where they reached into the playoffs as the fourth and defeated the Lucknow SuperGiants in the eliminator and lost in qualifier 2 against Rajasthan Royals. 

Bangalore’s IPL journey since its inception has been like a roller coaster ride where they have faced a lot of ups and downs. Despite having one of the best cricketers in their squad, they haven’t won even a single Indian Premier League trophy in the last 17 editions. But the one thing that has remained constant is the loyal fans of the franchise who have supported their team in every season and hope to emerge as a champion in the season. Through this article, we are going to know the heart-break of RCB, which they have faced till now in the Indian Premier League (IPL) by making it into the playoffs but not winning a title.

2008

2008 was the first season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), which was happening for the first time in the world after seeing the success of BCCI World T20 Championship, where Men in Blue emerged as champions by defeating arch-rivals in the final of T20 World Cup. However, it was a complete gamble by team owners, investors and BCCI to organise a mega event like this for the very first time, where they are allowing players to take part from every corner of the world. Later, it came out as one of the best decisions after the success of the first season, where Rajasthan Royals emerged as the champions by defeating Chennai Super Kings in the finals. 

The Royal Challengers finished at the 7th position on the table in the first season under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid after winning just 4 games out of 14 despite having players like Virat Kohli, Wasim Jaffer, Cameron White and Ross Taylor. The captain was the leading run-scorer in the inaugural season.

2009

It was the second edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) after finishing the tournament in 7th position in last season. Every cricket fan was hoping for a better performance from the Bangalore-based franchise, which they did by making it into the finals of IPL 2009 after losing in 4 games out of 5 in the start to winning 7 out of 9 games. 

In the semi-finals against Chennai Super Kings, they defeated them by 6 wickets at Johannesburg to play finals against Deccan Chargers. 

Manish Pandey was the find of the season who played a match-winning knock for their team by scoring crucial 48 runs when his team were 2 wickets down while chasing a total of 146 he made a partnership of 73 runs with Rahul Dravid before Virat Kohli and Ross Taylor finished the match with their incredible innings. However, after reaching into finals RCB faced their first heartbreak when they lost the match in finals by 4 wickets against Deccan Chargers.

Jacques Kallis has scored the most runs for RCB in the 2209 season with 361 runs in 15 games, with an average of 57, having 3 half centuries to his name. Whereas, RCB’sAnil Kumble was the second highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 21 wickets in 16 games.

2010

RCB continued with their performance of the last season and second time qualified in the playoffs under the captaincy of Anil Kumble, where they finished the tournament in 3rd position but were unable to take it forward in semi-finals as they lost against Mumbai Indians by 35 runs. 

Jacques Kallis again scored the most runs for the Bangalore-based franchise with 572 runs in 16 games, with an average of 47 having 6 half-centuries to his name. Whereas, skipper Anil Kumble was the highest wicket-taker from RCB with 17 wickets in 16 games.

2011

It was the third consecutive season for Royal Challengers Bangalore where they have qualified in the playoffs out of 4 editions of IPL under the captaincy of Danil Vettori. After missing out on finals in the last year, this year they have reached the finals by defeating Mumbai Indians in the qualifier 2 by 43 runs. However, they lost the finals against Chennai Super Kings by 58 runs. It was the second time when RCB lost the chance to lift the converted trophy despite reaching finals. 

The Former West Indies legend Chris Gayle was the leading run-scorer of the tournament, with 608 runs in 12 games with an average of 67 having 2 hundreds and 3 half-centuries to his name. Along with Chris Gayle, it was also the first season for the Indian run machine Kohli, who surpassed a run of 500 plus in IPL history by being the second-highest run scorer of the tournament with 557 runs in 16 games.

2015

In the year 2013, RCB scored the highest team total of 266 runs in IPL against Pune Warriors Indian at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium when the former West Indies legendary batsaman Chris Gayle played an incrdible knock of 175 runs in 66 balls, which included 13 boundaries and 17 maximums all over the ground. However, SRH Overtakes RCB Highest Score In IPL History 2024 after scoring 287 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore on May 15th.

After qualifying in back-to-back 3 consecutive seasons, RCB was unable to reach the playoffs in the last 3 seasons of 2012, 13, and 14. However, the drought to qualify ended in 2015 when they finished third in the league stage with  7 wins from 14 matches. After defeating Rajasthan Royals in eliminator to earn a spot in Qualifier 2, they lost the against Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 2.

AB de Villiers, Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle ended by being the 4th, 5th and 6th highest run scorers of the season respectively. While Yuzvendra Chahal was RCB's highest wicket-taker, being the 3rd highest in the season.

2016

After losing the chance to lift the trophy in the last season by losing the game against Chennai Super Kings in Qualifier 2 of IPL 2015, RCB didn’t miss a chance to win the trophy and they reached into the finals on the second occasion in IPL history after making a comeback in the tournament where they lost seven of their first eight games to qualify for the playoffs under the captaincy of Faf du Plessis. However, this year also, they were unable to lift the trophy as they lost in the finals against Sunrisers Hyderabad by 3 wickets.

Virat Kohli was the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 978 runs in 16 games with an average of 81, having 4 hundred and 7 half-centuries to his name, while Yuzvendra Chahal was RCB's highest wicket-taker, being the 2nd highest in the season with 21 wickets in 13 games.

2020

After 5 years of drought, RCB finally qualified in the playoffs of IPL 2020 But they failed to win the title after losing to Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator. Devdutt Padikkal was the team's leading run scorer with 473 runs, followed by Virat Kohli (466 runs) and AB de Villiers (454 runs).

2021

It was the second consecutive season for the Bangalore-based franchise where they qualified for the playoffs. But were eliminated from the tournament as they were beaten by Kolkata Knight Riders in the Eliminator match.

Glenn Maxwell was the team's leading run scorer with 513 runs in 14 games with an average of 42 by scoring 6 fifties. RCB’s Harshal Patel was RCB's highest wicket-taker of the season, with 32 wickets in 15 games.

2022

Third consecutive season for RCB where they reached into the playoffs as RCB’s as the fourth qualifying side and beat Lucknow Super Giants to get past the Eliminator before being knocked out by Rajasthan Royals in Qualifier 2.

The skipper Faf du Plessis was the team's leading run scorer with 468 runs in 16 games with an average of 31 by scoring 3 fifties, while Yuzvendra Chahal was RCB's highest wicket-taker of the tournament with 27 wickets in 17 games.