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Former Indian cricketer Ambati Rayudu dissected why Royal Challengers Bengaluru hasn’t been able to win the trophy despite having a star-studded line-up in their ranks over the years. The statement came after Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s consecutive second defeat at their home against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
According to the six-time IPL winner, the RCB batting unit’s under-par batting performance in pressure situations has resulted in their dismal returns in the 16-year-long IPL history. Speaking on Star Sports, he said, “I feel their bowling always gives over-par runs and batting performs under par. No big-name batter is seen playing for RCB when they are under pressure. Such a team never wins.”
Since the inception of the IPL, a plethora of seasoned batters has donned the RCB jersey which includes Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers, and Jaques Kallis. Still, the franchises haven’t been able to deliver the best results in the past.
Speaking on the centralization of fame on big-name players, he said, “All young players keep playing down the order and the big-name players go at the top and leave after eating the cake over the cream. If you see, who were the batters batting under pressure young Indian batters and Dinesh Karthik.”
“Sixteen years. This is the same story of RCB, when there is pressure, no big name is ever found standing. All youngsters playing at the back-end and all the big guns bat at the top of the order and they whipp off the cream from the cake and that’s the reason this team has never won IPL.”
Bengaluru suffered their third loss in IPL 2024
The Faf du Plessis-led RCB suffered their third defeat in the ongoing edition after KL Rahul’s Lucknow humbled the home side by 28 runs at Chinnaswamy Stadium. After opting to field, the hosts put on a commendable bowling performance on the batting beauty Bengaluru pitch and restricted the visitors to 181.
However, chasing the modest score, the glittering top-order of RCB collapsed familiarly as they bundled out at just 153 runs on the back of exceptional bowling by Mayank Yadav and other bowlers.
Apart from Virat Kohli, none of the batters has taken up the responsibility of going deep this season as following Kohli’s orange cap streak of 203 runs, the second-best score for Bengaluru has been 90 runs by Dinesh Karthik.
