IPL 2019: RCB was just one victory away from playoffs, says AB de Villiers

The dying moments of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 came up with some interesting turns for the points table. While the top three teams ended at 18 points, the last five were differentiated by a solitary point. Three teams were tied at 12 points while two finished with 11.

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) who perhaps had their worst first half in the tournament with six consecutive losses, finished with 11 which was just a point less than the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), the fourth team to make the playoffs other than Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi.

RCB finished with 11 points, 4th place-holder SRH had 12 points

The RCB remained unbeaten in five of their last six games and they wrapped up a disappointing season with a 4-wicket win over the SRH, the same team that had hammered them by 118 runs in the first game. The franchise’s star batsman, AB de Villiers, said the red-and-black team was just a win short of making the knock-outs.

The RCB ended eighth out of eight teams but their tally of 11 points was the highest for any bottom-placed team in the tournament’s history. The Rajasthan Royals also finished with 11 points but remained ahead of the RCB because of a better run-rate.

“It’s a fantastic way to finish, very sad to see that we were one win away from possibly making it to the knockouts. Crazy to see how close the margins are in this tournament. But it was a nice way to finish, there was a lot of talent we discovered this year.

Looking forward to next season, just want to thank everyone at the Chinnaswamy and the RCBians for supporting us through thick and thin,” de Villiers, who quit international cricket last year and plays franchise only cricket now, was quoted as saying by Timesnownews.com.

De Villiers himself was in a good form this season with 442 runs from 13 games at an average of 44 and strike-rate of 154. He hit five fifties with the highest score of 82 not out. He ended up as the second highest scorer for his franchise this season after captain Virat Kohli who scored 464 runs from 14 games. De Villiers slammed 26 sixes and 31 boundaries while scoring his runs.

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