New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), the runners-up of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016, failed to live up to the expectations in the tenth edition of cash-rich tournament. Despite boasting of some big players in Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson, RCB had a forgettable campaign where they failed to click as a unit. (IPL 2017: Full Coverage | IPL 10 Points Table)
After 11 matches, RCB are at the bottom of the points table with just two wins and a draw.
Reflecting upon RCB's poor season, South African batsman AB de Villiers, who himself wasn't in the best of form, said that they had learnt a lot of lessons in IPL 2017.
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“Unfortunately this year, we haven’t played as well as we wanted to. But I think there are still some very good lessons that we learnt this season,” said De Villiers during a promotional campaign.
The maverick right-hander also backed Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians to win the title this year.
“Mumbai can be very happy with Rohit Sharma batting so well for Mumbai Indians. They have been a wonderful team and have a good chance of going all the way this season,” he added.
RCB suffered a five-wicket loss against Mumbai Indians in their previous match with which they were ruled out of the race for play-offs.
Recalling the loss against Mumbai, AB added, “Those last few balls, I was quite nervous and hoping we could somehow find a way to pull through. It wasn’t meant to be but we have a few more games left and hopefully we will finish the season with a bit of dignity.”
In IPL 2017, RCB were bowled out for 49 – the lowest team total in IPL history, against Kolkata Knight Riders.
RCB had received huge blows ahead of the season with injuries to several of their key batsmen. While Lokesh Rahul and Sarafaraz Khan were ruled out of the entire tournament even before a ball was bowled, skipper Kohli and AB de Villiers missed out on the first few games due to injuries.
