"Thank you, Mumbai, we will remember this one," said Virat Kohli after Royal Challengers Bangalore sneaked into the playoffs following Mumbai Indians' thrilling five-wicket win over Delhi Capitals in their last game of the IPL.
On Saturday, MI chased down a victory target of 160 in 19.1 overs to knockout Delhi from the competition and paved the way for RCB's entry as the fourth and final team in the knockout stage.
"It was unbelievable. The emotions in the changing room were unbelievable. Thank you, Mumbai, we will remember this one," Kohli said in a release. RCB had defeated table-toppers Gujarat Titans by eight wickets in their final league match to keep their hopes alive for a playoff, which depended on the clash between DC and MI.
Delhi needed to win the match to make it to the playoffs but they came a cropper against bottom-placed MI. RCB skipper Faf Du Plessis said the entire team watched the match together and was cheering each and every move made by the Mumbai team.
"It was so good, I think first of all it was really nice to see that everyone was here from the start of the game, so we watched it together," he said. "We were all shouting for every wicket that Mumbai got and then when they are chasing every boundary. It's good for everyone to watch together and then the celebration towards the end was awesome to be a part of." RCB will now take on third-placed Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator at Edens Gardens on May 25.
"The last game we played we felt almost like we played our best game of cricket of this campaign so far and that is how you want to enter the knockout stages, so we needed someone to do us a favour and Mumbai did that for us, we are very thankful for that," Du Plessis said. "Obviously now the work starts again, and we get our work mode back on." RCB has never ever won the IPL and allrounder Glenn Maxwell feels the team is very close to achieving that dream.
"Amazing result for us tonight. There is just one small step in us going further, we are that close to making history for RCB in this tournament. We needed another team, but from now on it's all us."
