A heartbreaking four-wicket loss at the hands of Rajasthan Royals brought an end to Royal Challengers Bengaluru's roller coaster ride in the 17th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Wednesday (May 22).
However, despite another season where they failed to get their hands on the IPL trophy, the RCB players are immensely proud of their efforts as they gave their fans countless moments of ecstasy, including the win in a do-or-die fixture against Chennai Super Kings at the Ma Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on May 18 to qualify for the playoffs.
Reflecting on the season gone by, wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik mentioned that "RCB had a really special season" while adding that sport doesn't owe a fairytale ending.
"With sports, there is no fairytale ending," said Karthik in a video shared by RCB on their social media platforms.
"There is always a hard day when things do not go your way. It was that day. As it is in the evening games, dew came and it became easy to bat on. But still, we should be proud of the fight we put up. That is all we can ask for.
"Attitude matters. The belief in wanting to do something special matters. On both counts, RCB had a really special season. A season where a lot of people will look at and say 'Wow, good effort'. We are proud of ourselves and I also hope fans are also proud of us for what we have done this year," added Karthik.
The former RCB skipper Virat Kohli felt that the "under-par performance" in the first half of the season was fairly disappointing and it took a display of character to turn things around in the second half.
"To be really honest, the first half of the season was a really under-par performance from us," said Virat.
"The standards that we have as cricketers, we were not able to live up to them. Then we started expressing ourselves, and played for our own self-respect. Our confidence came back. The way we turned things around and qualified was truly special. It is something I will cherish and remember because it took a lot of character and heart from each member of this team something we can be really proud of and eventually we played the way we wanted to play," he mentioned.
