Virat Kohli's Royal Challengers Bangalore booked their place in the playoff stage of the Indian Premier League 2020 on Monday. The side finished fourth in the tournament and qualified for the next stage on the virtue of a higher Net Run Rate over Kolkata Knight Riders.
RCB will face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eliminator match on Friday, November 6 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. While the loser of the match gets knocked out of the tournament, the winner will face one of Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 2.
Ahead of the game, Kohli gave a message to his teammates.
"I want all of us to be in the same mindset, I promise you all that we will have more fun in this next week than we had in the last two-and-a-half weeks. It would be unbelievable if we can get into the right mindset," Kohli told the RCB players in a video posted by RCB's official social media profile.
RCB's opening batsman Aaron Finch, who also captain Australia, said, "Go with the mindset that you're going to take every opportunity, every challenge head on and with your best strength," in the same video.
RCB have qualified for the playoff stages for the first time since 2016, where they reached the final of the tournament.
Interestingly, they meet SRH in the eliminator -- the same team which beat them in the final four years ago.
Devdutt Padikkal has been the highest run-scorer for the RCB in this edition of the IPL so far (472 runs in 14 matches), while Yuzvendra Chahal has taken 20 wickets for the side.