"I hope RCB bowlers' mental health will be fine after this assault" - Fans troll RCB's fourth consecutive defeat in IPL 2024 against MI 

It was yet another evening to forget for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) as they slumped to their fourth successive defeat in the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL). The five-time champions recorded a seven-wicket win at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, April 11, and humbled the Faf du Plessis-led side.

After being put into bat first by Hardik Pandya, the Royal Challengers lost Orange Cap holder Virat Kohli early in the innings. The trio of Faf du Plessis, Dinesh Karthik, and Rajat Patidar scored fifties and were the only three batters to record double figures. Their knocks propelled their side to 196-8 after 20 overs, but it was not even close to Wankhede's standards.

The Royal Challengers' bowling unit almost had no say in the contest after the dew set in. Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan put on 101 runs for the first wicket in just 8.5 overs. Sensing that they could get a major boost in their net run rate, MI escalated their scoring even further courtesy of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya.

No Bengaluru bowler had an economy rate of under 10 as MI chased down the score with 27 balls to spare. Fans blasted RCB's performance, with many of them suggesting that the playoff hopes have already ended. Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:

"Boycotting IPL from now on. Will only watch WPL. My Real RCB," one user wrote

"Need to regain form? Call RCB. Reliable service," another user remarked

"Man who thought he'd lost all hope, loses last bit of additional hope he didn't even know he had," one RCB fan shared the plight

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"It's a tough pill to swallow" - RCB skipper Faf du Plessis

In a bid to revive their campaign, RCB had made changes to their playing XI ahead of the Mumbai clash. They took the huge call to drop Cameron Green and handed Will Jacks his debut. That particular change, coupled with the rest did not work out as hoped as they were outplayed across all departments.

"It's a tough pill to swallow. It's a combination of two things - The dew made it harder and the Mumbai batters batted brilliantly to put the pressure on our bowlers.

"We thought the dew would come in and we have to score around 215 but 196 wasn't good enough. The ball is really wet and it's a only sport where the conditions will make an impact. We lost crucial wickets at crucial stages and the fluency wasn't there," du Plessis said during the post-match presentation

The Bengaluru-based side are next scheduled to take on the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at home on Monday, April 15.