"I called 26 members of my family" - When an RCB star made an interesting revelation after the team's IPL 2024 triumph against CSK

Royal Challengers Bengaluru's (RCB) IPL 2024 campaign can be divided into two halves. They made a disastrous start to their journey, losing seven of their first eight matches. At that point, it almost seemed certain that RCB would fail to qualify for the playoffs. However, the franchise made an incredible comeback to win six games in a row and seal their place in the top four in an unexpected fashion.

RCB's last league match was against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at their home ground - the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. They got the better of CSK by 27 runs in a tense and emotion-filled clash to knock Chennai out of the playoffs race and finish in the top four in the points table. Reflecting on the win, RCB's veteran keeper-batter Dinesh Karthik made an interesting revelation.

The Tamil Nadu cricketer had decided that the IPL 2024 edition would be his final year in the T20 league. In the wake of the team's poor performance in the first half of the tournament, Karthik felt that RCB would not make it to the playoffs. Assuming that the match against CSK would be his last IPL game, he called many of his family members. The 39-year-old said during a dressing room interaction:

"Three weeks ago I made this decision that okay seven losses from eight games so this (May 18) will be my last day. I called 26 members of my family and Virat [Kohli] seems to give me a lot of grief for it. I thought it will be my last day and I'll say bye to everybody and they'll all be done. But they have come a long way and have ended up realizing that I might play a few more games."

Batting first in the IPL 2024 match, RCB put up 218-5 on the board as skipper Faf du Plessis hammered 54 off 39, Virat Kohli contributed 47 off 29, Rajat Patidar 41 off 23 and Cameron Green 38* off 17. In response, CSK needed to score 201 to qualify for the playoffs and knock out RCB. They were held to 191-7.

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RCB's IPL 2024 campaign ended with a loss in the Eliminator

While Royal Challengers Bengaluru made a sensational comeback to reach the IPL 2024 playoffs, they failed to go all the way yet again. RCB's campaign ended with a four-wicket loss to Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the Eliminator played at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.

Sent into bat by RR in the knockout clash, Bengaluru were held to 172-8. Patidar top-scored with 34, Kohli made 33, while Mahipal Lomror hammered 32 off 17. RCB, however, fell short of a competitive total. RR chased down the target in 19 overs as Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 45, Riyan Parag and Shimron Hetmyer 26 in 14.