Bengaluru: Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) skipper Faf du Plessis on Saturday dedicated his player-of-the-match award to pacer Yash Dayal, who kept his cool in the final over to seal a 27-run win over Chennai Super Kings in the battle for the final IPL play-offs spot.
Du Plessis was adjudged the player-of-the-match for his 54 off 39 balls which along with Virat Kohli's 47 set the foundation as RCB posted a solid 218/5 on Saturday night.
CSK needed to score 200 plus to qualify and they came agonisingly close to sealing the berth with Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja going hammers and tongs towards the end.
CSK, in fact, needed 17 off the final over to qualify, but Dayal held his nerve despite being hit for a towering six by Dhoni off the first ball to seal it in the end for RCB.
"I dedicate the man-of-the-match (award) to Yash Dayal. I said to him pace off on this wicket is the best option," du Plessis said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
"What a night! Such a great atmosphere. Just a pleasure to finish the season in front of the home fans. There was a lot of rain falling on the pitch, and you don't want that moisture. It felt like a day-five Test match in Ranchi!"
Rain threat was looming on the match and there was a 40-minute rain interruption too but it didn't matter in the end.
"The contributions from many batters at good strikes, I'm really proud. We were defending 175 (and neither 201 nor 218)! We tried to get the ball changed tonight.
"It's crazy; even when we weren't winning, we had the fans here. It was set up perfectly - CSK vs RCB! Incredible."
CSK skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad said missing out on key players made a huge difference as they finished fifth in the standing.
"I think it was a good wicket to be honest, it was spinning and gripping a little bit, but I think 200 on this ground was gettable. We kept losing wickets at regular intervals, it was a matter of one or two hits, sometimes that can happen in a T20 game," he said.
"Pretty happy with what the target was, to sum up the season, I am pretty happy to have seven wins out of 14 games. Just couldn't get over the line in the last two balls.
"With the kind of injuries we had, missing out on two frontline bowlers, not having (Devon) Conway at the top of the order as well, I think missing out on three key players made a huge difference."
