Royal Challengers Bengaluru's remarkable turnaround to win six games on the trot and barge into the Indian Premier League playoffs this year will inspire other teams in future, believes wicketkeeper-batter Dinesh Karthik.
RCB, who lost seven of their first eight games including six defeats in a row, came back roaring from the brink of elimination in the 17th edition of IPL to make the final four.
The Faf du Plessis-led side on Friday got the better of defending champions Chennai Super Kings by 27 runs to seal the fourth spot in the points table.
"People will always remember certain journeys. The way we have come back after eight games, we needed to win six, people will remember this team," Karthik was quoted as saying in a RCB release.
"Every year in this tournament, when you hit the seven-game mark, there will be one or two teams which would have probably won one or two and they will look to us and say, 'RCB did it. That was special. We are going to try and repeat what RCB did'."
"That is what we all play cricket for, sport for, where people follow us and believe us that they can do something special. It is hard. It is not going to be easy, I can tell any team that. What we have achieved today is very, very special," Karthik said.
RCB will now face the team which finishes third, one among Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals, in the Eliminator to be played at Ahmedabad on Wednesday.
"We have it within our grasp to do something that people will remember us for many decades. It will be a journey where people will say, 'wow, that RCB team was special'. We are on that journey," Karthik said.
Karthik said RCB's confidence was the differentiating factor between them and CSK, a team which has a better bilateral record.
"Coming into this game, there was a sense of quiet confidence about us, playing the defending champions, and the way we played we should be really proud," Karthik said.
The senior wicketkeeper pointed out RCB's fielding and aggressive batting, despite rain intervention, as the factors which worked for them.
"We can proudly say we are the best fielding team in this tournament without a doubt," he said.
"Even though it turned, we had a rain break, we had to go, start again, just the way Virat (Kohli) and Faf played the next three overs made it feel like 140-150 could be a decent total.
"Most teams would have thought about that and we would have thought about that for a second as well," he said.
