“Just a kind reminder from the 5 time champions”, read an Instagram post from former Chennai Super Kings (CSK) batter as Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were eliminated from the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. Though battles between fan armies of franchises and teams is a common thing to see on social media, it isn’t often that one come across cricketers participating in such battles on the internet. It was RCB who eliminated CSK from the IPL this campaign, leaving Rayudu distraught. But, the former India batter seemed to have enjoyed the Bengaluru side’s exit from the competition.

Taking to Instagram, Rayudu shared a post mocking RCB with the caption: “Sometimes a gentle reminder is required”. In the video post, several CSK players could be seen gesturing 5, hinting at the number of times they’ve won the IPL.

Earlier, Rayudu had also said: “If you talk about RCB, it shows that only passion and celebration don’t win you trophies. You don’t get the IPL trophy just by reaching the playoffs. Don’t think you will win the trophy just by beating CSK”.

As for the match, RCB skipper Faf du Plessis was proud of the effort this team put in to reach as far as the playoffs, especially as they had lost 7 of their first 8 matches. However, RR ended RCB’s winning streak in the playoffs.

“With the dew coming, we felt we were short with the bat. Did think we were 20 runs shy of what was a good score. Credit to the boys – they fought really well. That’s all you can ask for. If you look at naturally assessing the pitch and conditions, you would say it’s a 180 pitch because it was swinging upfront and was quite slow. But what we’ve found out this season, with the impact player, the par score isn’t enough anymore. 

“Also with the dew coming in. Extremely proud. Lot of teams – their wheels would’ve fallen off after 1 from 9. To come back like that, six games in a row, takes a lot of heart and character. We weren’t special tonight in terms of pushing that extra 20 runs with the bat,” the RCB skipper had said.