Bangalore, May 24 (IANS): Thousands of frenzied fans Saturday bid adieu to their home team Royal Challengers Bangalore, which again lost its last league tie in the IPL-7 by eight wickets to title contenders Chennai Super Kings at the Chinnaswamy stadium here.
In spite of knowing well that the hosts were out of the tournament's play-offs this year too, about 25,000 fans flocked to the stadium.
"Though we were aware of RCB missing out the IPL cup this year too, we came here to have fun on a summer weekend and watch (M.S) Dhoni's helicopter shot than expect fireworks from our home team which lost its steam," lamented realty consultant Mohan Raghavan.
-*-
Lack of fight by Challengers upsets fans
It was yet another disappointing show by hosts Bangalore as they gave into Chennai without a fight either while batting initially or bowling later.
"To be frank, the Challengers are a pale shadow of what they were in the past when they played in finals twice only to lose against Deccan Charges in South Africa (2009) and Super Kings in Chennai (2011).
"Failure of their explosive batsman Gayle this season robbed the team of its competitive edge as they were too dependent on him to fire.
"Bringing Yuvraj didn't help them in making up for the Jamaican's poor form as the Indian all-rounder struggled to fire. Their bowling was also pedestrian, as they could not tame the opponents and conceded too many runs in the slog overs," advertising executive Inayat Ali told IANS.
-*-
Policemen relieved though match choked downtown
About 1,000 police personnel, including 300 traffic policemen, heaved a sigh of relief as the curtains came down on the three-week-long IPL season in Bangalore. It was a nightmare for them to manage frenzied fans, provide enhanced security to players and fans and regulate the massive flow of vehicles to prevent grid lock around the stadium.
"We are relieved that the league matches got over, as it has been a testing time for us to handle security concerns and traffic flow, which is blocked by the metro rail project on one side of the stadium, linking all roads to northern and western suburbs," a police official said after the match, which led to traffic snarls in the city centre as vehicles jostled for space during the weekend rush hour.