Hazlewood says keeping core team intact worked for RCB

Jose Hazlewood believes keeping the core team intact did the trick for Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s back-to-back title wins, while his pace colleague Bhuvneshwar Kumar credited the success to meticulous planning by the team as the players soaked in the glory of their IPL triumph here on Sunday.

A dominant RCB won their second successive title with Virat Kohli anchoring the team to beat Gujarat Titans by five wickets in the summit clash here.

“I think the franchise have put together beautifully. Great support staff. It’s tough to build that culture so fast when the teams change every three years,” Hazlewood said after the match.

“This (title win) is right up there. We had to wait a long time for the first win last year. More relaxed with the group (now), got the monkey off the back last year. Calm and composed throughout. Someone or other stepped up. (We won) 10 Player of the Match awards,” said the Australian.

On Bhuvneshwar’s stunning show this season, Hazlewood said, “Can’t remember a game where he went over 35 runs. Took wickets, we could be relaxed. It’s nice.”

On his part, Bhuvneshwar, who took 28 wickets this season, said, “Yes, the trophy is the most important. I would trade it with the Purple Cap. The season went well, there was a lot of planning ahead of it.

“If you take wickets, the confidence is up. Coming into a big game, (the) past wins give you confidence. We were at our best and that’s what we needed.”

All-rounder Krunal Pandya said it was a special moment to win the title again.

“There’s no doubt about it, everything is special. It’s like having kids, winning IPL titles is also hard to achieve, so everything feels special to me.

“A lot of credit goes to the support staff: Mo Bobat, Andy Flower, DK (Dinesh Karthik), Malolan (Rangarajan). Half of the win is in the auction and we did a good job, I’m glad we went back-to-back for the trophies. 18 years of waiting, (winning) back-to-back trophies, it’s special.

“Also to Virat Kohli, waited 18 years and now winning two titles on the back...”

For batter Devdutt Padikkal, having Kohli in the middle calmed his nerves in the match.