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Ahmedabad, May 31 (PTI): 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.

RCB chased down the target of 156 with 12 balls to spare with Kohli remaining not out on 75 off 42 balls.

"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.

"When wickets fell, Venky asked me if I was nervous, but you don't need to be when he's batting in the middle (on Virat Kohli), has been superb and his hunger for runs has been unbelievable.

"It's been incredible; batting with this entire group has been special. Winning trophies has been something we've craved for and I am happy that I finished an injury free season.

"When you are surrounded by so much quality, you improve a bit as well. The bowlers have been unbelievable; they planned meticulously. I have been with the team plans for a few days and the way they've gone after the plans has been incredible." Jitesh Sharma said RCB did not think much about the title but only went through the process.

"Like Mo said before, we're not defending, we're attacking and chasing something. The mindset was not to defend the title. Credit to the management, the way they nourished us, the way they backed me when I wasn't performing. This gives you plenty of assurance; you know they will back you and you want to give back something.

"We were strong, but we focused on one game at a time, we didn't think about the opponents, we just kept up with the process. Hopefully, we will get a third title." PTI PDS PDS DDV

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