One team between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will get knocked out of the IPL 2024 on Wednesday. The two sides face off in the Eliminator in Ahmedabad. The winner will go on to face SunRisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 on Friday, while for the lose it will be the end of the road. If Rajasthan Royals are coming off four losses and a rained-off game, RCB have notched up six consecutive wins to sound a warning to their rivals that they mean business in the playoffs. RR, the 2008 IPL winners, suddenly find themselves as the underdogs, when a couple of weeks ago they were red-hot favourites.
When on song, Rajasthan Royals have shown they are unbeatable, but the last four games have exposed frailties in their batting and bowling. The exit of Jos Buttler has taken a lot of firepower out of their batting and a lot will depend on Yashasvi Jaiswal (348 runs), skipper Samson (504) and Riyan Parag (531) to halt the slide.
Former Indian cricket team batter Sunil Gavaskar said that it might be an one-sided contest.
“What RCB has done is nothing short of phenomenal. Firstly, to believe that they can bounce back. That requires something special. You have to say that their leading players Faf du Plessis, Virat KOhli, their senior players, they are the guys who are most encouraging the other players. Other team members can quickly get into a situation like , ‘Oh we have lost everything’. Both of them have played extraordinary cricket,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports.
“Rajasthan they have lost four-five matches. They have not played their last game as well. They have been out of practice. Unless they do something special that KKR did today, despite not playing for 11 days, it could well turn out be another one-sided game tomorrow. My fear is it will be another one sided game tomorrow, where the RCB will walk all over RR. I will be surprised if that does not happen.”
With PTI inputs
