Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 4 wickets in an exciting Indian Premier League (IPL 2024) elimination match. To compete for the second slot in the finals, they will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second qualifier of the season.
Yashasvi Jaiswal scored the most, 45, while Riyan Parag made a crucial 36. The RCB had earlier amassed 172 for 8 after being asked to bat first. Rajat Patidar hit 34 off 22 deliveries, while the game’s dominant opener, Virat Kohli, pounded 33 off 24 balls. Leading off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin of India bowled brilliantly to finish with amazing statistics of 2 for 19 in four overs. During the match, Virat Kohli became the first batsman in IPL history to achieve the 8000-run mark. The battle for the final position in Friday’s Qualifier 2, which will pit Sunrisers Hyderabad against them, was fiercely competitive.
1. Virat Kohli’s next significant achievement
Despite Virat Kohli giving it his all this season as well, RR eliminated the team from the IPL 2024, so they were unable to advance to the finals. In the Eliminator match against RR, Kohli made 33 runs to become the first batter to reach 8,000 runs in IPL history. Kohli reached that milestone in his 252nd IPL match.
2. The excellent bowling of senior off-spinner for India
When he bowled brilliantly to finish his amazing stats, taking two wickets with just 19 runs allowed in his four overs, Ravichandran Ashwin of RR changed the entire game in the first innings. His spell contributed to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru batsmen being limited to 172 in 20 overs. In the crucial match at Ahmedabad, he got several significant wickets from the RCB, giving RR more confidence.
Also read: IPL 2024: Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 1st Innings Highlights against RR in Eliminator
3. Important runs by Riyan Parag
After the Rajasthan Royals’ top-order collapse, they were having trouble scoring runs when Riyan Parag came in and made 36. He helped RR come closer to a chasing target by playing just when the squad needed it. In the game that RCB had to win, his innings gave the club more confidence and put them in a tough situation.
Winning skipper Sanju Samson
What cricket and life has taught us is we will have some good and some really bad phases. But we need to have the character to bounce back. Really happy with the way we fielded, we batted and we bowled today. Credit to the bowlers, they are always looking at what the opposition batters would do and what fields to set. Credit goes to Sanga and bowling coach Bond as well. They’ve spent a lot of time in hotel rooms discussing these things.
They are 22 each, so is Jurel. With very little experience, the way they are performing at this level is amazing. I’m not a 100% actually. There is a bug in the dressing room, lots of coughs and a lot of people are a bit unwell. Rovman finished that off well. I think we have a travel day and rest now, looking forward to the next game.
Player of the Match Ravichandran Ashwin
We haven’t done very well in the last few games. We didn’t put par scores and we lost Buttler, and Hetmyer was injured. Today’s win was important. We were a bit rusty chasing it, but this win will give us some confidence. In the first half, I felt my body wasn’t moving too well for the first half of the season. I had an abdomen injury as well. I am aging as well. To come into the tournament from Test cricket was difficult, I needed some time to get that bowling rhytmn. But once you have committed to your franchise, you want to go through with the season
. I think we hit the right lengths, the way Boult was bowling, he got a bit of swing and seam movement. In the second innings, I don’t think there was a lot of dew. I think there were some exceptional shots from our boys to get that chase. I think our greatest strength is the exuberance of youth and the experience we have got to support that. Now that Hettie is backing, and Rovman got a few boundaries today as well. We’ve got Keshav sitting outside. We have the right momentum for this team going forward
Losing skipper Faf du Plessis
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 any more.
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.
India
