Rajasthan Royals eliminate Royal Challengers Bengaluru from IPL 2024 with a 4-wicket win
Rajasthan Royals trumped Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 4 wickets in the IPL 2024 Eliminator to set up a clash against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2 of the 2024 Indian Premier League season.
RR skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and decided to field first with dew expected to play a major part on Wednesday evening at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Like Mitchell Starc blew fire on Tuesday evening, Trent Boult came to the party on Wednesday and troubled RCB’s opening pair of Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis. While Boult was pretty economical in his first two overs with Kohli and Faf scrambling to save their wickets against the Kiwi fast bowling sensation, Sandeep Sharma and Avesh Khan proved to be very expensive as the latter conceded 17 runs in his first over.
du Plessis was showing signs of settling in by the fifth over and decided to go after Boult as well but Rovman Powell completed an incredible catch in the deep, diving forward to dismiss the RCB skipper on a score of 17 runs off 14 balls.
Kohli continued the onslaught from the other end allowing Cameron Green to settle in but the introduction of Yuzvendra Chahal in the 8th over proved to be his downfall as the former Indian and RCB skipper was caught in the deep after contributing 33 runs off 24 balls.
While Green took over the responsibility of scoring runs from Kohli, Rajat Patidar showed some nerves and almost walked back to the pavilion but Dhruv Jurel spilt his catch allowing the Madhya Pradesh batter a second bite at the cherry in the crucial encounter.
In the 13th over, Ravichandran Ashwin came up with a clutch performance as he does in crucial matches dismissing both Green and Glenn Maxwell on consecutive deliveries with the latter getting out on a golden duck ending a dismal IPL campaign in a disappointing manner. Meanwhile, Ashwin ended with a brilliant spell of 2/19 and would be looking to continue in the same fashion in Qualifier 2.
Patidar and Mahipal Lomror then smacked a six each in the 14th over with the former also adding two more boundaries to his name before being caught by Riyan Parag off Avesh’s bowling.
Lomror smacked another maximum against Chahal and fired against Boult as well before Dinesh Karthik fell to Avesh who also dismissed Lomror in the 19th over leaving Swapnil Singh and Karn Sharma to bat together in the last over.
Swapnil’s six in the last over and Karn’s boundary allowed RCB to sneak in some valuable runs and set up a target of 173 runs for the Royals to chase down in Ahmedabad.
Defending a sub-par total in dewy conditions, the RCB bowlers and fielders were expected to give their 100% effort but the Bengaluru-based franchise wasn’t up to the task as several misfields and catch drops allowed RR to stay in the game on multiple occasions.
Swapnil and Mohammed Siraj bowled economically in the first two overs giving away only 6 runs as the new opening partnership of Yashwasvi Jaiswal and Tom Kohler-Cadmore gave a steady start to the run-chase.
On the second ball of the third over, Yash Dayal produced an outside edge off Jaiswal’s bat but Green failed to grab a difficult chance and the ball ran to the fence for four runs. Three more boundaries from Jaiswal’s blade in the off-side region followed suit as Dayal became frustrated with the southpaw by the end of the over.
Kohler-Cadmore welcomed back Siraj with two consecutive boundaries in the first two balls of the fourth over and a misfield by Swapnil gifted Jaiswal with another boundary later in the over.
Dayal once again had the chance to get his first wicket of the evening when Kohler-Cadmore presented Maxwell with a small opportunity to redeem himself but the Australian continued to have a poor day when he dropped a sitter in the deep allowing the Englishman to smack two more boundaries later in Dayal’s over.
Lockie Ferguson bowled an unplayable delivery to Tom Kohler-Cadmore
Filling in for Jos Buttler, Kohler-Cadmore’s innings ended at a score of 20 runs off 15 balls when Lockie Ferguson did him with a slower yorker in the sixth over. While Swapnil bowled a brilliant first over, his second over leaked 17 runs as Samson slapped a maximum over the deep mid-wicket region followed by consecutive boundaries from Jaiswal.
While Jaiswal fell in the 10th over to Green, Samson was stumped on the first ball of the 11th over with Karn taking his first wicket of the match bringing Riyan Parag and Dhruv Jurel to the crease.
Two fours from Jurel and a maximum from Parag kept RR in good stead by the end of the 13th over but the first ball of the 14th over brought Jurel’s downfall as Kohli’s brilliant fielding coupled with Green’s awareness ran out the wicket-keeper batter as Shimron Hetmyer walked out to bat after missing many matches due to injury.
Two economical overs from RCB meant that the Royals required 47 runs from the last 30 balls but the 16th over bowled by Green leaked runs left and right as Hetmyer started the over with a six over the long-on region and Parag followed with a maximum and a four to help RR claw their way back into the match.
Dayal also conceded two consecutive boundaries to Hetmyer in the 17th over bringing down the equation to 19 runs off 18 balls. Siraj’s 18th over was a blessing for RCB fans who were hoping for their first IPL trophy as the speedster castled Parag and then got Hetmyer caught out leaving Powell and Ashwin to complete the run-chase in the last two overs.
Ferguson started the 19th over by conceding two boundaries and the West Indies skipper finished the task with a flat six down the ground completing the run-chase within 19 overs to set up the clash against SRH and the winner of that contest will battle against Kolkata Knight Riders in the IPL 2024 final.