NEW DELHI: The last game of the league phase saw Sunrisers Hyderabad pip RR to second place and they now face Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the IPL 2024 Eliminator on Wednesday.
Punjab Kings lost to SRH who secured second place pushing RR to third. Subsequently, the Royals had a rain-affected match against Kolkata Knight Riders making SRH’s position safe relying on their net-run-rate.
On his YouTube channel another ex-Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra offered some insight into what he thought of the imminent clash, arguing that recent developments have been favorable for RCB. “One by one everything is going in favor of RCB because Hyderabad are a dangerous team. Not that RCB can’t beat them, they have done that once at their (SRH’s) own home. However, truth is – that day the game can go anywhere. I feel they will catch and seize the Rajasthan Royals,” he said.
Chopra also talked about how tough it has historically been for teams finishing third or fourth after the league stage: “So RCB are in a happy place playing the Eliminator. It is difficult because it is also true that in the 11-year history of the Eliminator, only once a team that finished third or fourth has won. That was 2016 – Sunrisers Hyderabad.”
If RR loses to RCB, then they will play loser between SRH and KKR in Qualifier 2 while if they defeat RCB, then they will need to surmount winner of Qualifier 1 in order claim their maiden IPL trophy.
RR’s poor form towards the season end was highlighted by Chopra as well.
“The match was washed out and because of that Rajasthan lost an opportunity to get those final points needed to reach eighteen points. The bottom line remains that this team hasn’t won even a single match this May. Eight wins in the first nine games and after that not even one. They got four tries. People clear UPSC in four tries and they couldn’t win one match,” he noted.
Besides, Chopra warned RR is not only to blame for finishing third because of the washout.
“You can look at the 1 point they got at the end of it from two angles. You can say your time was bad as a point was snatched from you or else you would have reached No. 2 The second view is that it was good you came after qualifying. Imagine if your qualification had not been confirmed and this one point had sent you out,” he added.
