On Wednesday, Rajasthan Royals ended their losing streak and put a stop to Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s victory run with a four-wicket win at Ahmedabad in the Eliminator of IPL 2024.
In Qualifier 2 on Friday, the Royals will face Sunrisers Hyderabad at Chennai. The winner of that game will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in Sunday’s final.
Their cake-cutting celebration was recorded by the team’s official X handle after the Royals skipper Sanju Samson and spinner Ravichandran Ashwin had won.
The first winners of the IPL were Rajasthan Royals led by late Australian legend Shane Warne in 2008 but they bounced back from four losses in five matches including one washout rains.
After playing eight games at bottom of the table, RCB managed to win six consecutive games and have now qualified for playoffs.
Ashwin bagged Man of Match award for his two wickets while sending back both Cameron Green (27) and Glenn Maxwell (0).
“We did not put par scores, and we lost Butler, Hetmyer got injured. We got rusty going after this, but it gives us some confidence knowing that we’ve got it,” said Ashwin after the match. “I felt like I was moving well in my body for most of the season. I also had an abdomen injury during that period of time as well. And I am getting older too. To come out of test cricket into a tournament was hard and I needed some time to get my rhythm back.” But once you have committed to your franchisee you want to go through with it.”
“I think he bowled right lengths; Boult swung and seamed it up a bit there. The dew wasn’t really much in second innings so no excuses there.I thought our guys played some excellent shots during that chase – those exuberant youngsters’ attack can do”. “Once Hettie Shimron Hetmyer) is back in and Rovman Powell also hit a few boundaries today. We have Keshav sitting outside the game. For this team, we have the right momentum going forward,” added Ashwin.
With that, Sanju Samson equaled Shane Warne’s record of most victories as Rajasthan Royals’ captain (31).
