RR take on KKR and SRH face PBKS in the final IPL 2024 league phase matches of this year.
Having already confirmed their berths in the IPL 2024 playoffs, Sunrisers Hyderabad, Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders will be appearing in their final league games of the season on Sunday. SRH will take on Punjab Kings in the first fixture of the day, followed by RR meeting KKR in the final fixture.
KKR have already confirmed top spot, but they can really hurt RR’s position in the table’s top-half. KKR are on top of the table with 19 points and RR are second with 16. Meanwhile, SRH are third with 15 points. A win for RR will see them confirm second position. But a defeat for RR and a win for SRH, will see the latter climb to second position. Defeats for both sides will see them finish the league phase in their currently second and third positions respectively.
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So in the playoffs, KKR will face the second-placed team in Qualifier 1 in Ahmedabad and the winner will go to the final. RCB will take on the third-placed side in the Eliminator. The loser of Qualifier 1, will face the winner of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2. The winner of Qualifier 2 will go to the final.
RCB finished the league phase in fourth place in dramatic circumstances, pipping Chennai Super Kings. Chasing 219, CSK needed to reach atleast 200 to reach the playoffs, but were restricted to 191/7 in 20 overs, courtesy of final over heroics from Yash Dayal.
Initially, a half-century from Faf du Plessis (54) saw RCB post 218/5 in 20 overs. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli (47) also made a crucial contribution.
Speaking after the match, RCB captain Du Plessis said, “What a night. Unbelievable and such a great atmosphere, such a pleasure to finish off the season at home with a win. Batting first, I think it was the hardest pitch I have ever played on in T20s. Myself and Virat were talking about 140-150 after we came back from the rain break. The communication from the umpires was there was a lot of rain on the pitch, they wanted to push the game and that makes sense. When we came back, my goodness, I was telling Mitch Santner it was like a day 5 Test match at Ranchi and to get 200 on that was unbelievable. The last 6 games the batters have batted with good intent and good strike-rate. We were slow earlier on and we wanted more intent and that was awesome. We were defending 175, it got a bit close, at one stage, with MS there, I thought, oh dear, he has done it so many times.”
“The way we bowled with the wet ball was unbelievable, we tried to change it. I dedicate this Man of the Match to Yash Dayal. The way he bowled was unbelievable. For a man who’s fairly new, he deserves it. [on what he told Dayal before the last over] Pace off is the best option on this pitch and trust your skills and enjoy, this is what you trained for. The yorker did not work the 1st ball and he went back to pace off and it worked unbelievably well. [on the crowd tonight] It’s crazy, even when we weren’t winning the fans were here. We in the changeroom we felt it was something we had to get right. Coming here tonight, it was set up nicely, CSK v RCB, unbelievable atmosphere and we as a team will do a lap of honour to thank the crowd for the support. It’s really important that we enjoy this, great 6 games in a row and the first goal in the IPL is to get into the knockouts and we have done that, enjoy this but get back to work tomorrow,” he further added.
