Sanju Samson-led Rajasthan Royals defeated Faf du Plessis-led Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Eliminator of IPL 2024 on Wednesday in Ahmedabad. With this win, RR booked their place in Qualifier 2 where they will meet SRH for a chance to make it into IPL 2024 finals.
RR asked RCB to bat first after winning the toss. Virat Kohli (33), Rajat Patidar (34), and Mahipal Lomror (32) were the main contributors as RCB posted 172/8 in 20 overs. Avesh Khan picked 3/44, while R Ashwin took two wickets.
Yashasvi Jaiswal starred with 45 in reply, while Riyan Parag made 36 runs. But Shimron Hetmyer (26) and Rovman Powell (16*) ensured that RR won the match by 4 wickets and one over to spare.
After the match, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson mentioned that not all RR players, including him, were 100% fit in the dressing room.
"What cricket and life have taught us is we will have some great days, we will have some really bad days. Important to bounce back. The way we batted, bowled, and fielded, I am really happy. All the credit has to go to the players.
We look at the field set and planning, the credit has to go to Sanga (Kumar Sangakkara) and the team of support staff for discussing tactics. Ashwin and Avesh bowled tremendously well. If you look at our batting unit, there are a lot of youngsters. They are 22-years old, they are less experienced but they played well,” Samson said in a post-match presentation.
Samson added, "A few of us are not 100%. I'm not 100% actually. There is a bug in the dressing room, lots of coughs, and a lot of people are a bit unwell. But we have the momentum now, so the dressing room is confident."
On the other hand, RCB captain Faf du Plessis emphasized the immense determination required to secure six consecutive victories. He did say that RCB fell short of runs, especially when dew came into play later in the evening.
"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, we knew we had to score more to challenge them,” Du Plessis said.
Speaking about their fine run after a disastrous start to the tournament, he said, "A lot of teams, their wheels would have fallen off after 1 from 9. But we made sure to give our best and to come back like that - six games in a row - takes a lot of heart."
(PTI inputs)
