IPL 2024: Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Rajasthan Royals, Eliminator - Who said What?

In an action-packed eliminator of the Indian Premier League 2024, Rajasthan Royals (RR) knocked out Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 4 wickets. They will face Sunrisers Hyderabad in the second Qualifier of the season to fight for the second spot in the finals. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal led all scorers with 45, and Riyan Parag contributed a vital 36. Earlier, after being asked to bat first, RCB scored 172 for 8. While in-form opener Virat Kohli hammered 33 off 24 balls, Rajat Patidar struck 34 off 22 deliveries. Ravichandran Ashwin, a senior off-spinner for India, bowled superbly to end with fantastic figures of 2 for 19 in four overs. Virat Kohli became the first batsman ever to reach the 8000 IPL run milestone during the game. It was a nail-biting finish for the spot in Qualifier 2 to be played against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Friday. 

1. Virat Kohli's yet another milestone

Virat Kohli gave his all this season as well but unfortunately, the team could not reach the finals as they were knocked out of the IPL 2024 by RR. Kohli scored 33 runs in the Eliminator against RR and became the first batsman to score 8,000 runs in IPL history. In the 252nd game of his IPL career, Kohli made it there. 

2. India's senior off-spinner's superb bowling

Ravichandran Ashwin of RR turned the whole game in the first innings when he bowled superbly to end his fantastic figures where he took 2 wickets by giving just 19 runs in his four overs. His spell helped restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru batters to 172 in 20 overs. He took some major wickets of RCB which boosted RR's confidence in the must-win game at Ahmedabad. 

3. Riyan Parag's vital runs 

When Rajasthan Royals struggled to score after their top-order collapse, Riyan Parag walked in and hit 36 runs. He played exactly when the team needed it, and helped RR reach to a chaseable target. His innings boosted the team's confidence and put RCB in a difficult spot in the must-win game. 

Winning skipper Sanju Samson

What cricket and life has taught us is we will have some good and some really bad phases. But we need to have the character to bounce back. Really happy with the way we fielded, we batted and we bowled today. Credit to the bowlers, they are always looking at what the opposition batters would do and what fields to set. Credit goes to Sanga and bowling coach Bond as well. They've spent a lot of time in hotel rooms discussing these things. They are 22 each, so is Jurel. With very little experience, the way they are performing at this level is amazing. I'm not a 100% actually. There is a bug in the dressing room, lots of coughs and a lot of people are a bit unwell. Rovman finished that off well. I think we have a travel day and rest now, looking forward to the next game.

Player of the Match Ravichandran Ashwin

We haven't done very well in the last few games. We didn't put par scores and we lost Buttler, and Hetmyer was injured. Today's win was important. We were a bit rusty chasing it, but this win will give us some confidence. In the first half, I felt my body wasn't moving too well for the first half of the season. I had an abdomen injury as well. I am aging as well. To come into the tournament from Test cricket was difficult, I needed some time to get that bowling rhytmn. But once you have committed to your franchise, you want to go through with the season. I think we hit the right lengths, the way Boult was bowling, he got a bit of swing and seam movement. In the second innings, I don't think there was a lot of dew. I think there were some exceptional shots from our boys to get that chase. I think our greatest strength is the exuberance of youth and the experience we have got to support that. Now that Hettie is backing, and Rovman got a few boundaries today as well. We've got Keshav sitting outside. We have the right momentum for this team going forward.

Losing skipper Faf du Plessis

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. Extremely proud. Lot of teams - their wheels would've fallen off after 1 from 9. To come back like that, six games in a row, takes a lot of heart and character. We weren't special tonight in terms of pushing that extra 20 runs with the bat.