Royals Eliminate RCB with 4 Wickets Victory to Set Up Knockout Against SRH: IPL 2024 Eliminator Recap

However, the RCB hammered 42 in three overs at the opposite end. By the end of the powerplay, Virat Kohli, who frequently uses his foot to step out or make room, looked menacing as he raced to 30 off 19.

Ashwin replaced Boult at the end with the lengthy leg-side boundary (for the right-hand batsman), and it was still difficult to score from that end. Ashwin bowled superbly, mostly employing his carrom and reverse-carrom variations against the right-hand batters of the Royals. He bowled at a fast tempo, either into the pitch or straight up at the batters’ feet, offering no room.

However, he was also helped by the end from which he bowled and the fact that the RCB had lost significant wickets before to his first two overs. He bowled the ninth over, which came right after Yuzvendra Chahal had dismissed Kohli, and the seventh over, which came just after Boult had removed du Plessis.

The story of IPL 2024 has been Kohli’s slog-sweep. After being kept in cold storage for many years, the shot has provided Kohli an extra gear in the middle overs and helped him overcome a long-standing problem of slow scoring against spin. But on this particular day, he was caught on the midwicket boundary, out for his first slog-sweep.

When they could target the short leg-side boundary, RCB continued to play their strokes. They took Avesh for 13 in the 12th over and Chahal for 13 in the tenth. Rajat Patidar miscued a massive hit off Ashwin in between, but Dhruv Jurel, coming in from long on, knocked down a sitter to give him a respite.

However, Ashwin did not allow RR to dwell on that missed opportunity for long, as he forced Cameron Green to mishit in the 13th over, his fourth, and then removed Glenn Maxwell, who ended a poor season at bat by trying to hit his opening delivery for six and being caught far-on.

After Chahal delivered another costly over (19 overs conceded in the 14th over), it appeared that a 190-odd could be reached when Patidar hooked Avesh for six at the beginning of the 15th over, which was RCB’s first boundary in an odd-numbered over. However, Patidar miscued to a mid-off fielder who was backing up after Avesh delivered a somewhat short delivery that was huge on the next ball.

After he hit a superb first ball inducker to have Dinesh Karthik declared leg before wicket, he might have had two in two, but the third umpire appeared to have misread the bat hitting pad for an inside edge on to pad. The hitter challenged the ruling and it was overturned.

In what is probably his last innings at the senior level, Karthik was prickly even as he scored 11 off 13; nevertheless, in the 19th over, Avesh finally got him with a hard-length legcutter that climbed sharply on him. Even though Mahipal Lomror scored 32 off 17 at the finish, including two leg-side sixes off Chahal, RCB’s total of 172 at the half felt insufficient.

In the early stages of the chase, two opportunities were lost. The first was tough; in the third over, Green threw himself to his left at slip and edged a ball from Yashasvi Jaiswal. The second was easy; in the fifth over, Maxwell squared away a ball from Tom Kohler-Cadmore at deep square-leg.

Following those misses, the two openers repeatedly hit the boundary; Yash Dayal was especially unlucky to let up three fours to Jaiswal shortly after he was sent out; by the end of the fifth over, RR had reached 45 without losing.

With a superb sixth over that saw him give up only two runs and bowl Kohler-Cadmore with a slower yorker, Lockie Ferguson put a stop to the powerplay. But as Jaiswal and Sanju Samson grabbed 17 runs off the left-arm spin of Swapnil Singh in the seventh over, including a six and two fours, both towards the shorter boundary, RR was still well in control.