Thursday’s washout in Hyderabad meant that Sunrisers Hyderabad joined Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals as the three confirmed teams for the playoffs and the race is now for only one spot with two teams in fray -- CSK and RCB.
With mere 13 league stage games to go in this year’s Indian Premier League, no team is officially eliminated from the race to the playoffs but having said that, the next couple of days could be crucial for a few teams, especially the ones at the bottom-half of the IPL 2024 points table.
It was only three days back when the Punjab Kings outclassed CSK by seven wickets at Chepauk, considered their fortress.
The recent struggles of Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals, have given a glimmer of hope to the teams at the bottom of the IPL points tally, and thus both RCB and GT will be aware of the importance of the upcoming tie.
Having lost their previous match against Delhi Capitals, the Titans find themselves at the seventh position on the IPL points table with eight points from nine matches, and a victory over RCB will keep themselves in the race for the play-offs.
After winning the toss, India skipper Virat Kohli could not hold his laughter before choosing to bat for the third time in the series.
Besides the improvement in performances from his batters and bowlers, what du Plessis needs in order to emerge victorious in Ranchi is a bit of luck factor going their way.
Du Plessis, who lost the toss on both the matches, feels that it was the first innings total that affected his side the most.
India’s catching was absolutely spot on in the second innings with wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha taking a couple of brilliant catches. The one-handed stunner down the leg side to dismiss Theunis de Bruyn deserves a special mention.
Ashwin finished with best innings figures of 4/69 including the wickets of Proteas skipper Faf du Plessis who scored 64, Quinton e Kock (31) and Kagiso Rabada (2) in the end.
