The Rajasthan Royals won their last regular season match of the 16th season of the Indian Premier League by defeating the Punjab Kings by 4 wickets. After getting off to a great start with four victories in their first five matches, RR only managed to win three of their following nine league games, which was far from reflective of their true ability.
As things stand, skipper Sanju Samson and his team don’t have a great shot of advancing to the next round, so they’ll be watching the outcomes of the next four matches with bated breath.
Royals, who ended up in second place in IPL 2022, needed only a few more balls to reach their objective of 188 runs. Top-order batsmen Yashasvi Jaiswal (50) and Devdutt Padikkal (51) scored half-centuries, and they were followed by Shimron Hetmyer (46), Riyan Parag (20), and Dhruv Jurel (10*) in the middle order, all of whom made significant contributions to the team’s seventh victory of the season.
Also Read:
- The moment when Mohammed Shami said that he gets along much better with Virat Kohli than Rohit Sharma
- The moment when MS Dhoni hit back at Michael Hussey for his advice regarding how to play against Rashid Khan
They may have benefited from a boost to their Net Run Rate (NRR) if the match had ended an over or two sooner. It’s worth noting that Rajasthan is now in fifth place on the points table with 14 points to their credit. The Royal Challengers Bangalore and the Mumbai Indians are their two main rivals right now.
That means RR can advance to the next round only if RCB and MI both lose their last games of the season. Currently, Bangalore has a higher NRR than Rajasthan; however, it might change if they suffer a significant enough loss. However, Mumbai has a lower NRR than the Royals. So, even if they suffer a little setback, RR will still have a fighting chance. From Rajasthan’s point of view in particular, if either the Royal Challengers or the Indians win on Sunday, Rajasthan will be eliminated from playoff contention.
