Considering Rajasthan Royals’ start to IPL 2024, not reaching the final can be considered a failure by many fans and experts. On Friday, RR crashed to a 36-run defeat against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Qualifier 2, ending their campaign on a sour note.
Chasing 176 runs, RR crumbled at 139/7 in 20 overs, despite an unbeaten knock of 56 runs off 35 balls by Dhruv Jurel. Meanwhile, Shahbaz Ahmed took three wickets for SRH, and Abhishek Sharma registered two.
Initially, Heinrich Klaasen (50) and Rahul Tripathi (37) took SRH to 175/9 in 20 overs. For RR’s bowling department, Avesh Khan and Trent Boult struck thrice respectively.
After the defeat, RR fans were left emotional and there were thousands present at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. A young RR fan caught the attention of everyone as the little girl was left in tears and was extremely emotional.
Cricket fans took to X, formerly known as Twitter, to share a photo of the young RR fan crying and it went viral. Reacting to the emotional state of the young girl, one fan wrote, “Feel for Rajasthan Royals fans. They were playing like royals in the first phase, winning almost 90% of their games and sitting in the top position. Then came the downfall: back-to-back defeats, playing the eliminator, and getting knocked out. They should blame themselves for their mindset. Bad luck struck just when they had a great chance to win the trophy.”
RR began the season on a dominating note and occupied pole position in the first-half of the campaign. But a dip in form and defeats saw them finish in third position, and then beat RCB in the Eliminator for a berth in Qualifier 2.
Speaking after the match, RR captain Sanju Samson said, ” It was a big game. I am really proud of the way we bowled in the first innings. We were found short of options in the middle overs against their spin, that’s where we lost the game. It’s very hard to guess actually when we are expecting some dew or when we are not. The wicket started behaving differently in the second innings, the ball started turning a bit, they used that advantage really well.”
“They bowled their spin in the middle overs against our right-handed batsmen, that’s where they were one-up against us. Against their left-arm spin, when the ball was stopping, we could have tried a bit more reverse-sweep or maybe use of the crease a bit more. They also bowled really well. We have had some brilliant games not only this season but from the last three years, it has been a great project for our franchise,” he added.
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Hasibur Rahaman is a passionate sports journalist. He covers everything from cricket to field hockey, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis of sporting events, both within India and on the international stage.
