With the end of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 league stage, the excitement for the playoffs of the tournament knows no bounds. The Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), after a horrible start in the tournament, makes an unbelievable turnaround in the competition to end in the fourth position.
Kolkata Knight Riders finish the IPL 2024 league stage at the top position with nine wins in 14 games at a net run rate (NRR) of +1.428. Both the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) earned the same number of wins (7), but a higher net run rate of +0.414 kept the Hyderabad side in the second position.
RCB end at the number four position, after their impressive 27-run defeat against the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the virtual knockout game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
AB De Villiers picks RCB’s opponent for the IPL 2024 finals
The former Royal Challengers Bengaluru batter AB De Villiers has picked his former team as one of the teams competing for the IPL 2024 trophy.
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Towards the first leg in the 17th season of the IPL, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were nowhere near the qualifying round, with one solitary victory in their first eight games. They started the season with a six-wicket defeat against CSK.
Even though they opened their account in this IPL 2024 against the Punjab Kings with a four-wicket victory, it took them exactly a month before registering the second win of the season, against the Sunrisers in an away game by 35 runs. In between these, they lost six consecutive games, one of which was a couple of big losses against the KKR and Mumbai Indians (MI).
However, Bengaluru showed tremendous belief among the group, with special performances from the team to finish among the top four spots of this IPL season. Virat Kohli is the top run-getter of the season with 708 runs in 14 innings at an average of 64.36, and a strike rate of 155.60, including his five half-centuries and one hundred.
‘KKR and RCB will play the finals of the IPL 2024.’- The former South Africa captain and RCB player AB De Villiers predicts in a video.
The Kolkata Knight Riders continue their purple patch throughout the season. They began their IPL 2024 campaign with three wins, one of which came at a huge margin of 106 runs over the Delhi Capitals. They did slip a little in the middle of the tournament but held their nerves in most of the crunch situations.
KKR won their last four games out of six affairs, with the two games being washed out against RR and the Gujarat Titans. Their 98-run win over the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) showed their dominance in the season.
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When it comes to the head-to-head in the IPL history between these two teams, the Knight Riders are way ahead with a 20-14 margin in the 34 games between them. In the last four games between them, KKR are unbeaten with four successive wins.
The Kolkata Knight Riders will lock horns with the Sunrisers Hyderabad during the first qualifier on May 21, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. The winner of the game will go straight into the finals of the IPL 2024.
The losing side of the clash will wait for the winners of the Eliminator, which will be played at the same ground on May 22 between the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Rajasthan Royals.
The second qualifier will be played on May 24, while the final of the IPL 2024 will occur on May 26. Both the evening games will take place at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai.