Sunil Gavaskar, the legendary Indian cricketer, backed Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to completely dominate out-of-form Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the IPL 2024 Eliminator Match on May 22, 2024 in Ahmedabad.
The Rajasthan Royals appeared to be on course for first place in the league stage until a four-game losing run and a washout in the final game against KKR left Sanju Samson’s team third behind Hyderabad.
When in form, the Royals are unstoppable, but their last four games have revealed faults in both their batting and bowling. Jos Buttler’s departure has reduced their hitting ability.
“Rajasthan have lost the last four or five matches and they didn’t play that last game as well. So they’ve been out of practice. Unless they do something special like I did today. This by not playing for 11 days, it’s gonna be a real good well turned out to be another one-sided game tomorrow.
“My, you know, my fear is that there will be another one sided game tomorrow where the RCB who are who are playing like I said just absolutely phenomenal cricket. We’ll just walk all over. I’ll be very surprised if you know that doesn’t happen,” Sunil Gavaskar said on Star Sports
The winner of IPL 2024 Eliminator will take on SRH in the Qualifier 2 on May 24 for a place in the final against KKR.
What RCB has done has been absolutely phenomenal: Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar praised RCB’s tenacity and the leadership of key players such as Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli for inspiring the squad during difficult times.
RCB has bravely come back from the brink of elimination. After losing seven of their first eight games this season, the team managed by Faf du Plessis went on a run and eliminated defending champions CSK to win a playoff spot. Faf du Plessis has recovered form with the bat, forming a dominant partnership with Kohli, while Rajat Patidar has offered steadiness at the top.
“And I think what RCB have done has been absolutely phenomenal, nothing short of phenomenal. Firstly, to believe that they can bounce back. That takes something special. And you have to say that the leading players over there Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli, they were probably the guys who are most encouraging the other team members.
Other team members can quickly get into a situation where we have lost everything. It’s up to the senior and I think they’ve done the job and they’ve done it by showing them how both of them are playing extraordinary cricket,” Sunil Gavaskar added.
RCB has reached the IPL final thrice in 2009, 2011, and 2016, but has not yet won the title.
Also Read: IPL 2024: ‘RCB Are A Team On The Rise With A Lot Of Hunger’ – Aakash Chopra