A couple of games ago, the Rajasthan Royals were almost guaranteed of a top-2 finish in the IPL 2024 points table but a defeat by 5 wickets against the Punjab Kings on Wednesday, has made it very tough.
Sanju Samson's decision to bat first backfired as the pitch in Guwahati proved tricky. None of their batters except Riyan Parag (48) got going as Punjab restricted Rajasthan to 144/9.
Defending which, the Royals reduced PBKS to 48/4 but Sam Curran decided to play his best knock of the season before leaving for national duty.
He slammed an unbeaten 63 and took his side over the finish line with 7 balls to spare.
Rajasthan might have qualified for the playoffs but with 4 consecutive defeats, they need to win their last league game in order to stand a chance to finish in top 2.
The result also meant that the Kolkata Knight Riders were guaranteed of finishing at the top of the table. Interestingly, Shreyas Iyer became the first ever KKR skipper to end the league stage at the number 1 spot.