Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) finally arrives first Indian premiere league (IPL) Finals since 2016, handing over a derogatory eight -wicket defeat in Qualifier 1 in New Chandigarh to Punjab Kings (PBK). The domestic team, after batting first, was bundled out for only 101.
RCB paid huge awards as their bowlers to bowl first, Josh Hazelwood, Yash Dayal and Suyash Sharma ran through the top and middle order of PBKS. Punjab lost four wickets in the powerplay, and soon the other six saw themselves running back. The total 101 IPL playoffs of PBKS were less in history, which was the same for Lucknow Super Giants from IPL 2023.
Despite making the batting challenging despite the movement and bounce, the RCB batsman made it easy to chase. Salt scored an unbeaten 56 from just 27, and completed it with a silver-sweep Six with a silver Patidar, reaching the target with RCB 60 balls, making it the biggest difference of playoffs in terms of balls remaining. After the crushed defeat, PBKS captain Shreyas Iyer was honest in his later assessment after his match. Considering what went wrong, he accepted the bad day of the batting unit on the field.
“Not a day to forget, but met to go back to the drawing board. We lost a lot of wickets (in the first innings) there is a lot to go back and study. I am not doubting to be honest on my decisions. Whatever we did in the context of the plan, outside the ground, whatever the plan (plan) did, I think it was not on the post.”
Meanwhile, Iyer mentioned that defending such low clan was always a difficult task, especially against a strong batting unit. He also stated that his side needed to be more optimal, given the bounce on the pitch.
“Can't blame the bowlers either, as it was a low total to defend. We had to work on our batting on this wicket. We have played here in all sports, some variables are throwing. We cannot give such reasons because we are professionals at the end of the day and we have to bat according to the situation and we did not get war.
Hazelwood and Suyash took three wickets, with Dayal peel with two. With the bat, despite losing Virat Kohli quickly, Salt turned the game away from Punjab. While RCB will play the final, Punjab has another chance for the summit as they take the winners of Eliminator Games (Gujarat Titans vs Mumbai Indians) on 1 June.
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