Rajasthan Royals paid the price for their shoddy show during the business end as a washout of their final IPL league game against table toppers Kolkata Knight Riders on May 19 pushed them to third place behind Sunrisers Hyderabad.
While KKR finished the league engagements on 20 points with nine wins and two more solitary points courtesy wash-outs, SRH (17 points) pipped RR (17 points) due to its better Net Run Rate (NRR). SRH finished with NRR of 0.414 compared to RR's 0.273.
KKR will play SRH in the first Qualifier in Ahmedabad on Tuesday followed by the 'Eliminator' between RR and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the same venue.
Rajasthan Royals would blame themselves for getting into a nice little rut after an incredible run during the first half of the tournament when they had won eight out of their nine games. But their campaign lost a bit of steam towards the back end as they lost four games on the trot and with no Jos Buttler for crunch games, facing a marauding RCB in a winner-takes-all match could be a very tough proposition.
On the other hand, SRH, a team that redefined power-hitting with optimum use of 'Impact Sub', had one of their best chases on Sunday. The chase of 215 against a depleted Punjab Kings with five balls to spare also bolstered their NRR just when it was needed.
