The Rajasthan Royals (RR) finished third in the points table after the IPL 2024 league phase and they will face the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in the Eliminator in Ahmedabad on Wednesday, May 22. However, Aakash Chopra said that it is a favourable result for RCB. The SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH), meanwhile, defeated the Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the penultimate league game in Hyderabad on Sunday (May 19) to climb above RR into second position as well. With the Royals’ clash against the KKR later in the day getting washed out, SRH retained the second spot based on net run rate.

In a video shared on his YouTube channel, Chopra said, “It’s RCB vs RR – a royal encounter. I feel one by one everything is going in favor of RCB because Hyderabad are a dangerous team. Not that RCB can’t beat them, they have done that once at their (SRH’s) own home. However, the truth is – that day the game can go anywhere. I feel they will catch and seize the Rajasthan Royals. So RCB are in a happy place playing the Eliminator. It is difficult because it is also true that in the 11-year history of the Eliminator, only once a team that finished third or fourth has won. That was 2016 – SunRisers Hyderabad.”

However, he also acknowledged that IPL history suggested it won’t be easy for RCB to reach the final. Even if RCB beat RR in the Eliminator, they will have to face the loser of the Qualifier 1 clash between SRH and KKR in Qualifier 2 as well. They will also have to beat the winner of Qualifier 1 in the final to bag their maiden IPL trophy as well.

“The match was washed out and because of that Rajasthan lost the chance they had to reach 18 points. The truth remains that this team hasn’t won even a single match in May. Eight wins in the first nine games and after that not even one. They got four tries. People clear UPSC in four tries and they couldn’t win one match,” Aakash Chopra concluded. “You can see the one point they got in the end with two viewpoints. You can say your time was bad as a point was snatched from you or else you would have reached No. 2. The second view is that it was good you came after qualifying. Imagine if your qualification had not been confirmed and this one point had sent you out,”