RR vs RCB Eliminator, IPL 2024: Guard of Honour for Dinesh Karthik, the ‘Ultimate Finisher’ for RCB Retires

RCB’s dream to win IPL 2024 was shattered as they suffered a crushing 4-wicket defeat to Rajasthan Royals in the eliminator. RCB were staring at a humiliating exit from IPL 2024 after they lost seven out of the first 8 games, however, the team showed great character and bounced back in style to win 6 games on the trot and qualify for the Eliminator.

RR through was too hot to handle on the big day and picked up a convincing win. Meanwhile, the defeat also marked the end of Dinesh Karthik who announced retirement after the eliminator game. Karthik deservingly received the Guard of Honour from the RCB players.

Dinesh Karthik had a great run for RCB in IPL 2024 and scored 326 runs at a strike rate of 187. Overall, Karthik scored 4842 runs in 257 IPL matches.

Dinesh Karthik getting guard of honour from RCB and the crowd chanting ‘DK, DK’.

– The most emotional video. 🥹💔 pic.twitter.com/XZ3WmbO5Ne

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) May 22, 2024

RCB had the momentum on their side and started the game as favourites, however, an inspirational bowling performance saw RR restrict RCB to a below-par score of 172-8. There were plenty of starts for RCB, with Virat Kohli scoring 33 and Cameron Green and Rajat Patidar making 27 and 34 respectively but none went on to play a long innings as RCB could put up a par score on the board.

Bengaluru did manage to put Rajasthan in trouble but Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 45, Riyan Parag’s 36 and Shimron Hetmyer’s cameo of 26 helped RR qualify for the Qualifier 2 where they will face SRH.

Sources Has Said That RCB Has Stopped Practice Session Due To Ahmedabad Heat

RCB captain Faf du Plessis reflected on the defeat and acknowledged that the team was 20 runs short of a good score.

“With the dew coming, we felt we were short with the bat. Did think we were 20 runs shy of what was a good score. Credit to the boys – they fought really well. That’s all you can ask for. If you look at naturally assessing the pitch and conditions, you would say it’s a 180 pitch because it was swinging upfront and was quite slow.

But what we’ve found out this season is that with the impact player, the par score isn’t enough any more. Also with the dew coming in. Extremely proud. A lot of teams – their wheels would’ve fallen off after 1 from 9. To come back like that, six games in a row, takes a lot of heart and character. We weren’t special tonight in terms of pushing that extra 20 runs with the bat, said Faf du Plessis.