Rajasthan Royals extend 12-year-old tradition after sealing berth in IPL 2022 Final

On Friday (27 May 2022), Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by seven wickets in Qualifier 2. Hence, RR is en route to playing their second-ever final against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday (29 May 2022). The last time RR played an IPL final was during the inaugural 2008 season under the captaincy of the late Shane Warne and they came out victorious too.

Teams, finishing second in the points table, have qualified for the final since 2011

Now, after reaching the IPL final, RR has continued a unique tradition that has been going on since the 2011 season. It has been observed that the team finishing second in the points table has qualified for the final every year since that season. This year, RR finished the group stage in the second spot with 18 points in 14 matches and maintained this unique streak by reaching the final. LSG also got the same points but for a better net run rate, Rajasthan sealed the second spot.

Since 2011, the top two teams after the group stage have played nine finals out of the possible 12. Among those other three occasions, Sunrisers Hyderabad was the only team that managed to win the tournament despite finishing the group stage outside the top two. SRH won this trophy in 2016 by defeating RCB under David Warner’s captaincy. 

Speaking about the Qualifier 2 match, RCB only managed to put up 157 runs after opting to bat first. In reply, RR chased the target easily with 11 balls to spare, thanks to Jos Buttler’s fourth century of the season. Buttler has now become the second player in the history of the IPL to score four centuries in a single season. He is now the third batsman to score more than 800 runs in a single edition of the tournament (824 runs so far).

RR will look to win this trophy for the second time against GT on Sunday in Ahmedabad as that will be a fitting tribute to their first-ever captain, Shane Warne.