RR vs RCB: RCB's dominant IPL 2024 Eliminator win predicted by Kevin Pietersen as Jos Buttler's absence for RR declared big blow

Former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen backed Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to win the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 quite comfortably against Rajasthan Royals (RR). He believes that Jos Buttler will be a big miss for the Sanju Samson-led side and he doesn't see them putting up a fight. 

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be playing against each other in the Eliminator of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. The match between the two teams will take place at the Narendra Modi International Stadium in Ahmedabad on Wednesday (22nd May). 

Going into the game, Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be very high on confidence as they will be entering the game on the back of 6 straight wins. They were almost down and dusted and had just 1 run from 8 games. But after that, they didn't look back and are looking most threatening in the league. 

It was the other way round for the Rajasthan Royals in the league. They started the tournament on high and were looking for strong favorites to win the final. But they lost 4 straight games and also lost their place in the top 2 at the points table. 

On top of that, their premier batter Jos Buttler has also gone back home. The keeper-batter had to go back due to the international duties. It no doubt will leave a massive void in the lineup and they will be under pressure going into the game. 

Kevin Pietersen claimed that Royal Challengers Bengaluru are playing brilliant cricket and he doesn't see Rajasthan Royals putting up a fight. He also talked about the void left by Jos Buttler and also highlighted the inconsistency of Yashasvi Jaiswal. Speaking to Star Sports, he explained: 

"RCB is playing cricket as well as they've ever played. They've got themselves to a situation where momentum is all in their favour. They've got bowlers bowling well, batters batting brilliantly, and Faf du Plessis leading them as well as he's ever led a team. So, I find it very, very hard to think that Rajasthan are going to put up a fight. 

"They've lost Jos Buttler, and Jos Buttler is such a big player. When you open with Yashasvi Jaiswal, and you know that he looks up to Jos so much, it is such a big loss. It's actually quite sad that the England players have had to leave this tournament, and they're not here on the bigger stage."

I'm sure the players would love to be playing here on the bigger stage in Ahmedabad - Kevin Pietersen on England players missing playoffs 

Kevin Pietersen also talked about England players missing the IPL playoffs. He believes that IPL deserves big players to play at big stages. He added: 

"I'm sure the players would love to be playing here on the bigger stage in Ahmedabad and then off to Chennai to play the finals. This tournament deserves that, and it's just unfortunate that some of the biggest players in the world are not going to be here."  

The team losing the match between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will be knocked out of the race to the final and the winning team will face SRH in Qualifier 2 at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on May 24, Friday.