The Eliminator, sees the sides that finished in third and fourth position in the qualifying table meet in a straight knockout fixture, that ends with the losers season being over, while the winners advance to the “Qualifier 2”, effectively a semi-final, where they play the loser of the “Qualifier 1”. In this case that will be either the Gujarat Lions or the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), who face each other on Tuesday.
Both the Sunrisers in particular and KKR will be bitterly disappointed to be having to play in the “Eliminator”, having looked likely to finish in the top two in the qualifying table with a handful of games remaining.
However, Hyderabad lost three of their last four fixtures, while KKR lost three of their last five. One more win for either team would have given them an all-important place in “Qualifier 1”. Both sides finished on 16 points, the same as RCB, but with inferior run rates to the Royal Challengers.
Both games between the sides in the regular season have ended in victory for KKR. Back in Round 8, KKR won in Hyderabad by eight wickets, when Gautam Gambhir scored a magnificent 90 not out from just 60 deliveries.
The return fixture came only last Sunday, on the last day of the regular season, when KKR clinched their place in the knockout phase of the competition, and denied the Sunrisers top spot, winning by 22 runs.
That win may just give KKR, IPL winners in 2012 and 2014, the impetus to continue their season for at least one more game, and deny the Sunrisers the opportunity of a first Grand Final appearance in their relatively short four year IPL history.