Skipper Jitesh Sharma hammered an unbeaten 85 and Virat Kohli hit 54 as Royal Challengers Bengaluru stormed into qualifier 1 of the IPL playoffs with a six-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday.
Bengaluru chased down 228 to go second in the 10-team table in the last league match of this season and set up a meeting with table-toppers Punjab Kings on Thursday.
The result pushed Gujarat Titans into third spot. They will face Mumbai Indians in the eliminator on Friday.
The winners of qualifier 1 go straight to the final on June 3 but the losers have a second chance of joining them as they will face the winner of the eliminator in qualifier 2 to decide who will head to Ahmedabad.
Lucknow skipper Rishabh Pant signed off with an unbeaten 118 off 61 balls in his team's 227-3, but Bengaluru knocked off the target with eight balls to spare.
