Defending champions Mumbai Indians failed to reach the play-off stage of the Indian Premier League after defeat by Delhi Daredevils on Sunday.
A win would have given the tournament’s most successful team a top-four finish but Mumbai lost by 11 runs.
Kings XI Punjab lost to the Chennai Super Kings by five wickets on Sunday, meaning they are also eliminated.
That result meant the Rajasthan Royals join Chennai, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad in the play-offs.
Rajasthan lost four of their first seven matches but improved in the second half of the group stage, helped by England wicketkeeper Jos Buttler who scored five consecutive fifties and 548 runs in total.
England all-rounder Ben Stokes also played 13 matches for Rajasthan – scoring 196 runs and taking eight wickets – but both he and Buttler have returned to play for England in the first Test against Pakistan, which starts on Thursday.
England batsman Sam Billings was out for a duck for Chennai but they still secured victory to knock out Kings XI who needed to win by 53 runs to qualify.
Chennai are returning to the IPL for the first time after they were suspended for two years for corruption, along with Rajasthan, and continue their record of reaching the play-offs in all the IPL seasons they have competed in since the tournament began in 2008.
In the play-off stage, the top two teams, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai, play in the first qualifier on Tuesday.
The winner will progress straight to the final while the loser will play the winner of Wednesday’s eliminator between the third and fourth-placed teams, Kolkata and Rajasthan, for a place in the final.
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