IPL maths, Kolkata out of playoff: Mumbai and Bengaluru can qualify by winning today; Rajasthan will pray for their defeat
sports desk4 minutes ago
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There have been 68 league stage matches in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Now only 2 league matches are left and 3 teams have entered the playoffs. One position is vacant. There are 3 teams contending for this one spot.
Defending champions Gujarat Titans (GT), Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Lucknow Supergiants (LSG) have cemented their places in the top-4. The race is now between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Mumbai Indians (MI) for the remaining one spot. Mumbai and Bangalore have a chance to make it to the top-4 by winning their last league matches, while Rajasthan’s team is dependent on the results of Bangalore and Mumbai, as the team has played all its league matches.
Today is the last doubleheader day of the season. That is, for the last time in this season, two matches will be played in a day. Mumbai and Hyderabad will be face to face in the first match, while Bengaluru will face Gujarat in the second.
In the following story, we will know the situation of the teams in today’s matches, as well as what Mumbai and Bengaluru need to do to enter the playoffs.
First of all let’s have a look at the points table…
Today the fourth team of the playoffs will meet
As per the current standings of the points table, Gujarat Titans (18 points) are at the first position, Chennai (17) at the second position and Lucknow (17) at the third position. More than 16 points are needed for confirmed qualification in the playoffs, which these three have achieved. Now the race for the fourth position is on.
Bengaluru, Rajasthan and Mumbai are presenting the claim. All three have the same 14-14 points, but Bengaluru and Mumbai have one match each, while Rajasthan have played all their league matches. In such a situation, Bangalore and Mumbai have a chance to strengthen their claim by winning their last match, while Rajasthan is dependent on the results of the matches of these two teams.
Apart from these 6 teams, Kolkata, Punjab, Delhi and Hyderabad are out of the playoff race after playing all their matches.
Let’s look at the status of all the teams contending for the fourth place in the playoffs…
1. Mumbai Indians
- The team captained by Rohit Sharma is at number six in the table. The team has 14 points after 13 matches, but Mumbai’s net runrate (-0.128) is worse than Bengaluru and Rajasthan. In such a situation, Mumbai will have to win their last league match by a big margin. If Mumbai wins by 80 or more runs against Hyderabad, then their run rate will be better than RCB. In such a situation, if Bengaluru wins by a margin of 1 run, then Mumbai will qualify. On the other hand, if Mumbai wins by 100 runs, then RCB will need a 22-run win to qualify.
- In such a situation, Mumbai would like to win their last match with the biggest margin, so that even in the event of Bengaluru winning, the net run rate of the team is better.
- In the event of a loss, Mumbai will be out of the playoff race. Because even if RCB loses the next match badly, Rajasthan team with 0.14 run rate will qualify.
2. Royal Challengers Bangalore
- Currently the team is in fourth place. He has 14 points. The net runrate of the team is 0.180. RCB, captained by Faf du Plessis, has to play the last league match of the season against defending champions Gujarat Titans at their home ground from 7:30 pm today.
- RCB will have to win the last match by a big margin to enter the playoffs, so that even if Mumbai wins, the team’s run rate is better than MI, because even in case of victory, RCB will have 16 points and Mumbai will play their last match. Can reach 16 points by winning.
- If Bengaluru’s team loses to Gujarat, then even if Mumbai loses, the team can reach the playoffs. But his Bengaluru will have to keep his runrate better than Mumbai and Rajasthan. If RCB lose by a margin of 6 or more runs then their run rate will be less than Rajasthan.
3. Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals team, captained by Sanju Samson, has played all their league matches. There are only 14 points in the team’s share. The team is at number 5 with a net runrate of 0.148. Even in this situation, to qualify in the playoffs, Rajasthan would like Mumbai and Bangalore to lose by a big margin, so that all three teams have only 14 points. On the other hand, Rajasthan’s run rate was better than both. If Bengaluru lose their match by a margin of more than 6 runs after Mumbai’s loss today, then Rajasthan will qualify with 14 points.
Now let’s see how Chennai and Lucknow qualified in the playoffs on Saturday…
CSK and LSG won their respective matches
Two matches were played on Saturday. In the first, Chennai beat Delhi by 77 runs to enter the playoffs, while in the second, Lucknow sealed a place in the playoffs with a thrilling one-run win over Kolkata.
With the defeat against Lucknow, Kolkata were out of the playoff race.
