IPL Qualification Scenarios- 3 way race for last playoff berth
Only 4 matches are left in the league stages of this year’s IPL. Things are looking very heated up and it would be interesting to see who makes it through to the playoffs.
KXIP lost to KKR yesterday, who managed to scrape through and keep their hopes alive for qualification. RR on the other hand depend a lot on their luck and would require many results to go in their favour to qualify. The three teams that will fight for the last playoff berth are- SRH, KKR and RR.
SRH just need a win against RCB to confirm their spot in the last four. Though their would still be a narrow possibility of KKR sneaking through but it is practically impossible because the NRR of SRH is very high as compared to KKR’s. A lot will depend on the top order of SRH as the departure of Warner and Bairstow has been a major setback.
Also, they will have to be careful about the RCB storm. RCB has nothing to lose now and Kohli and De Villiers will look to make the most of this last match at home and give something to their fans to cheer about. SRH’s bowling will have to step up in this match in order to defeat RCB.
The SRH batting lineup looks shaky as only Manish Pandey is scoring runs for them after the departure of Warner and Bairstow. Their have been many middle order collapses for SRH this season which is the major worry for them. But still they would be happy as they have to concentrate just on getting the win rather than keeping a look on the NRR.
When it comes to RR though, they need a miracle. They would want both SRH and KKR to lose their games so that they would qualify if they manage to win today against DC. They will miss Steve Smith as he has joined the Australian camp for the World Cup. Ajinkya Rahane will be back as the captain for this match.
A lot would depend on Shreyas Gopal because the Kotla pitch has been a rank turner this season. DC’s batting order is a little inconsistent which could be exploited by RR.
RR’s opponents DC will also be looking for a win to try and finish in the top 2. This can help RR as it can lead to DC’s young guns getting crumbled under pressure. It will be a mouth-watering contest for sure.
The last team which has a chance to qualify is KKR. After losing 6 in a row, they looked out of the competition as nothing seemed to go their way. In their yesterday’s win as well, Dinesh Karthik was looking very animated. This could easily backfire on them in their last match against the Mumbai Indians. They haven’t had a good record against them in the past and will have to do something magical to win and get a place in the playoffs.
The tension in the dressing room of KKR is not helping them. I feel that it would be very difficult for them to win the last match as the morale of the team doesn’t seem high.
If SRH wins, they will have to defeat MI by a huge margin in order to qualify. Russell will have a big role to play in their last match of the league stages.
KXIP too are numerically not out of the competition but it is virtually impossible. All results need to go in their favour and they need to win by a ‘massive’ margin in order to keep an outside chance of qualifying. But still it seems very unlikely that they will qualify as they face CSK who are at the top of the points table.
