A file photo of Indian Premier League trophy. (BCCI)
New Delhi: The ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is seeing one of the closest fights ever for a place in the knockouts as there are as many as three teams are gunning for the last spot in the playoffs. With Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders already sealing the three spots, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab are fighting it out on the last day of the league stage to grab the remaining one spot.
Only Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore and Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Daredevils have been knocked out of the tournament and will end their campaign at the bottom of the table. SRH, KKR, RR and RCB have played 14 matches so far and to say that the first match of Super Sunday will be a mouth-watering one, will be an understatement. MI face DD in the first game and with the best net run-rate in the league, all Rohit Sharma’s team need is a win.
Both Rajasthan and Punjab have their task cut-out. While RR is sitting on 14 after 14 games, Punjab have 12 from 13 games. But both RR (-0.250) and KXIP (-0.490) have terrible net run-rates. So, even if KXIP beat Chennai Super Kings in the last game of the league stage, they need to do it with a big margin and also pray that MI lose to DD. If MI win their game against DD, then all the permutations and combinations go for a toss.
A win for Mumbai in the match against DD will see them jump to 14 points and with a healthy NRR of +0.384, they will be guaranteed to make it into the last four, unless KXIP beat Chennai Super Kings by an unimaginable margin to ensure that they move from -0.490 to a net run-rate better than that of MI. But a loss for the defending champions in capital will see them crash out of the competition and then RR have a better chance of qualifying even if KXIP beat CSK on the basis of a better run-rate.
Rajasthan will be the most stressed out franchise of the lot because all their games are over and they need to rely on the outcome of the games on Sunday to see if they can squeeze in. Punjab have lost six out of their last seven matches and that has severely dented their chances of making it into the playoffs. Not to forget their NRR which is the worst in the league currently. It will only take a miracle for KXIP to progress into the knockouts from here as they need so many things to go their way.
For starters, Punjab will be hoping that Delhi beat Mumbai at home. And in the last league match of the season, they will look to stun Chennai Super Kings in Pune. And even if all these stars do align somehow, KXIP's poor NRR could cost their dearly.
IPL 2018 POINTS TABLE
Team
Mat
Won
Lost
Tied
NR
Pts
NRR
SRH
14
9
5
0
0
18
+0.284
CSK
13
8
5
0
0
16
+0.220
KKR
14
8
6
0
0
16
-0.070
RR
14
7
7
0
0
14
-0.250
MI
13
6
7
0
0
12
+0.384
RCB
14
6
8
0
0
12
+0.129
KXIP
13
6
7
0
0
12
-0.490
DD
13
4
9
0
0
8
-0.288
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