IPL 2019: Playoffs scenarios for all the teams

No team has officially confirmed their top four finish in the IPL 2019 even after all the eight teams featuring at least ten matches. The defending champions Chennai Super Kings are the nearest of the eight, having won eight of the 11 matches they played. Both Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore settled in the bottom two places since the first week of the tournament. They are the teams with least chances of ending up with a playoff spot as they won only three out of ten matches thus far.

Here are the scenarios of each team for making it to the 2019 IPL playoffs

Chennai Super Kings

With their 8th win of the season on Tuesday, the Chennai Super Kings more or less confirmed their final four finish. A win will confirm CSK’s final four finish and even a top two finish. Considering the upcoming fixtures, as many as five teams are in a chance of ending up with eight wins or more wins from here on. CSK might end up falling short if they lose all their remaining three matches. This might happen if the other team results come up with couple of wins.

Their net run rate of 0.091 is 4th best among all teams after playing 11 matches and the 2nd worst among the teams who have a chance of finishing with eight wins. Delhi Capitals have the best chance to trump CSK and so does Mumbai Indians. Two out of SRH, KXIP and KKR also are in queue to finish with 16 points. KKR has the least chance given their last three matches are against MI and KXIP.

Delhi Capitals

The Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals are placed at 2nd with seven wins in 11 matches. They are one win away from sealing their top four finish for the first time in seven seasons. They have a good chance to do that as they play the bottom two teams, RCB and RR in two of their remaining three matches.

However, both being at home is an issue for the Capitals who have struggled at home and excelled away this season. There is an outside chance even on losing their remaining three matches SRH, KXIP and KKR don’t win more than two of their remaining four matches.

Mumbai Indians

The Mumbai Indians will be quite happy with the way they fared in the first ten matches. They have won six of those ten matches and will face the Kolkata Knight Riders twice in their last four matches. The Mumbai side might be taking on Sunrisers Hyderabad at home when SRH will be playing without Bairstow and Warner. Even one win from here on will catapult Rohit’s clan into Playoffs. Their net run rate of 0.357 at the moment is the 2nd best.

Besides SRH, Mumbai will play CSK once and will have to face off KKR twice. The three-time champions have an upper hand already by beating Chennai Super Kings once this season. It is an easy contest for the IPL juggernauts to make Playoffs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

The 11th edition finalists Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chances look bleak provided the early exit of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner. Bairstow won’t be available for the remaining four league matches while Warner is expected to miss out last two matches. Two of their last four matches are against the bottom two teams RR and RCB which will be crucial for the Kane Williamson-led side. They need at least two wins from here on to have a chance of finishing in the top four.

Currently, their position is fourth with net run rate of 0.654 — the best of all the teams. More than two losses might lead to their ousting from playoffs. They can be dragged down by the lowly settled teams due to good competition.

Kings XI Punjab

The Kings XI Punjab are suffering a downward stride for the 2nd time in two seasons during the 2nd half of the tournament. They have lost three of their previous four matches after winning four of their first six. They will be up against RCB, CSK, KKR and SRH in their final four matches. Defeating KKR and SRH will improve their chances of making it to the playoffs with seven wins only.

Currently, Kings XI Punjab is at the fifth spot with a very good season. They have won 5 of 10 matches in which the team was dependent mostly on Chris Gayle and KL Rahul.

Kolkata Knight Riders

The Dinesh Karthik-led team have been pretty poor this season except for the cameos from Andre Russell in almost every game. They have lost each of their last four matches and stand with only four wins after ten games. They need to win at least three of their last four to have an outside chance of finishing in top four.

They will be playing Mumbai Indians twice in their last four games; a team that has always had their number in the IPL. Despite being average, MI defeated KKR twice during the previous season and kept their hopes alive. MI is still in hunt of sealing their playoff berth which would mean KKR needs to do something outrageous to break the jinx.

Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore

Both Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore have won only three matches out of the ten played. Both the teams face off on 30th in Bangalore which means only one of the two can finish with seven wins; the least any team has qualified to the playoffs in the IPL history. However, there is still a possibility of the two teams finishing in top four if the results of other matches go in their way.

They will need CSK, DC and MI to beat the middle lying teams SRH, KXIP and SRH in the remaining matches. This meant both RCB and RR would require results of 5-6 matches to go as expected in which they are not involved. However, at the same time, they need to work on improving their net run rate with big results. Even for finishing on seven wins, these two teams need at least results of three matches not involving them to go as expected.

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