New Delhi. The do or die phase of IPL has started. Now almost every day there will be a team whose dream of making the playoffs will either be shattered that day or it will already be out of the race. In the tournament today, on Thursday, the teams of Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings will be on the field. The losing team’s dream of making the playoffs will be shattered. After this, Chennai-Gujarat will face each other tomorrow on Friday. If Gujarat loses, its playoff hopes are over. If Chennai loses then it will be difficult for them to play the qualifiers.
In a way, the do or die matches of IPL 2024 have started from Wednesday itself. On this day, there was a match between Lucknow Supergiants and Sunrisers Hyderabad. In this stormy match, Hyderabad defeated Lucknow by 10 wickets. The result was that Lucknow Supergiants was out of the race for top-2. However, it can still reach the playoffs.
The last round of IPL is not just about ‘do or die’, rather what happens is that two teams play and the third team becomes its victim. The same thing happened in Wednesday’s match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Supergiants and as soon as the result came, Mumbai Indians were officially out of the race for the playoffs. That means now Mumbai cannot reach the playoffs even with any if-but or paper equation. The reason is that Mumbai can reach a maximum of 12 points, whereas in the points table, three teams have 14 points. There is still a match between Delhi Capitals and Lucknow left, in which the winner will get 14 points.
Today someone from RCB and Punjab will be out
Royal Challengers Bangalore and Punjab Kings will compete in the match to be held on Thursday. Both these teams have 8-8 points from 11-11 matches. Both can reach a maximum of 14 points. According to the equation so far, there can be a possibility of playing playoff if there are 14 points. That means Bengaluru and Punjab are certainly contenders for the playoffs in the equation. But whichever of these two loses on Thursday, its playoff claim will definitely be lost.
Important match between CSK and Gujarat tomorrow
Gujarat Titans will face Chennai Super Kings on Friday. This match is very important for both the teams. If Chennai wins, then its claim to playoff will be strong and the possibility of top-2 will also remain. But if it loses then the hopes of top-2 will almost end. However, the possibility of playoffs will still remain. Similarly, if Gujarat Titans wins, they will remain in the playoff race but their loss will mean being out of the title race. The upcoming matches of IPL 2024 are also going to be equally important, in which the playoff hopes of one team or the other will be dashed or its win or loss will spoil the equation of the other.
Tags: IPL 2024, IPL Play-offs, IPL Playoffs, mumbai indians, rcb
FIRST PUBLISHED: May 9, 2024, 07:23 IST