The Defending Champions Mumbai Indians have been considered to be out of Play-offs race after their loss against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday. But indeed they still have chance to make into the play-offs.
Here are scenarios how the defending champions can make into plays-off a step close to defend the title:
Mumbai Indians are at No.7 in points table at this position with 6 points (3 wins) in 10 games played and in remaining game they will be playing against Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Daredevils respectively & in last game they will play against Rajasthan Royals once again.
The best possible opportunity for them to qualify is to win all those games with a good margin to maintain a healthy net run rate and hope to equal with RR, SRH, KKR and RCB.
MI must hope at least 3 of those four teams end with same wins that MI can manage. With means if RR wins game (against CSK as MI has 2 games against RR) then three teams must end with 7 or below wins and MI should make sure that the teams end up with same number of wins should possess lesser NRR than them.
One loss among the remaining four games:
We have seen teams even ending up without qualifying after having 14 points (7 wins). But MI still have an outside chance even with 12 points (6 wins).
If a loss from here means they can’t stop RR from qualifying and need to hope that SRH, KKR & RCB end with same number of win they have.
This is a blue print what Mumbai have to hope for getting in to plays with 6 wins:
CSK vs RCB – CSK win
SRH vs KKR – SRH win
SRH vs RCB – RCB win
KKR vs CSK – CSK win
KKR vs RCB – RCB / KKR win
CSK vs SRH – CSK win
RCB vs CSK – CSK win
KKR vs SRH – SRH win
This is just a modal how they have to expect but the actual logic will be hoping that Chennai wins all the games against Hyderabad, Kolkata & Bangalore. And the three teams must end with 6 wins, and Mumbai should have the better NRR compared to others.
More than one loss:
If Mumbai Indians lose more than a game in the next four games they are officially out of play-offs race and just play hoping to end at a good position.