After yesterday’s match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals, the path to the top four has almost become impossible to defending champions Mumbai Indians. However, Mumbai Indians can still make it to the top four mathematically and the fans would still hope them to register a rare victory in the history of Indian Premier League.
The Scenario
Chennai Super Kings became the first team to qualify to the Playoffs. Then the Delhi Capitals led by Rishabh Pant followed them. Royal Challengers Bangalore had been it a good form and expectedly entered the top three. And after some classic battles over last few days, some unlikely wins have been recorded. As a result, now the contest for the fourth place comes to the final day of the league stage of Indian Premier League. Kolkata after securing a victory by 86 runs over Rajasthan Royals yesterday are definitely the most favourites for the same but one can still not eliminate Mumbai Indians officially.
Two matches will be played simultaneously for the first time in the history Indian Premier League and one of the matches will be in focus- Mumbai Indians vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. The second match is between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals and none of them really have the last minute tension.
Can Mumbai do it?
Sunrisers Hyderabad have been one of the most inconsistent sides this season. Dropping David Warner and changing the middle-order completely did not really work for them. Mumbai Indians also do not look in good shape this year but Mumbai are still the better side among these two. Mumbai should be able to beat Hyderabad comfortably. However, just a win is surely not enough at this stage.The calculation suggests that Mumbai Indians must win by a huge margin of 171 runs or more. And, for this Mumbai Indians have to bat first. In case they get to bat second there is no chance left even before the first ball of the match being played.
Even if Mumbai bat first, they have to set a massive target first and bundle out SRH for a really low score. Surely it sounds like an impossible task, but the fans are still not ready to lose hope. On the other hand, scoring 200+ runs on slow tracks of UAE seems unlikely too.
The biggest margin of win in the history of IPL was interestingly recorded by Mumbai Indians in 2017 when the defeated Delhi Capitals by 146 runs. Lendl Simmons (66) and Kieron Pollard (63* off 35) were the highest run scorers on that day for Mumbai while Prithvi Shaw and Hardik Pandya also chipped in with 22-ball 25 and 14-ball 29*. Delhi Daredevils failed to chase down 213 and were all-out for mere 66 runs. Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma took 3 wickets each.
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