Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were quite exceptional to watch on Sunday Saturday night when they beat Shubman Gill’s Gujarat Titans (GT) by four wickets with more than six overs remaining in hand. The big win has boosted their Net Run Rate (NRR), helping them jump to 7th in the standings. Virat Kohli hit a 27-ball 42 and Faf du Plessis slammed 23-ball 64 to set up the win for RCB. There were jitters in the middle as Cameron Green (1) and Glenn Maxwell (4) got out without contributing much but Dinesh Karthik (21*) and Swapnil Singh (15*) ensured RCB crossed the line.
As a result, GT have slipped to ninth in the standings with just 4 wins from 11 games and it looks very tough for them to qualify for the playoffs. RCB are on seventh spot and their big-margin victory on Saturday means that the table is quite chaotic in the middle.
How can RCB qualify for the playoffs?
RCB have done themselves a huge favor by beating GT by such a huge margin as their NRR has massively improved. But it is still in negative thanks to previous losses. RCB have NRR of -0.49 which will make it very difficult for them to qualify.
Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders already have 16 and 14 points respectively and they look set to finish in the top 4 at least. RCB have three matches remaining and they need to make sure they win all three. They are playing Punjab Kings (PBKS), Delhi Capitals (DC) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
If RCB win all 3 games, they will then hope that Sunrisers Hyderabad (placed at 4 in the points table) and Lucknow Super Giants (3rd in standings) does not get more than 1 win from their remaining 4 games. In this scenario, both SRH and LSG will finish with 14 points.
Also, CSK and DC who are on 10 points, must not get more than 2 wins from remaining matches while PBKS must not win more than 3 games out of their remaining four. In this scenario, all these 3 teams will be on 14 points at the end of their league games.
If all of these scenarios take place, all these teams mentioned above will finish with 14 points and then the NRR will decide who goes in and who goes out. This, indirectly, means that RCB must look to win remaining 3 games with a bigger margin to boost their NRR.
Even if RCB finish with just 12 points, even then they have the chance to qualify. But they will hope and pray that all other teams mentioned above also finish with 12 points and again NRR will be a deciding factor.