Match 46 - Punjab and Kolkata are in the race to playoffs.
KXIP are placed 5th on the points table having won five games from 11 outings, while KKR are a notch better, occupying the 4th spot with 12 points.
Stats
KKR at this venue: Played 3, Won 1, Lost 2 KXIP at this venue: Played 4, Won 3, Lost 1
KXIP Predicted Playing XI:
KL Rahul (C/WK), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan/James Neesham, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh
A must win for both teams! A win for Punjab will elevate them to the top 4, while a victory for KKR will take them to 14 points, the same as the top 3 teams in the contest, strengthening their playoff chances.
Kings XI Punjab win toss, elect to field first against Kolkata Knight Riders.
KL Rahul: ‘We will bowl first. Like to have a target on the board, the dew might have an effect as well in the second innings. Winning gives a lot of confidence to the group, it makes them keep performing better and better. The back-room staff have been phenomenal right from even the tournament started. No changes to our team’
The IPL 2020 season has been a very competitive one. With Chennai Super Kings clearly out of the race, there are 7 teams in the race for the 4 play-offs spots.
The three teams - MI, DC and RCB are more than likely to seal a spot. The fight for the remaining 4th spot seems to be primarily between KKR and KXIP.
IPL team’s chances of making it to the last 4 for Play offs:
TOI’s Shankar Raghuraman does the number crunching to arrive at these 13 points.
The maximum any team can reach this season in the league stage is 20 points
Only three teams can reach this – Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore
If one of these three teams gets to 20 points, the other two can’t.
With 11 games in all left to be played in the league stage, there are 2,048 possible combinations of match outcomes (not counting washouts)
In 512 of these possible combinations, Chennai Super Kings get to 12 points. In none of them, however, can they qualify since at least four teams will get to 14 or more points
Chennai are therefore out of contention even if they win all their remaining games
Rajasthan Royals are only slightly better off. If they lose even one of their remaining two games, they cannot qualify. If they win both, they have a 9% chance of being tied on points for fourth place (48 out of 512 possible outcomes).
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s chances of qualifying for the play-offs also remain slim even if they win their remaining three games. If they do that, they have a 10% chance of being tied for fourth place (26 out of 256 possible outcomes)
Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore have a 95% chance of qualifying
The chances of any of these teams failing to qualify because they can’t even make joint fourth spot is a mere 0.4%. The probability of any of them ending up in tied fourth place is 4.7%
Kolkata Knight Riders and Kings XI are therefore the most likely contenders for the fourth spot
There is a very slim chance (0.4%) of KKR finishing clearly at the top with 18 points. It has a 6% chance of tying for first place
Kings XI has no chance of being a clear No.1, but there is a slim chance (0.4%) of it being tied for first place
“I’m a very happy man, the whole team will be. It’s something that we all collectively decided to do, to go out and play positive cricket. We all believed that things can turn around for us, and five wins in five, that’s a collective effort. It’s not one person, every game it’s been a different person who has come good for us. Collectively, we’re looking good. Batting’s looking good, bowling’s looking good, we’re fielding really well. I’m happy everything is coming together, fingers crossed now, hopefully we can win two more games now.”
