Indian Premier League T20 Cricket: Race To Playoffs - KKR Almost Makes It With Huge Win Against RR

Hello Sports Lovers,

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As I mentioned in this blog, DC, CSK and RCB have already qualified for the playoffs and that last vacant place for the playoffs seems to be going to Kolkata Knight Riders as they crushed the hapless Rajasthan Royals by 86 runs after setting a target of 172 for the win.

With that win, KKR inched a step closer towards the playoffs as the remaining 3 teams PBKS, RR and MI are all atleast 2 points behind and only Mumbai Indians can be on equal points with KKR if they win their last match against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

But, even if the Mumbai Indians win, they may still fall behind the KKR as KKR has huge net run rate of 0.587 as against the poor run rate of -0.048 by MI.

KKR has been superb in the Second leg in UAE as they won 5 of their 7 matches played in UAE and that too without the services of their beleaguered players like Andre Russell, Pat Cummins and even their skipper Eoin Morgan being out of form.

KKR is compensated for the failures of these players mentioned above by young Indian guys like Shubman Gill, Venkatesh Iyer, Rahul Tripathi as their main run scorers and they will be happy that, DInesh Karthik and Epon Morgan were able to spend some time at the crease in their match against RR to have some form before the playoffs.

Just imagine how formidable the team will be with the return of Andre Russell into the playing XI.

On the bowling side, KKR has best bowling unit possibly next only to Delhi Capitals team's with the likes of Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Tim Southee, Shivam Mavi and Lockie Ferguson among the wickets and being economical too.

A player like Shakin Al Hassan rarely finds a place in that team tells the story of the bowling unit of KKR!!!!!

PBKS fights to defeat CSK:

In the earlier match played yesterday, Punjab Kings kept an eye on their required run rate and most importantly on 2 points with a good win against Second positioned Chennai Super Kings as their skipper KL Rahul broke free from his usual play to score 98 runs from just 42 balls and kept his team's hopes alive for the playoffs.

With that win, PBKS were on par with points along with KKR and MI and was hoping for other results to go their way.

But, the win by KKR in the Second match played yesterday, have dashed their hopes of a playoff berth this year as KKR seems to be the most eligible team unless Mumbai Indians comes up with a HUGE HUGE win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their last game to be played today.

For MI to move ahead of KKR on net run rate, they have to win against SRH by a margin of 171 runs if they bat First and that is their best hope as they don't stand a chance to go ahead of KKR at all if they bowl First!!!!

With last 2 league matches to be played today, RCB against DC and MI against SRH, it's almost certain that CSK and DC will face off each other being the top 2 teams and the winner directly goes to the final.

The loser will await the winner of match between RCB and possibly KRR to play in Second eliminator and the winner of that match will go on to play the winner of match between CSK and DC in the final!!!!

The emergence of KKR will be a BIG threat to RCB although they have the team to tackle the spin and also bowlers to take the wickets of the likes of Andre Russell, Shubman Gill and others.

But, KKR will be favorites against RCB is what my opinion is.

Let's hope, MI plays good today and have a consolation win as they are almost out of contention and needs a miracle to topple KKR with requirements are huge for them.

The other match in playoffs between table toppers DC and Second placed CSK, will be a huge one considering MS Dhoni hinting that, he may not play as a player in next edition of the IPL for CSK, as he may hand up his keeping glows and may play as a mentor or assistant coach for the CSK team, but that's not yet confirmed 100% as of now!!!!

IPl has been an entertainer for all the Cricket lovers around the World and when it comes to an end, we Cricket lovers will feel sad that, the tournament has got finished, but we won't have that disappointment as most of those players who are playing in IPL, will be playing in the same venues in the T20 Cricket World Cup to be played soon after the conclusion of IPL and that will be even bigger event for all of us!!!!

The form of players like KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Varun Chakravarthy, yuzvendra Chhal and other will please BCCI and at the same time, they may have concerns for some other players who are out of form like Rohit Sharma and bowlers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

All in all, Indian team looks good with most of those players who are part of the 15 man squad, playing good with spin being the major role player in UAE, Indian team is equipped with spinners like Varun Chakravarthy, R Ashwin, Axar Patel and that will be a great start for India in the T20 World Cup.

Thanks for the huge support by you all as always and I am indebted to you all for that and I hope to bring out more Cricket news as I move on along with you all :)

Happy a great day ahead :)

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