We are only a couple of days away from the completion of the league stage of IPL 2023 and we still have only one team which has qualified to the playoffs. Gujarat Titans are at the top of the points table with 18 points and not only are they guaranteed to finish in top 4, they are also guaranteed to finish in top 2 and play the first qualifier in Chennai.
But apart from the Titans, all other teams are yet to secure their qualification to the playoffs. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) are at a stage where they can get to the playoffs without adding any more points to their tally, but for that, some other results need to favor them.
However, for the fourth place, the race is very, very tight. There are 4 teams with 14 or 12 points from their 13 games so far and 3 of them have the possibility of finishing with the points’ tally of 14 at the completion of the league stage.
If 3 teams finish with 14 points in IPL 2023, CSK and LSG will automatically qualify
If 3 teams, namely RCB, Mumbai Indians and one out of Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings finish at 14 points, CSK and LSG will automatically qualify with 15 points (even if they lose their last game) and the 4th place in the table will be decided by the Net Run Rate (NRR).
If we have a look at the NRR of all the 4 teams which are in with a chance of finishing the league stage with 14 points, only RCB and Rajasthan Royals have got their NRR in positive. Rajasthan suffered a huge defeat at the hands of RCB in their last game, which brought their NRR from +0.6 down to +0.1, but this NRR is still decent enough to keep them in the race.
RCB’s NRR, on the other hand, is slightly better than the NRR of Rajasthan and in case of a 14-point level up for 3 teams, RCB is most likely to qualify, unless they suffer a big defeat in their last league game. Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings have their NRR in negative and they have minimal chances of qualifying with 14 points. Mumbai can qualify if they get to 16 points by winning their last game.
