51 matches have been played so far in IPL 2021. In all the matches played so far in this mega-adventure, it is still not decided which teams will finally reach the last four in the world's largest league.
Mumbai needed a big win to keep their hopes alive of making it to the playoffs in IPL 2021, which they registered against Rajasthan last night. In this match, Mumbai's strongest restricted the play of Rajasthan batsmen to just 90 runs. Chasing the target, Mumbai's batsmen achieved the feat with 70 balls left, reaching 12 points.
Real battle between KKR and Mumbai
On the other hand, KKR is also currently fourth in the points table with 12 points. If KKR manages to beat Rajasthan in their last match, they will earn 14 points and become a strong contender to reach the IPL playoffs. The good news for KKR is that it has the best net run rate amongst these four teams so far and should qualify in any case.
Mumbai though now ranked fifth, at par with KKR, but lags far behind on the net run rate count. Since the gap is too high to cover, their only real chance of qualifying is to win the last game against SRH and they will be hoping that KKR loses the match to RR.
Hope alive for Punjab and Rajasthan
PBKS is sixth, but the best part is that there is a four-way tie for fourth place with 12 points. This can only happen if MI loses to SRH lost KKR to RR. But even in that case, its net run rate is unlikely to be better than KKR It could be a problem for Punjab.
On the other hand, Rajasthan can also tie the best for fourth place on the basis of points. Well, this can only happen if they beat KKR and SRH beats MI. Their net run rate is currently worse than PBKS and MI, which means it's quite difficult for them to qualify.