Mumbai Indians (MI), the five-time Indian Premier League (IPL) champions, didn’t have a good beginning in the ongoing 16th season of the cash-rich league.The Rohit Sharma-led MI were in the bottom five for most of the time this year with back to back defeats.
But, being one of the finest franchises of IPL, Mumbai bounced back and placed themselves at third place in the points table. They have registered three victories in the last four games and have 12 points in 11 overall matches.
Even after IPL has reached its business end no team has yet booked a place in the playoffs. While Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have the brightest chances of making the knockout stage, competition will be there in other teams.
Regarding Mumbai, they also have to work it hard to ensure their qualification in the playoffs. MI have three games remaining against Gujarat, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH).
It is worth noting that the Mumbai Indians have two of their last three matches scheduled to be played at their home ground in Wankhede, which could provide an additional advantage to the team. After their dominant win over the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), it is feasible for the five-time champions to win their next three matches and secure a spot in the playoffs. If they do manage to triumph in all of their remaining matches, they will finish the group stage with a total of 18 points from 14 matches.
Here are the qualifying scenarios:
Assuming Mumbai wins two of their last three games, they would accumulate 16 points by the end of the group stage, which is adequate to secure a place in the playoffs of the competition.
In case Mumbai win only one out of their remaining three matches and lose the other two, it could lead to a complicated situation for them as this situation would result in them having 14 points from an equal number of fixtures, making it challenging for them to qualify.
To overcome this, Mumbai would need to win one game by a significant margin to improve their net run rate. They would also have to rely on other teams’ results, and for Mumbai to progress, RCB, Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) would have to lose two of their remaining fixtures.
