Sunrisers Hyderabad threw a spanner in the works for the Royal Challengers Bangalore on Wednesday night. SRH pulled off a narrow 4-run win to keep RCB on 16 points after 13 games played. This essentially knocked RCB out of the race for the top spot on the points table after the league stage
The race for the summit spot has now boiled down to one between DC and CSK.
This result (SRH bagging 2 points and RCB being unable to pick those 2 points up) also made no difference to the chances of KKR and MI, who are the two teams in contention for the fourth playoff spot.
Here’s a quick look, in 4 points, at the various scenarios for the race for the top spot after SRH beat RCB on Wednesday:
1) RCB can now at best tie for second spot and even that is possible only if they beat DC in their last game and CSK lose to PBKS. Even that might almost certainly mean that they end up third, since CSK’s net run rate is way above theirs.
2) DC remain assured of at least tying for the first spot. If they win their last game against RCB, they will occupy the slot on their own. Even if they lose to RCB, they can be the sole occupants of the top spot if CSK loses to PBKS. But if they lose to RCB and CSK beats PBKS, they will tie for first. Who finishes first and who second on NRR in that situation hardly matters except for bragging rights.
3) CSK can at best tie with DC for the top spot by winning their last game and hoping RCB wins against DC. If that doesn’t happen, they will either grab the second spot without a tie (if DC beats RCB) or tie for second with RCB (if RCB beats DC). Though even a tie should see them finish second, ahead of RCB on NRR.
4) Realistically then, DC and CSK are as good as certain to be the top two teams at the end of the league stage, with RCB settling for the third spot
