Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) fans are hoping that rain clouds stay away from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday when they host five-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a must-win game in the race to IPL 2024 playoffs.
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have sealed the top spot, while Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad have also confirmed themselves a top-four finish. Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) hopes are only mathematically alive in their last match against Mumbai Indians, and the same goes for Delhi Capitals (DC). So it boils down to the RCB vs CSK match in Bengaluru on May 18 to decide the fourth playoff team. But the weather forecast for the match-day will keep RCB on tenterhooks.
IPL 2024: Results Points Table
The match is scheduled to begin 7:30 pm, and the evening forecast for Saturday reads 'cloudy with a thunderstorm in parts of the area'. The forecast also shows '100% cloud cover' and '7.2 mm' of rain, with temperature after sunset to be in the early 20s.
(Source: accuweather.com)
Seventh-place LSG's negative net run-rate (NRR) of -0.787 leaves them with little hope, even though they have similar number of points (12) as RCB. Delhi have 14 points, but having finished their league engagements with a negative NRR of -0.377 to go with their 14 points, they too are hoping against hope.
The Bengaluru team's positive NRR of +0.387 makes them better placed. However, CSK, who have 14 points, enjoy the best NRR among the four, which reads +0.528. Because of that, RCB will have their calculators out to know the margins of victory they would need to leapfrog CSK.
Qualification scenarios for RCB
In case RCB bat first and set CSK a target of 200 to win, then Faf du Plessis's team will have to win by a minimum of 18 runs to go past CSK's net run-rate and sneak into the playoffs.
If RCB chase a target of 201 or more, then they will have to win by a minimum of 11 balls to spare.
Qualification scenarios for CSK
The simple math for CSK is to win and go through. However, because the five-time champions have two points more than RCB's 12, even a narrow defeat can take them through, provided their net run-rate remains superior compared to RCB's.
In case of a washout or no-result, the teams will get one point each, which will be enough for CSK to go through.
