How A Loss vs RR Could End Virat Kohli And RCB’s Playoffs Hopes Today: The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will take on the Rajasthan Royals (RR) in a must-win encounter on Sunday afternoon at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. A loss for either team would all but shut the doors for the playoffs and then they would need nothing but a miracle to reach the top 4.
The pair of Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis will once again be at the forefront of RCB’s batting while for RR, they have a shining star in Yashasvi Jaiswal.
While RR are coming off a thumping win over KKR, which also boosted their NRR, RCB are coming off a drubbing from the hands of the Mumbai Indians which dented their NRR.
RR vs RCB Points table situation:
RR have 12 points in 12 matches and a heatlhy NRR of 0.633, they sit in the No. 5 position in the IPL 2023 points table. RCB have 10 points in 11 matches and they are positioned 7th with a poor NRR of -0.345.
The remaining matches of both RCB and RR are must-win for both the teams. Only one of these two teams could reach 16 points and 14 points won’t be enough for playoff qualification.
Can Virat Kohli starer RCB still qualify for playoffs if they lose to RR?
If RCB lose to RR, they will be out of the playoff race as then they can at max reach 14 points, which won’t be enough to finish in the top 4. RCB’s hopes of their maiden IPL trophy would be dashed out completely if they lose to RR today in Jaipur.
How can RCB reach the playoffs in IPL 2023?
RCB must win all their remaining 3 matches to reach 16 points and win it by big margins to boost their NRR because there is a chance that more than one team could finish at 16 points.
The hopes of Royal Challengers Bangalore reaching the playoffs are alive yet, but if they don’t manage to win all of their remaining 3 matches, than even a miracle couldn’t save them from elimination from the top 4 race. So, the Faf du Plessis-led unit must focus all their energies into the remaining 3 games as they playoff hopes hang by a thin thread.
RCB will need to win their three remaining matches by big margins to improve their poor NRR. The best scenario for them – as it was last year – is that they got into the playoffs on 16 points and no other team reaches 16 points. That looks unlikely this season though as there is stiff competition in the middle of the points table.
Squads:
Rajasthan Royals Squad: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson(w/c), Joe Root, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Sandeep Sharma, KM Asif, Yuzvendra Chahal, Donavon Ferreira, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Murugan Ashwin, Navdeep Saini, Adam Zampa, Jason Holder, Kuldip Yadav, Obed McCoy, KC Cariappa, Kuldeep Sen, Abdul Basith, Kunal Singh Rathore, Akash Vasisht
Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis(c), Anuj Rawat, Glenn Maxwell, Mahipal Lomror, Dinesh Karthik(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Harshal Patel, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Kedar Jadhav, Michael Bracewell, Suyash Prabhudessai, Karn Sharma, Shahbaz Ahmed, Akash Deep, Rajan Kumar, Avinash Singh, Himanshu Sharma, Wayne Parnell, Manoj Bhandage, Sonu Yadav, Finn Allen, Siddarth Kaul
