IPL 2018: Qualification Scenario for the Rajasthan Royals

With six wins in 13 matches, Rajasthan Royals have a slimmest of the chances of making their way into playoffs. Ajinkya Rahane-led team has 12 points under their bag. Thus, the Jaipur-based outfit will have to win against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to keep afloat in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. (IPL)

However, Rajasthan will also want other results to go their way. Thus, the inaugural champions will need a favour from other teams – to keep themselves moving forward.

Firstly, they would hope that the winner of today’s (May 16) match between Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Mumbai Indians (MI) lose their final match of the season.

Royals will have to step up their game without the services of Jos Buttler.

Secondly, the current poor Net Run Rate of -0.413 can also haunt them. Meanwhile, currently, Royal Challengers, Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), and Mumbai Indians (MI) have a better Net Run Rate than Rajasthan Royals.

Only Kings XI has a poor Net Run Rate than Rajasthan but they have two more matches to play.

Rajasthan had won their three matches on the trot (before their loss to KKR) to give a new life to their playoff hopes. Jos Buttler had carried the team on his shoulder as he had played a match-winning knock in every win.

Furthermore, the Royals will not have the services of their linchpin batsman in the all-important encounter against Royal Challengers.

Ben Stokes is also going to miss out on the final league match of the Royals. Both Buttler and Stokes have their national commitments to join England Test squad.

The recent loss against Knight Riders not only stole two points from Rajasthan but also it made their Net Run Rate to dip from -0.347 to -0.403.

If Kolkata wins their last league match against table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Punjab is able to beat both Mumbai and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), then Rajasthan Royals will be eliminated even if they manage to win against RCB.