IPL 6: KKR face virtual eliminators in the race to qualifiers

This year, in a way, has been cruel for defending champions in the footballing world with Real Madrid (Liga BBVA), Manchester City (EPL), Borussia Dortmund (German Bundesliga), Chelsea (UEFA Champions League), Atletico Madrid (Europa League) all faltering in their title defence and relinquishing the title weeks/months before the competition actually ends. By the looks of it, the same trend is developing in the IPL this season, with the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders struggling to cross the line and win games. Almost halfway through the season, KKR sit 7th in the league, 4 points and about 0.6 difference in run rate away from qualifying for the knockout stage.

With just 2 wins from 7 matches, an early elimination from the competition looks likely. With 4 teams qualifying for the knockout (or rather elimination) stage, to be in those 4 teams, KKR will have to win at least 6 out of their remaining 9 matches. Winning half of their matches (8 from 16) may just be enough to qualify based on run rate, as was the case last year for Chennai, who qualified as the 4th team on the merit of a better run rate than Bangalore, both having won 8 matches.

RCB and CSK look well on their way to the elimination stages with 6 wins already, with 12 points in the bag. 2 more wins or just to be sure, 3 more wins will do the trick for them. And with the form these two teams find themselves in, they could very well go on to win 5 or 6 more from their remaining 8 matches. That leaves just 2 places up for grab, and including KKR, five teams are fighting for those. Unfortunately for the Pune and Delhi fans, I feel their further role in this year’s IPL will only be of doing damage to the other teams’ chances of qualifying; their qualifying hopes are realistically over. Considering the poor form Pune and Delhi are in, other teams can target and beat them and it may result in a case that winning half the matches won’t be enough for them.

One might argue that KKR and Pune are both on same points. But Pune are currently at sixes and sevens. They don’t know which foreign players should play, their captain changes in every other game, their marquee player has missed games due to injury and the team overall is not playing well. KKR’s problem is about pushing themselves just a bit extra to win close matches. They are doing enough to be in the game till the last few balls, but are just falling short of finishing the game off. The injury suffered by Kallis might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, as now the fast scoring McCullum or the all-round talent of Ryan ten Doeschate can be brought into the team as replacement which might just give KKR the momentum required to finish ahead of their rivals.

Winning seven games out of nine is definitely a tough task and therefore the next two games against Kings XI Punjab and Chennai become even more important. Losing these would mean KKR will have to win 7 out of 7 and that would be improbable if not impossible. Also, the fact that winning against Kings XI would temporarily halt Kings XI’s (currently 5th) progression towards the top of the table gives an added impetus as Kings XI are one of those four other teams in race for the qualifying positions. Each loss will result in panic and negatively effect the confidence of the players. Thus, next two games are of utmost importance for KKR if they want to build momentum and charge towards the qualifying zone.