Explained: IPL 2023 Playoffs Scenario For Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians And Rajasthan Royals

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 playoffs are all but set, with Gujarat Titans, Chennai Super Kings, and Lucknow Super Giants already assured of a spot in the next round. The fourth slot is still up for grabs, with the likes of Royal Challengers Bangalore, Mumbai Indians, and Rajasthan Royals in the fray. As for RCB and MI, their fate is in their own hands, with a specific result earning them the final spot in the knockouts. But, for RR to go through to the next round, both RCB and MI would need to lose their respective matches in a certain manner.

With the best Net Run Rate of the three teams in contention, the Faf du Plessis-led franchise is in the most promising position to go through to the next round. A win over defending champions and table-toppers Gujarat Titans would be enough for them to sail through unless Mumbai Indians' margin of victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad is such that the NRR of Rohit Sharma's side trumps RCB's.

NRR for RCB: +0.180 NRR for MI: -0.128

With Mumbai playing their final match of the league campaign first, the Bengaluru side will have a clear advantage of knowing what sort of a result they would need against GT to qualify.

Winning against bottom-table Sunrisers Hyderabad would be enough for Mumbai Indians if Royal Challengers Bangalore suffer a defeat against the Gujarat Titans in their final match later in the day. If RCB too go on to beat GT, then the situation would come to the Net Run Rate, where MI aren't in the most promising position.

For Mumbai to go ahead of Bengaluru's current NRR, they would need to beat Hyderabad by a huge margin. But, even then things could change if RCB go on to beat GT by a margin that helps them surpass MI on NRR.

All in all, MI's playoffs hopes rest