The first club to earn a spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 playoffs is Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). On Saturday, May 11, they defeated the Mumbai Indians by eighteen runs at Eden Gardens.
The weather delay caused the game to be shortened to 16 overs per side. While batting first, the Knight Riders lost their captain, Shreyas Iyer (7), as well as their two main batsmen, Phil Salt (6) and Sunil Narine (0), early on. But the squad was well-served by Venkatesh Iyer (42 off 21) and Nitish Rana (33 off 23).
KKR reached 157 thanks to the contributions of Andre Russell (24), Rinku Singh (20), and Ramandeep Singh (17*). For Mumbai, Jasprit Bumrah and Piyush Chawla each claimed two wickets.
Ishan Kishan (40 off 22) responded by giving the Mumbai side a fantastic start. But Rohit Sharma (19 off 24) found it difficult to deliver a powerful enough performance.
Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, and Tim David did not make a significant impact. Even though Mumbai had a chance because to Tilak Varma (32 off 17), they lost by an eventual 18 runs. For the home team, Andre Russell, Varun Chakaravarthy, and Harshit Rana each claimed two wickets.
Who may be the second club to secure a postseason spot in the IPL 2024 after KKR?
There will be two thrilling Indian Premier League (IPL) games on Sunday. In the midday match, the Chennai Super Kings will take on the Rajasthan Royals, and in the second game, Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru will square off.
The Royals will formally qualify for the playoffs if they defeat the Super Kings. However, until they have a convincing win, they will stay in second place because of KKR’s higher run-rate. The team that loses the match in the night game will be out of the IPL 2024 playoffs.
The outcomes of both games will be interesting to watch because they will affect whether or not the clubs qualify for the postseason.
