With the loss of Kings XI Punjab in their last league game at the hands of the Deccan Chargers the last day of the IPL league games becomes a bit of redundant, given that the four teams in action on that day have already qualified for the playoffs. However, what will make it interesting is that the top two positions in the IPL this season are still not decided and given the importance that those two positions hold, the games will be fought hard.
The reason is simple. This edition of the IPL, what the tournament has seen is a change in the format.
Unlike most of the other times, when the first-ranked side takes on the fourth-placed team and the second and the third-placed side play against each other, this will have the teams placed one and two take on each other and the teams placed three and four play each other. The winner of the first game will go through to the final whereas the losing team from the second game will be ousted. However, the losers from the first game will not go out, instead, they will get another chance to go through to the final – against the winner of the game between third and fourth ranked sides.
So, as things stand, the Chennai Super Kings are at the top of the table with 18 points, Bangalore have 17 while Mumbai and Kolkata have 16 apiece. Chennai will play the Royal Challengers in their last game whereas Mumbai Indians take on Kolkata. This means that there are four scenarios possible:
If Chennai beat Bangalore and Mumbai beat Kolkata: this will allow the Chennai side to go to the top of the table with 20 and Mumbai to 18. Bangalore will be left with 17 while Kolkata will have 16 – making it a match-up between Mumbai and Chennai for the first qualifier and Kolkata will face Bangalore in the eliminator.
If Chennai beat Bangalore and Kolkata beat Mumbai: the script will be the same, except that you can replace Kolkata with Mumbai and vice-versa in the above.
If Bangalore beat Chennai and Mumbai beat Kolkata: unless the margin of loss for Chennai is huge and the margin of win for the Mumbai Indians is also big, both, Bangalore and Chennai will go through at the numbers one and two in the points table.
If Bangalore beat Chennai and Kolkata beat Mumbai: Bangalore will go through as the number one team but for the number two position there will be a tie between Kolkata and Chennai – and given that they are closely matched on the net run rate, it will depend on the results to decide which side ends on the second position based on their net run rate.