Punjab Kings are all but eliminated from the race towards the Playoffs qualification in the ongoing 16th season of the Indian Premier League.
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A valiant effort from Liam Livingstone (94) right till the very end was never enough, as Kings fell short of Delhi Capitals’ total of 213/2 by fifteen Runs.
The loss tonight at Dharamsala’s HPCA Stadium has meant that Punjab still remain unmoved from the eighth position in the points table. With seven losses after 13 league matches, they still have only 12 points under their belt.
Are Punjab Kings Out of IPL 2023?
With just the one league match remaining in the season against Rajasthan Royals (on May 19), the maximum PBKS can achieve is 14 points, which will perhaps not be enough for them to qualify for the playoffs.
Their poor Net Run Rate (-0.308) has acted as the final nail in the coffin. Despite it all, in order to miraculously qualify for the playoffs they will have to hope that the four teams placed above them in Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Mumbai Indians lose their remaining league matches.
While the chances of the same happening is next to impossible, they will also have to register a humongous victory in their last league match (versus RR) in order to topple the above placed teams on the NRR count.
All in all, with a playoffs qualification chances of less than seven percent, PBKS will need a one-in-a-lifetime divine intervention to prevent getting eliminated from the tournament this year.
Liam Livingstone plays a blinder
With 86 runs required off the final five overs, Livingstone played to the best of his potential and brought the equation down to 16 needed off three deliveries. However, he failed to connect a full toss bowled by Ishant Sharma on the fourth delivery, and ultimately got Out caught on the last ball at long-off.
In what was his second half-century of the season, the English batter smashed five fours and nine sixes to amass 94 individual runs under his belt off mere 48 deliveries.
