Can KKR qualify for Playoffs 2022: Is KKR out of IPL 2022?

Can KKR qualify for Playoffs 2022: The Shyeyas-Iyer led side suffered yet another humbling loss against the Delhi Capitals in IPL 2022.

During the 41st match of the ongoing 15th season of the Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai the Delhi Capitals (DC) have handed yet another one-sided loss to the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), by 4 wickets this time around, to garner two crucial points in the race towards the Playoffs.

It is worth of a mention that this is KKR’s 5th consecutive loss in IPL 2022, a losing streak which began with a crushing 44-run loss against DC itself during the early stages of the tournament.

Being put into bat first, KKR got off to a poor start as they registered their lowest score in the Powerplay – 29/2 in the ongoing season after losing both their openers – Aaron Finch (3 off 7) and Venkatesh Iyer (6 off 12).

The Shreyas Iyer-led side failed to come up with a damage control strategy as DC’s left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav (3-0-14-4) wrecked havoc by bagging yet another four-fer against his previous franchise.

However, some ordinary captaincy moves coupled with a fine display of batsmanship by Nitish Rana (57 off 34), who was the lone shining light for the KKR, meant that they had something for the bowlers to defend on a relatively sluggish track.

David Warner’s innings saves the day for DC

In reply, had it not been for David Warner (42 off 26), the DC would have had a hard time to get over the line of a modest total, with them losing Prithvi Shaw (0 off 1) on the first ball of the chase, and Mitchell Marsh (13 off 7) the very next Over as well.

A nice cameo from Rovman Powell (33* off 16) in the end meant that DC sealed the match with an Over to spare, despite some fine bowling by the likes of Umesh Yadav (4-0-24-3) and Sunil Narine (4-0-19-1).

Eventually, it was the fifth bowler woes that led to KKR’s shambolic loss.

Can KKR qualify for Playoffs 2022

Registering their 5th consecutive loss in the season, KKR now have mere 6 points under their belt with 3 wins out of 9 matches.

With only 5 league matches to go, the maximum that KKR could garner is 16 points provided they win all their remaining matches.

Thus, with 10 teams partaking, and assuming that they manage to win all of their remaining matches, the Knights are likely to finish at the 4th spot the least at the end of the league stage (with 16 points).

Although it remains to be seen if the NRR (Net Run Rate) scenario comes into play with 8 wins off the 14 league matches, KKR are likely to make it through to the Playoffs if and only if they manage to win their remaining matches in the league.