1. Delhi can now only get a maximum of 18 points and Kolkata Knight Riders Y Kings XI Punjab can handle 16 at best
2. The maximum that any team can reach is 20 points
3. Now only two teams can reach the figure of 20 points – Mumbai Indians Y Royal Challengers Bangalore
4. If one of these teams reaches 20 points, the other cannot
5. Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi are the only teams that can be clear number one at the end of the league stage.
6. Kolkata and Kings XI can, at best, tie for first place in points. The best Hyderabad or Rajasthan can hope for is to tie for third place
7. With 9 games remaining, there are 512 possible combinations of match results (not counting washes). Before last weekend’s games (October 24) began, there were 32,764 possible combinations of results.
8. A tie for at least one of positions 1 to 4 is a close certainty with only 5 of the 512 possible outcomes (less than 1%) yielding clear numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 teams
9. Mumbai and Bangalore have more than even a chance to be clear number one or tie for first place (272 out of 512 possible outcomes)
10. Despite their crushing defeat on Tuesday, Delhi still has a one-in-three chance of being clear number one or tying for first place.
11. Chennai remains the only team out of playoff contention.
12. After their big win on Tuesday, Hyderabad has a one-in-five chance of finishing tied for third or fourth. But for that they need to win the remaining two games and hope that other results will go well.
The 2020 IPL season has been very competitive. With a team like Kings XI Punjab rising from the ashes after languishing at the bottom of the points table, thanks to five wins in a row, things have gotten more interesting. The three rest teams this season have been the Mumbai Indians, Capitals of Delhi and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai and Bangalore, though they lost last weekend, and Delhi were thrashed by Hyderabad on Tuesday. With seven teams in the running for the four play-off spots and three teams (Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore) most likely to seal a spot, the fight for the remaining fourth place (for which KXIP and KKR are the main contenders from now on) could make the remaining IPL 2020 league matches very interesting. Expect teams to dump everything, including the kitchen sink to try and clinch a play-off spot in upcoming games.
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