Kolkata Knight Riders delivered a virtual knockout blow to the defending champions Mumbai Indians by registering a huge 86-run win over Rajasthan Royals in Sharjah in match 54 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 on Thursday. With this massive victory, the Eoin-Morgan led side is now almost certain of a fourth-place finish with a net run-rate of +0.587. The equation for the five-time IPL champions is to win the match by 171 runs to qualify for the next round and if the Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai happens to bowl first, they will be officially out of reckoning for the playoffs.
IPL 2021 Points Table
Delhi Capitals were confirmed of a top-two finish after Chennai Super Kings lost to Punjab Kings in the first match of the double header on Thursday. The Rishabh Pant-led side will finish at the top of the table.
CSK are second on the list currently and Royal Challengers Bangalore are third. KKR are all but certain to finish as the fourth team and move to the playoffs.
Punjab Kings are fifth on the points table after their win over CSK on Thursday. Mumbai Indians, who have a near impossible task in front of them, are placed sixth. They will meet SunRisers Hyderabad on Friday.
Orange Cap
KL Rahul's blistering knock of 98 not out saw him take over the Orange Cap from Faf fu Plessis, who earlier in the day scored a half-century against Punjab Kings to briefly lead the race for most runs-scored in this year's IPL.
The Punjab Kings skipper has scored 626 runs from 13 matches while Du Plessis has 546 runs next to his name from 14 games.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who failed with the bat against PBKS, occupies the third spot with 533 runs. Behind him is Delhi Capitals' Shikhar Dhawan with 501 runs.
Purple Cap
Harshal Patel's three-wicket haul on Wednesday saw him extend his lead as the leading wicket-taker this season. The RCB pacer has picked up 29 wickets in 13 games in IPL 2021.
Delhi Capitals' Avesh Khan (22) is trailing Harshal by seven wickets in the race for Purple Cap. India's spearhead Jasprit Bumrah occupies the third spot with 19 wickets from 13 matches. All the three players will have a chance on the final day of the league stages of IPL 2021 to extend their wickets tally.