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Chennai Super Kings (Source: BCCI/IPL)
The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 has reached the end of the league stages, where four teams have qualified for the playoffs: KKR, RR, SRH, and RCB. With this, the rest of the teams are out of the tournament and will be making a grand entry next season with fresh teams and young talents. The mega auction for the IPL 2025 season will happen in December, and new young talents will be brought by different teams.
Moreover, like this season, there were several other seasons where teams struggled hard to qualify for the playoffs but missed by a few runs. This year, the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) couldn't qualify for the playoffs even after giving their best in almost all the matches due to the net run rate. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) were fortunate enough to get past CSK's run rate and qualify at the last moment.
Let's discuss the teams who narrowly missed out on a playoff spot in the IPL due to net run rate:
1. Chennai Super Kings - IPL 2024
The 2024 season wasn't CSK's year, as they failed to qualify for the playoffs. In 15 years, this was the third time they couldn't qualify, which was no less than a heartbreak for the entire team and the fans. Moreover, their last season match was against RCB, whose net run rate was 0.387 before the match. However, after beating CSK by 27 runs, their NRR went up to 0.459, and CSK got stuck at 0.392. Hence, they couldn't qualify for the playoffs. Nevertheless, the match was quite exciting as RCB scored 218 runs, and the Super Kings failed to chase down the score.
2. Rajasthan Royals - IPL 2014
Another neck-to-neck match happened in 2014, where MI had to chase down a massive score of 190 runs within 15 overs. MI's Corey Anderson rained sixes at the Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai, and scored 95 runs off 44 balls. MI chased the score in 14.4 overs with five wickets to spare. Aditya Tare played a special innings of 6 runs off 1 ball as he hit the winning six and finished off in style. Post that, MI qualified for the playoffs and RR was left behind.
3. Kolkata Knight Riders - IPL 2020
In 2020, RCB qualified for the playoffs since they had a better net run rate than KKR, while both teams had the same points. However, even though KKR won their last game and RCB lost their last game, the Knight Riders couldn't finish the game under the given conditions and were disqualified with the slightest margin. While the season was pretty good for KKR, they failed to portray a strong character in the last game; hence, the results were negative.
4. Mumbai Indians - IPL 2021
Like always, MI had to beatSRH by a margin of 171 runs to qualify, as their net run rate was -0.048. However, they could only manage to win the game by 42 runs, so they couldn't qualify. They did give their best by scoring 235 runs in the first innings, but the bowlers didn't do justice to their skills and, hence, went for too many runs at the start of the innings, and from there, redemption wasn't possible anymore.
5. RCB - IPL 2012
The match between the Deccan Chargers and the Royal Challengers Bengaluru was a fun game since the Royals had just won the match, and they would have qualified for the playoffs. However, since RCB and CSK had the same points but the men in yellow had a better net run rate, they qualified since RCB lost the match against DC. Dale Steyn's terrific spell saved the Super Kings at the last moment.