In the match number 17 of the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2024, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a heart-breaking 1 run defeat against Delhi Capitals on Sunday, which gave them a major daunt in their race for qualification to the playoffs.
Batting first, Delhi Capitals managed to put 181 runs on the board with Jemimah Rodriguez scoring a fifty (58 runs of 36 balls) while Alice Capsey contributed with 48 runs of 32 balls.
Chasing the target, RCB Richa Ghosh brought his team close to victory. First Ellyse Perry contributed significantly, scoring 49 runs of 32 balls while Richa Ghosh, the wicketkeeper batter, scored 51 runs and was run out on the last ball of the match while trying to win it all for her team.
Requiring 2 runs of 1 ball, Ghosh tried to play a drive, but it didn’t beat Jess Jonassen as both her and Shafali Verma run out the RCB keeper and win the match by 1 run. That also made sure that Delhi Capitals have qualified for the playoffs and currently sit at the top of the table after the win. However, this defeat has RCB worry over their chances of qualification. In this article, we take a look at how RCB can still qualify for the WPL 2024 Playoffs.
In total, 3 teams would qualify for the WPL 2024 playoffs. The top of the table team would directly go to the final while the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will play an eliminator match, the winner will go to the final.
Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians have both qualified already and there is only the third place slot left, where RCB currently finds themselves. UP Warriorz are 4th whole Gujarat Giants sits 5th, all the teams having an opportunity to qualify for the playoff with RCB and UP Warriorz having one match left while Gujarat have 2 matches left and have a chance to qualify.
For RCB to qualify though, they would have get the better of Mumbai Indians in their last match of the league stage on 12th March. A win there would ensure they have 8 points, but then they will have to hope that UP Warriorz loses their last match to Gujarat Giants, who actually before RCB’s match vs MI, that is today i.e. 11th of March. If UP Warriorz win, they will have 8 points, that means RCB will have to win against Mumbai Indians and nothing else would do. They would also have to hope that UP don’t gain a significant Net Run Rate (NRR).
If RCB loses their match against Mumbai Indians, they would have hope that Gujarat Giants beats UP Warriorz while also hope that Gujarat Giants loses their other match against Delhi Capitals. Still, if Gujarat Giants win both their matches, they have to win both their matches by good margin to improve their NRR. If Gujarat wins both matches but don’t get past’s RCB’s NRR, RCB would qualify without even need to win the match vs Mumbai Indians.
Summary: 1) RCB win vs Mumbai, UP Warriorz lose vs Gujarat Giants. 2) RCB win vs Mumbai Indians, UP Warriorz win but not by big margin. 3) RCB lose and hope UP Warriorz lose their remaining match vs Gujarat while also hope Gujarat loses their last match vs Delhi. 4) RCB lose and Gujarat Giants win both, but hope Gujarat don’t win by big margin or RCB don’t lose by big margin to Mumbai, and RCB have better NRR to Gujarat.
