Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) played the best match of the 2026 Indian Premier League (IPL) season at the Shaheed Veer Narayan International Stadium in Raipur on Sunday (May 12) as the home team ended a two-match losing run and returned to winning ways to knock the five-time champions out of the tournament alongside the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), who lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) earlier in the day.
With 14 points in 11 games, RCB are now level with Gujarat Titans (GT) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH). Since the tournament expanded to a 10-team format (2011, 2022-2026), no team has missed out after getting 16 points on the board. Hence, the Bengaluru-based team should qualify with one more win in their remaining three seasons.
However, things will be tough for them as far as a top two finish is concerned, although they are favourites as things stand, being the top-placed team. Although two teams are level with them despite playing the same number of games, while
While in the current format, 18 points have largely been enough, that was not the case last year, when both teams needed 19 points. While a lot will depend on other results, RCB could need to win all their remaining three games to finish in the top two. At most, they cannot afford more than one defeat.
It is worth noting that since the playoff system was introduced in 2011, the title has been won in 14 of the 15 seasons by one of the teams playing the first qualifier (top 2 finish in the league). SRH in 2016 remains the only exception.
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Aayush Kataria is a Senior Copy Editor at Times Network with four years of experience, having started his career in the organisation. He is a key memb...View More
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