By Admin 
In the 65th match of IPL 2026, Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets. After the victory in this match on Wednesday, KKR came to sixth place in the points table and the battle for the playoffs has become even more exciting. Now 5 matches of the league stage are left, the hopes of qualifying for 5 teams including Punjab Kings, Chennai Super Kings are alive and there is only 1 place.
In this match played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and decided to bowl first. Mumbai Indians had a bad start due to the lethal bowling of Saurabh Dubey and Cameron Green. In the form of Suryakumar Yadav, the team had suffered its fourth blow in the powerplay itself. MI had scored 147 runs in this rain-affected match. While chasing the target, Manish Pandey played an important inning of 45 runs, for which he received the POTM Award. Rovman Powell scored 40 runs in 30 balls. KKR won the match by 4 wickets with 7 balls remaining.
Kolkata Knight Riders
KKR’s last match is with Delhi Capitals, winning which the team will reach 15 points. With this, for Kolkata to reach the playoffs, Punjab and Rajasthan Royals should lose their last matches, this will qualify Kolkata. Then it will not matter to them whether CSK wins or loses.
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Rajasthan Royals
RR’s last match is with Mumbai Indians, winning which the team will reach the playoffs. In this situation, Rajasthan will not make any difference to any team’s win or loss, because they will have 16 points. But if Rajasthan loses then they would need CSK, PBKS and KKR to lose their last match.
punjab kings
PBKS’s last match is with LSG, winning which the team will reach 15 points. Along with victory, they need Rajasthan and Kolkata to lose their last matches. If Kolkata also wins its last match, then the net run rate will decide who will go to the playoffs.
Chennai Super Kings
For CSK, reaching the playoffs will be nothing less than a miracle. Chennai needs to win its last match, with Rajasthan, Punjab and Kolkata losing their matches. In this situation, RR, CSK and DC will have 14 points each and then the net run rate will decide who will go to the playoffs.
Delhi Capitals
DC can also reach 14 points by winning the last match, but this is not enough for them too. Along with a big win, they need Chennai, Punjab and Rajasthan also to lose their last match. In this situation, RR and DC will have 14 points each and then the team with better net run rate will qualify for the playoffs.
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Teams reaching playoff
Royal Challengers Bangalore, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the three teams that have confirmed their place in the playoffs, the battle for the fourth spot is going on. However, there is a fight between the teams that have reached the playoffs to remain in the top-2, because those two teams get 2 chances to go to the finals.