3 Scenarios where RCB can still qualify without NRR

Currently placed at 6th with 6 points is the team that has produced many prolific performances and dreadful disdains over the course of 11 seasons of their IPL career - Royal Challengers Bangalore. The fact that RCB has been runners-up three times and haven't even managed to qualify five times, tells us a lot about their consistency, or the lack of it.

IPL 2018, though, has been much more disappointing for the RCB fans so far. They have given away victories where they dominated for almost 2/3rd of the match. But we all know that there is one thing that Virat Kohli won't do: give up.

And that is where RCB's hopes are hanging, along with a bit of math, which surprisingly tells us that there are ways in which RCB can still qualify, even without bothering about their NRR!

The mathematical probability of RCB qualifying is surprisingly high

RCB is currently placed alongside DD and is behind KKR and MI, who are placed at 4th and 5th respectively. RCB would dearly hope that the top 3 teams, SRH, CSK, and KXIP, win as many matches as they can, apart from the ones they play against RCB, of course! (SRH and KXIP have one match each left against RCB).

If RCB manages to win their remaining four matches, their qualification to the playoffs seems quite feasible. The image in the next slide shows that there are 3 very likely scenarios that require 6 or 7 matches that need to go as per RCB's wish for them to qualify, irrespective of their NRR!

Interestingly enough, their hopes majorly rely on CSK and KXIP winning their matches which does seem quite likely to happen given their current form.

---

17 upcoming matches, of which only 6-7 need to go in a certain way for RCB to qualify.

In case of any of the following scenarios (even with minor changes e.g. MI winning against a team and losing against other), RCB will cruise through to the playoffs, irrespective of what their NRR is.

The cells with - (dash) indicate that any result of the match is acceptable. In all the given scenarios, RCB would end up as 4th, with CSK and SRH grabbing first or second positions and KXIP third.

So just like every year, the hopes of RCB fans must still be up. Only the time will tell if "Ee sala cup namde" will finally come true this year or not!