Explained: How can Sunrisers Hyderabad qualify for IPL 2025 playoffs?

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have got a fresh breathe of life after their recent win vs the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in their last match at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, taking their win count to 3 for the season.

Last season’s finalists Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have had a horrid season so far. The Orange Army did win their first match but then went on a losing streak of 4 matches before bagging their 2nd win of the campaign against Punjab Kings. But following that, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost further 2 matches vs Mumbai Indians, putting them in deep trouble.

With 2 wins in 8 matches, it was a do-or-die match for both SRH and CSK on Friday, April 25. SRH captain Pat Cummins asked CSK to bat first. Although youngster Ayush Mhatre gave a flying start to CSK with his quickfire 30 runs off 19 balls, CSK were eventually derailed for 154 runs 19.5 overs. Ravindra Jadeja and Dewald Brevis tried their best to rescue the ship but eventually couldn’t as Harshal Patel bagged 4 wickets in the match.

Following that, SRH did face an early trouble as both openers Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head were dismissed in the powerplay inside 37 runs. But then under-fire wicketkeeper batter Ishan Kishan played a valuable inning of 44 runs off 34 balls with a great help from Kamindu Mendis’ 32 runs off 22 balls followed by a cameo of 19 runs off 13 balls from Nitish Kumar Reddy eventually helped SRH pick-up the win.

After a 5 wickets win in the 19th over, it was just their 3rd win of the campaign and the most important one to keep last season’s runners-up in the race for a spot in the playoffs. So can Sunrisers Hyderabad qualify for the IPL 2025 playoffs, let’s have a look.

5 wins in last 5 matches put them right in playoffs spot

Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have played 9 matches and won 3 of them. However, the Orange Army still have 5 more matches to go, means a maximum of 10 points to play for. If the Pat Cummins led side wins all of their remaining 5 matches, they would eventually end-up with 16 points, which was good enough to qualify for the playoffs last season. However SRH would also want to improve on their net run rate just to be on the safer side.

What if Sunrisers Hyderabad wins 4 out of last 5 matches?

Now in-case they have a slip-up in one of their 5 matches to go and end the season winning 4 of the last 5 matches, SRH could still get into the IPL 2025 top 4. In that case, they will gain 8 points from 4 wins, taking the total points tally to 14 points. Last season, RCB qualified with 14 points, so it’s possible. However, they will have to significantly improve on their -1.103 net run rate, almost a humungous work and depend on other teams’ results to favour them. The chances of qualifying from this situation is very minimal.

What if Sunrisers Hyderabad wins less than 4 of their last 5 matches?

Looking at the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s form in the IPL 2025 season, they have failed to get a winning run going. So there is all the possibilities that SRH don’t win all 5 or even 4 of the last 5 matches. In-case SRH wins 3 or less number of matches of the last 5 games, that would be end of the road. No team can qualify for the IPL 2025 playoffs with 12 or less points on the board. 14 is expected to be the minimum cut-off that too depending on other teams’ results.