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5-time IPL champions Mumbai Indians suffered their 5th loss of the IPL 2025 campaign against Gujarat Titans at the Wankhede Stadium in a last-ball rain-interrupted thriller.

The Hardik Pandya-led Mumbai Indians were on a roll in the last few matches, accumulating back-to-back 6 wins before they faced off probably their biggest challenge of the season, the Gujarat Titans at the Wankhede.

The Mumbai Indians’ batting, which had been in great form in the past 6 matches, was outplayed by Gujarat’s bowling. After being asked to bat first, Mumbai were 2 down in 4 overs. After a Will Jacks and Suryakumar Yadav partnership of 71 runs for the 3rd wicket, the batting collapsed once again after the duo got out as Mumbai scored only 155 runs.

Mumbai were confident that if they got the wicket of GT’s top 3 early on, they would be in the match. And they did get the wicket of Sai Sudharsan in the 2nd over. However, Mumbai’s dreams were thwarted by a partnership of 72 runs by Shubman Gill and Jos Buttler. The game then got interrupted due to rain.

After play resumed, Gujarat lost key wickets and lost the momentum before another rain interruption was saw GT requiring 15 runs to win in 6 balls. Eventually, Gujarat won the match on the last ball, moving to the top of the points table.

This was their 5th defeat of the campaign for the Mumbai Indians. They are still in 4th place with 14 points and have 2 games remaining against Punjab Kings and Delhi Capitals, two other teams vying for playoffs. So let’s take a look at how MI can qualify for the playoffs.

Mumbai Indians have to win both the remaining matches

This year’s IPL playoffs cut-off is likely to be the highest in IPL history, 18 points. Mumbai currently have 14 points and winning both of their remaining matches would take them to 18, which might just be enough for them to qualify.

What if Mumbai win one and lose one?

Now, in case the Mumbai Indians only win 1 game out of the remaining 2 games, Mumbai will have 16 points, which would put them in a dicey situation, needing to rely on other teams’ results to go in their favour.

Mumbai Indians can’t lose both matches

Mumbai Indians will be out of the IPL 2025 playoffs race if they lose both of their remaining 2 matches as they would end the campaign on 14 points, which won’t be enough to get into the top 4.

How can the Mumbai Indians finish in the top 2?

Although the Mumbai Indians are facing issues in getting into the top 4 after the defeat against the Gujarat Titans, the Mumbai Indians could still finish in top 2.

If Mumbai wins 2 in 2:

  • If the Mumbai Indians win both of their remaining matches, they will finish with 18 points. They also have the highest net run rate in IPL 2025.
  • Their competitor for the top 2 would be RCB, GT, and PBKS.
  • MI will have to hope that RCB, GT, PBKS drop points. All three have 3 games left with MI playing PBKS in one game.
  • If MI win vs PBKS, they will have to hope Punjab lose one more match. In case Punjab win both of their matches despite MI loss, they would get to 19 points, in such scenario, MI will have to hope GT and RCB don’t win more than 1 match.
  • If either RCB or GT gets more than 18 points, then MI will have to hope that one of RCB or GT doesn’t get more than 18 points. And also hope that Punjab loses one other match, other than MI beating them. Which would mean PBKS will finish on 17 points, and MI’s superior net run rate would help them to finish over one of RCB or GT who also would finish on 18 points.
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