Home ›› 10 Oct 2021 ›› Sport
Delhi Capitals finished as the top team of the Indian Premier League after the league stage and will face Chennai Super Kings in the race to the final at the first qualifier match scheduled to take place in Dubai today.
Though Delhi suffered a last-ball defeat against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Friday night, 20 points from 10 wins out of 14 league matches were enough to keep them at the top of the table.
Chennai secured nine wins from 14 group stage matches that pushed them to second, despite losing their last three matches. Led by Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who announced his retirement from international cricket but still pursuing an IPL career, Chennai reached the top four for the 11th time out of 12 seasons.
This could be the swansong for Dhoni in the IPL as a cricketer as the franchises will release most of their cricketers in the next auction.
“You’ll see me in yellow next season, but whether I’ll be playing for CSK, you never know. There are a lot of uncertainties coming up, two new teams are coming, we don’t know what the retention rules are and so on,” Dhoni told the media.
Mumbai Indians had to solve an almost impossible equation to topple Kolkata Knight riders for a spot in the playoffs, which they could not even after posting a mammoth total of 235-9 in 20 overs as they needed to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by a margin of 171 runs.
Kolkata, being fourth in the points table, have to play the eliminator against Royal Challengers Bangalore, who finished third with 18 points but had a lower net run-rate than Chennai.
The winner of the Delhi-Chennai match will grab a spot in the final, whereas the losing side will face the winner of the eliminator match between Kolkata and Bengaluru in the second qualifier match on Wednesday.
