Playoff matches for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 have been confirmed. The first qualifiers are to be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Punjab Kings (PBKS) on May 29 while on May 30, Mumbai Indians (MI) and Gujarat Titans (GT) teams will be face to face in Eliminator.
The Gujarat team was at the threshold of playing qualifier 1 at one time but after losing their last two matches, they slipped to number three. While the team of Mumbai Indians has never won the trophy after playing the eliminator, everyone wants to know whether Gujarat and Mumbai can win the trophy this time or not.
If we talk about historical trends, then the teams of Punjab and Bengaluru have finished the top-2 and now both these teams are the best position to win the title. Since the introduction of the playoff system in 2011, the champions have emerged from the top two teams in 13 out of the last 14 seasons. The only exception was in 2016, when David Warner’s Sunrisers Hyderabad won the title. He defeated Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Eliminator, defeated Gujarat Lions in Qualifier 2 and defeated RCB by 8 runs in the final at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
Teams out of top-2 require three consecutive wins in Eliminator, Qualifier-2, and three consecutive wins to win the title. The teams living in the top two get the second chance to reach the final even after losing the qualifier 1. Given these obstacles, Mumbai and Gujarat have a difficult route, but they cannot be excluded. Both the franchisees have experience winning the trophy, in which Mumbai has raised the trophy five times while Gujarat also won the trophy in its first season but now if things go on according to the trend in the playoffs and finals, then a new team is ready to win IPL.
RCB has reached the IPL final three times but every time the team had to face defeat. At the same time, Punjab Kings have reached the finals only once in 2014, where they lost to KKR in Bengaluru. In such a situation, both these teams will try to change their old history.
