The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a Yellow Alert for Kolkata on match day, i.e., April 9
It’s match day for the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at their home stadium, the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Unfortunately, it seems another game is on the way to be abandoned, as the city has been experiencing heavy rainfall since the evening of April 8.
The Riders, who had lost their first two matches in the tournament, hoped to win their third game against the Punjab Kings (PBKS). Unfortunately, rain washed out the game at Eden Gardens, but the Riders still earned their first point.
Now, the Riders are again facing an abandoned game against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG). What does the math say if the match gets washed out due to rain?
Another one-pointer
The match against Lucknow is Kolkata’s fourth game of the tournament, and the Riders are presently standing ninth on the table with one point from three matches. If the match gets abandoned, KKR will receive one point again, taking the tally to two points in four matches.
KKR will have 10 matches remaining, and to qualify, it will have to win at least 6 or 7 matches and get 12–14 points. With such steep chances and calculations, it is essential that the match is played and KKR wins its first game so that the team reaches a tally of three points.
A defeat
If the match is played and KKR loses, even though it is early, we can write off the team from the playoffs. After all, another defeat means KKR remains at one point, whereas the top four teams have already created a gap of 3-5 points. LSG, with two points, will also jump to four points, which will begin a battle in the mid-table between the likes of Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Titans and Lucknow.
NRR issue
Even if the match is abandoned and KKR gets one point, it doesn’t change the fact that KKR has a poor net run rate of -1.964. In case KKR wins the next 6-7 matches out of 10 games, the team will need to make up a massive gap in victories to improve their net run rate. With the top-tier teams having net run rates between +0.8 and +2.5, KKR’s is stuck in a swamp.
In short, an abandoned match, even if it provides one point to KKR, doesn’t benefit the team because it needs to win almost every game from this juncture. Unfortunately, given how rain is impacting West Bengal and Kolkata, we expect more games at Eden Gardens to be washed away, and therefore, KKR can be written off as early as now.
