IPL 2026 has entered its business end. After 54 games, two teams (Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants) have already been eliminated, and the race to the playoffs has become intriguing.
Mumbai got knocked out of the playoffs race after losing to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in match 54 of the tournament. Playing at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium, Mumbai, were asked to bat first by RCB. The Mumbai batters had no answers for RCB’s swing king Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Bhuvneshwar bagged figures of 4/23 and did an early damage to dismantle Mumbai Indians.
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Tilak Varma top-scored for Mumbai with 57 off 42, smashing three fours and two sixes at the strike rate of 135.71. He was supported well by Naman Dhir, who scored 47 off 32 balls, including five fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 146.87. Their gritty knocks helped Mumbai post 166 for the loss of seven wickets in 20 overs.
In reply, RCB also suffered a collapse largely due to a remarkable spell by Corbin Bosch. Bosch registered figures of 4/26 and claimed the big wickets of Jacob Bethell, Rajat Patidar, Jitesh Sharma and Tim David. However, his efforts went in vain as Krunal Pandya played a match-winning knock of 73 off 46 balls. Krunal’s innings helped RCB beat Mumbai by two wickets. The loss knocked Mumbai out of the race to the playoffs.
It also eliminated Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) from the playoffs race. LSG had lost to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) earlier in the day in Chennai by five wickets. LSG needed Mumbai to beat RCB to remain in contention for the playoffs.
IPL 2026 Points Table after Match 54
| Rank | Team | M | W | L | T | N/R | PTS | NRR |
| 1 | RCB | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 1.103 |
| 2 | SRH | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.737 |
| 3 | GT | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0.228 |
| 4 | PBKS | 10 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 0.571 |
| 5 | CSK | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.185 |
| 6 | RR | 11 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.082 |
| 7 | KKR | 10 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 9 | -0.169 |
| 8 | DC | 11 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 8 | -1.154 |
| 9 | MI (Eliminated) | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | -0.585 |
| 10 | LSG (Eliminated) | 11 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 6 | -0.907 |
