IPL 2022: Can Rohit Sharma's Mumbai Indians still qualify for playoffs after seventh straight defeat?

No one would have imagined the five-time winners Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI) to be occupying the last spot in IPL 2022 points table after their first seven games. The Mumbai franchise remains winless and have now endured the worst-ever start by a team inan IPL season following their three-wicket defeat to Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in match 33, on Thursday evening (April 21).

Being asked to bat first, at the DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai, Rohit & Co. managed only a modest 155 for 7, riding on Tilak Verma's 55* and cameos from Kieron Pollard-Jaydev Unadkat. CSK's Mukesh Choudhary's 3 for 19 rocked MI's top order and they eventually fell behind by three wickets despite a spirited fight in the second half. Robin Uthappa, Ambati Rayudu, Dwaine Pretorius and MS Dhoni's finish propelled CSK to a thrilling win over MI as the latter remain winless in IPL 2022.

Can MI still qualify for the playoffs after yet another defeat?

After the CSK loss, MI remain at the bottom.A team needs a minimum of 14 points to progress to the playoffs. However, it won't be enough this time around with two more teams being added in the playoffs race. While 16 points could be enough to movenext round, 14 points can stillbe deemed enough provided the franchise's Net Run Rate (NRR) is healthy. With seven more games to go, MI can get to 14 points (maximum) but their NRR is far fromgood.

MI presently have an NRR of -0.892. Thu, they not only need wins but somebig victories to bolster their NRR. While it's not officially all over for Mumbai, Rohit & Co. have a herculean task to have any chance of progressing ahead. At present, there isonly a mathematical possibility. However, italso seems to be improbable.

After the CSK defeat, Rohit said at the post-match presentation, "In the end, it was a great fight from us, we were in the game after not batting well, the bowlers kept us in, but in the end, you know how towering MSD can be and he took them home. It's hard to put a finger on anything, but we're not starting well in the match. If you lose quick wickets, you'll always be playing the catching game. But I thought we did well to keep them under pressure, we did so until the last over, but Pretorius and Dhoni took them home. We always back ourselves to do well, but as I said, we lost too many early wickets, we did make a good comeback with both bat and ball, but it wasn't enough in the end."