IPL Playoffs Format: Explaining the concept

The very exciting Indian Premier League(IPL) came into existence in the year 2008. It was the first time the franchise system was introduced in the game of cricket in such a huge scale. as the league evolved many new innovations were proposed to promote the shorter version of the game . Orange cap, Purple cap, Strategic Time Out and plenty other terms were introduced which were absolutely unheard of in times before the advent of the league.

One such addition was brought in from the 4th edition of the IPL, ie, in the year 2011. Teams finishing in the top 4 would qualify for the playoff round. Earlier there used to be the two conventional semi-finals just after the group stage, this meant that all the 4 teams had equal chances of making it to the final. This somehow was unfair to the teams who finished in the top 2 during the league. The tremendous tournament until the group stage wouldn’t matter, as one loss in the semi-final would bring down curtains to their campaign.

The concept of playoffs brought an extra game before the final. This meant that 3 games would be played before the finalists are decided. First, a semifinal game would be played between the number 1 and number 2 teams. The winner of the two games would go straight into the IPL final. The loser though would not be out of contention.

Next, an eliminator game would be played between the number 3 and number 4 teams. The loser will get knocked out of the tournament. The winner would go on to play in the second qualifier against the losing team of the first qualifier. Now the winner of this game would qualify for the final.

The whole format of IPL playoffs looks like this:

This lead to a huge advantage for the teams finishing in the top 2 on the points table. As a result, the fight to occupy the top 2 slots became even fiercer. In the very first season that this was announced, it proved its worth. RCB had finished on top of the table with 19 points. CSK defeated them in the first qualifier. It would have been a tame end to RCB’s campaign to get knocked out at that stage of the campaign. It made sense to give them a second chance. The second chance was grabbed with both hands in the eliminator match as they defeated MI and qualified for the final.

A similar scenario happened in the year 2013. Mumbai Indians lost in the first qualifier but won the eliminator to reserve a berth in the final. They defeated CSK in the final to become the champions. In 2014, Kings XI Punjab despite losing the qualifier 1 made it to the final by winning the eliminator.

Check the IPL 2020 playoffs schedule here.

After the success in the IPL, the playoff system was adopted by the Bangladesh Premier League as well. This was another attempt from the IPL to make the game of cricket more riveting.

How many points are required to qualify for IPL playoffs?

The least number of points with which a team can reach playoffs is 8.

To explain the complete scenario we take an assumption here. Let the eight teams by A, B, C, D, E, F, G and H.

We now divide the teams into two sets X = {A,B,C} and Y = {D,E,F,G,H}.

Let each team in set X defeat each team in set Y both home and away.

Let the results in matches between teams in set X be arbitrary.
Let each team in set Y win all its home matches against other teams in set Y.
Let each team in set Y lose all its away matches against other teams in set Y.

Then the points table will look as follows:

A, B and C would have won 10+ matches and have 20+ points.
Each of D, E, F, G, H would have exactly 4 wins and hence, 8 points.
Hence, the team from set Y with the best net run-rate will qualify for play-offs with a mere 8 points.

The most number of points with which a team can still fail to reach playoffs is 20.

As before, divide the teams into two sets X = {A,B,C} and Y = {D,E,F,G,H}.

Let each team in set Y defeat each team in set X both home and away.
Let the results in matches between teams in set X be arbitrary.
Let each team in set Y win all its home matches against other teams in set Y.
Let each team in set Y lose all its away matches against other teams in set Y.

Then the points table will look as follows:

A, B and C would have won at most 4 matches and have at most 8 points.
Each of D, E, F, G, H would have exactly 10 wins and hence, 20 points.
Hence, the team from set Y with the worst net run-rate will fail to qualify for playoffs even with 20 points.

So as we can see, the general concept that an IPL Team needs to win half of its games to reach the Playoffs is a myth. If Results go their way, the target can be achieved by a minimum of 8 points and teams having 20 points can also be left disappointed.

The Mathematical explanation is as given by Prasham Rambhia in Quora. Click here to see the Quora page.