What Went Wrong for the 4 teams that missed out on the IPL Playoffs

The IPL round robin fixtures came to an end today with Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals securing their playoff berths. However, the tournament has finished for the bottom four teams, Kings XI Punjab, Delhi Daredevils, Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

So just what went wrong for the four eliminated franchises. Lets take a look.

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#4 Mumbai Indians

The elimination of MI is the toughest to explain. The side has no obvious weaknesses and ticks virtually all the boxes you would want in a team. Explosive openers, all-rounders, finishers and excellent end over bowlers in Bumrah and Rehman, but they still failed to get through.

The first reason for MI's elimination was the lack of spinners. Mayank Markande enjoyed a great start to the IPL but eventually fell away as the tournament went on and went through a rather quiet spell for a while. MI didn't have anyone else in the squad to fall back on and this proved costly, especially given how big an impact spinners made in the tournament.

Another reason was the lack of clarity regarding Rohit Sharma's role. Rohit's mettle as a white ball opener is beyond question. Even with such a proven record MI were reluctant to get Rohit to open and opted to go with the pair of Lewis and Yadav. Rohit's firepower was definitely missed at the top of the order, especially as this was Lewis' 1st season in the IPL and an opener like Rohit by his side would have helped Lewis well.

The form of Mustafizur Rehman was another undoing of MI. He was someone that MI were really banking on to deliver and his lack of form meant MI had to rely on Mitch McClenaghan who wasn't even initially picked in the auction.

#3 Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB's overreliance on ABD and Kohli was their undoing

The first reason for RCB's early exit in the IPL is clearly their bowling. Apart from Umesh Yadav and to some extent Chahal no one really put their hand up when it mattered. You cannot have a great IPL with just one hand a half bowlers.

The second factor in RCB's early exit was that they were unable to make the most of the batting firepower available to them as they just couldn't find the right combination. The IPL restricts the number of overseas players a side is able to field to 4 and this leads to selection issues for all teams.

RCB just couldn't work around this issue. Quinton de Kock and Brendon McCullum who are proven match winners and have the ability to win any game on their own spent a lot of the season sitting in the dugout, from where they could have no impact on the game.

RCB just didn't know what their best XI was and kept chopping and changing which led to them never having a settled unit. When you look at the two best teams SRH and CSK, they rarely changed their playing XI.

Another factor was their over-reliance on the duo of Virat Kohli and ABD. Both of them are great players but the rest of the batting lineup rarely stepped up to the challenge for the Royal Challengers.

#2 Kings XI Punjab

The middle order just never fired for the Kings XI Punjab

In the preview to the IPL, we had predicted Kings XI and Delhi to be the bottom two teams. Kings XI and Delhi did finish at the bottom of the table, but at least Kings XI Punjab had a good phase in the tournament.

Kings XI were essentially a two man team - KL Rahul and Andrew Tye. There were some contributions from Chris Gayle and Mujeeb Ur Rehman but by and large, that is about all. The middle order for Punjab just never fired at all and there are only so many games that the opening pair of KL Rahul and Gayle could win for the team.

Kings XI also didn't use David Miller at all in the IPL, which raises even more questions about their decision to retain him in the first place.

Kings XI essentially finished up as a team of individuals and didn't play as a team. However, there are some positives to build on for next season. The decision to pass on Joe Root in the auction, who would have shaken things up in the middle order, is baffling.

#1 Delhi Daredevils

DD's gamble on Maxwell failed

Delhi looked a promising team but eventually failed to live up to the hype. The failure of their overseas batsmen was very costly for them. Jason Roy won them a game, but apart from that they never really got going, while Munro never really had a good game.

Glenn Maxwell was so woefully out of form that Delhi were effectively playing with just 10 players in all games that he played in. Consequently, all the burden for scoring runs fell on the core of Indian youngsters, who though are talented are very inexperienced and were found out in the pressure situations.

The mid-way change in leadership didn't help their case either.

Some of their impact players such as Amit Mishra and especially the Nepali teen sensation Sandeep Lamichhane just didn't get enough games.

However, there are enough positives for Delhi to be hopeful about and had Morris and Rabada not gotten injured then who knows, perhaps they would have had a better IPL.