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Hyderabad: Gujarat Titans' big win against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL has made the playoff race even more exciting. With the defeat of Chennai, Gujarat Titans have confirmed their place in the top-2 in the points table with an excellent net run rate of +0.695. Now today there is a fierce competition between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore for the second place left in the top-2.

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At present, RCB has the strongest claim with 18 points in 13 matches and a whopping net runrate of +1.065. However, Hyderabad with 16 points also has a slim chance left. If they want to reach second place, they will have to defeat RCB by a huge margin on their home ground.

To get two chances in the playoffs by coming second, Hyderabad needs a big win like the one Gujarat achieved against Chennai. To overtake RCB in terms of run rate, if Hyderabad bats first, they will have to win by at least 87 to 89 runs.

But if we look at the records, it will not be so easy for Hyderabad. Out of the 8 matches won against RCB, only once in 2019 have they won by a margin of more than 50 runs (118 runs). In the four night matches held in Hyderabad this season, SRH lost the toss and elected to bat first, scoring over 194 and winning the match. Therefore, Hyderabad's strategy will be to bat first after winning the toss and score a big score. However, the biggest challenge for Hyderabad is that RCB will know how much margin of runs they have to keep to save their net run rate and second position even if they lose.

Shock to Rajasthan Royals, hopes of top-2 finished

Rajasthan Royals have suffered the biggest blow to Gujarat's big win against Chennai. With this result it has been decided that Rajasthan can no longer reach the top-2. Now even if they beat Mumbai Indians in their next match, they will still have to finish third or fourth. This means that they will have to play an eliminator, while the top-2 teams get two chances (Qualifier 1) to reach the finals.