Rajasthan Royals stamped their ticket to the IPL 2026 playoffs by overcoming Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, joining Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Gujarat Titans and Sunrisers Hyderabad among the qualifiers. The win lifted RR into fourth place in the points standings, bringing the league-stage action to a dramatic close and setting up a full set of knockout games next week.
With the league phase reaching its final day, Rajasthan’s afternoon success over MI took them to 16 points. That was enough to keep them clear of Punjab Kings, who ended their campaign with 15 points, while also putting them out of reach of Kolkata Knight Riders, who finished on 13 and still had one league match left against Delhi Capitals on Sunday night. In practical terms, the maximum KKR could reach was 15, meaning RR’s position was secure even before that late fixture.
The first match of the postseason will be Qualifier 1, scheduled for May 26 in Dharamsala between the top two finishers, RCB and GT. The stakes are high from the start: the team that wins Qualifier 1 will book a direct route to the final, which is set for May 31 in Ahmedabad.
For the side that falls short in Qualifier 1, the road becomes tougher. They will need to travel from Dharamsala to New Chandigarh to take part in Qualifier 2, where they will face the winner of the Eliminator.
That Eliminator is set for May 27 in New Chandigarh, featuring SRH and RR—the teams that finished third and fourth in the league stage. The contest will decide survival: the losing team will be knocked out of IPL 2026, while the winner moves forward to play Qualifier 2 on May 29 in New Chandigarh against the team that lost Qualifier 1.
With turnaround time tight, Qualifier 2 will be followed by the showpiece final just a day later. The winner of Qualifier 2 will travel to Ahmedabad on May 30 and then play the final against the winner of Qualifier 1 on May 31.
At the other end of the table, Mumbai Indians ended the league phase in ninth place, ahead of Lucknow Super Giants, who finished at the bottom. Both MI and LSG managed four victories each across their 14 matches in IPL 2026, underlining how tough the competition proved across the season for the teams that missed out on the playoffs.
