IPL 2023: It's not easy to catch up,' says Kumble on Mi, KKR's playoffs chances

For the past IPL winning teams like Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders the first half of the 2023 season hasnt panned out as per their expectationsDespite some strong individual performances in the absence of some of their main players both Kolkata and Mumbai have six points each and are placed seventh and eighth respectively on the points tableFormer India legspinner Anil Kumble who was the head coach of Punjab Kings last year believes the task for the two teams is a challenging one but it is also something which is not impossibleI have been a part of teams which have been in the second half of the points table through the halfway stage Its not easy to catch up But having said that its not impossible either So at this stage of the tournament you have to sort of refresh and reset and then see what is your best possible playing elevenNow that you have the Impact Player rule it becomes a lot easier to sort of make that decision of having the best possible 12 Its about sticking to that and believing that this 12 will be able to get you out of where you are Its just a matter of momentum said Kumble an IPL expert for JioCinema in a select virtual media interactionIn IPL 2021 Kolkata had won only two out of their seven games in India till the second wave of Covid19 halted the tournament When the action shifted to UAE they won five of their remaining seven matches and emerged triumphant in the eliminator and Qualifier 2 to reach the final where they finished as runnersupWith Kolkata beginning their second half of the competition with a 21run win over Royal Challengers Bangalore the signs are there for a possible resurgenceFor example KKR had beaten RCB before so I am sure that confidence certainly helped them get over the line in Bengaluru Whether they take the momentum going forward and make a turnaround that is something well have to wait and see That is something that you constantly talk about within the team and try to keep the mood the same in a hope to make a turnaround Its something which the top four teams will be thinking about tooKKR had sort of a perfect schedule that came through because for anyone to turn around you need that kind of schedule as well that works for you So RCB was a perfect game for them in Bengaluru Because they had beaten RCB earlier in the season Hopefully now they can turn things around elaborated KumbleThe 52year old Kumble noted that Mumbai can also do a turnaround while adding that teams currently in bottom half will need luck to go their way tooTheir Mumbai Indians batting is extremely strong But the bowling is a bit tough especially while defending a score Wankhede Stadium can be very hard for a bowler So Mumbai certainly has that capability Theyve done that in the past to bounce back he saidAndre Russell is yet to fire for them They have done really well with the bat Rinku Singh has done well Venkatesh Iyer has scored runs and so has Jason Roy and Nitish Rana So slowly things are happening Anybody can do it its just a matter of how the belief is in that particular team You need some luck going ahead as well like nobody thought Gujarat would win that game over Lucknow he addedThe former India captain also cautioned top four teams in the points table to hold on to their places as the race for playoffs intensifies with three teams on ten and eight points respectivelySomebody can come down so you will have to be cautious as well Its not necessary that just because you won five games you will be able to qualify You need eight wins and we have seen that in the last year as wellHow you get to eight points is very very important You need to take one game at a time and then ensure you get over the line in that particular game and then gear up for the next You cant go too far away you need to be in the present said KumbleIts very difficult to predict which four teams will make it to the topfour You would need a minimum 16 points but in case a team cant amass 16 points it would be pretty difficult to qualify with just 14 points Then Net run rate will come into the picture in those cases of 14 or 16 points I think the teams which are placed in topfour currently will try to hang in there till the end but it will be difficult for the rest of teams to sneak into top four he concludedAlso ReadIPL 2023 Allround Gujarat Titans crush Mumbai Indians by 55 runsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever