MI host RR at Wankhede on Sunday with the last IPL 2026 playoff seat in Rajasthan's hands
Rajasthan Royals walk into the Wankhede on Sunday afternoon with the IPL 2026 playoff line drawn through their result. Win and they go to 16 points and into the Eliminator against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Lose and Punjab Kings, who climbed to 15 in Lucknow on Saturday night, hold the fourth seed they have just picked up.
Mumbai Indians, by contrast, have nothing on the table beyond a home send-off. Eliminated on 10 May, they are playing the season's last act, with the local press spending the run-up arguing about whether Jasprit Bumrah should be on the team sheet at all with India's England tour starting in July.
Parag and Jadeja back for the do-or-die game
The boost for the Royals is two starting names. Captain Riyan Parag, out for the last two matches with a hamstring problem, is fit. Ravindra Jadeja, who missed the same fortnight with elbow and knee complaints, has also been cleared. RR's last few XIs have looked patched together around their injuries. Sunday's will be the closest they have had to a first-choice line-up in two weeks.
Sooryavanshi at the top of two leaderboards
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi arrives in Mumbai with the season's best strike rate (236.33) and 53 sixes against his name, having already become the first Indian batter to clear 50 sixes in a single IPL season. He is the player Mumbai's bowling group has the fewest options against. The new ball does not slow him down, and the matchups Hardik Pandya can throw at him are the same ones every other captain has already tried.
Mumbai play for the home stand
For MI the night is about the Wankhede crowd. Ryan Rickelton, the team's leading scorer with 436 runs, opens. AM Ghazanfar and Corbin Bosch have been the most threatening bowlers in their attack all season and are likely to carry the new ball whether Bumrah plays or not. Match 69 is the Wankhede's last IPL fixture of the year.
The dressing rooms watching from home
Punjab Kings need RR to lose. KKR, who play Delhi Capitals later in the day, need RR to lose and to beat DC with a margin that survives the net run rate sums. Neither has its fate in its own hands. The cleanest way for the IPL 2026 playoff line to settle without a calculator on the table is for Rajasthan to win.
3:30 PM IST start. Match 69, with the Eliminator slot on the line.
Cricket Updates
