IPL 2017: Mumbai to host opening qualifier, Bengaluru to host both eliminator and second qualifier

What’s the story?

The venues for the 2017 IPL Playoffs have been announced. The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai will host the opening qualifier on May 16th while the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru will be the setting for both the Eliminator on May 17th as well the as the second qualifier on May 19th.

The final will be held at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on the 21^st of May.

In case you didn’t know...

The 10^th edition of the Indian Premier League will commence from the 5^th of April with last year’s finalists- Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore- taking on one another in the first match of the competition.

The Sunrisers head into the game with an almost full-strength with Mustfizur Rahman’s availability the only big question mark while the Royal Challengers have a problem of plenty with several key players set to miss out owing to injuries.

The heart of the matter

The first qualifier will be played in Mumbai on the 16^th of May between the team that finishes first and the one which finishes second. The Eliminator will be played the following day (17th May), between the third and the fourth placed teams in Bengaluru.

The team which wins the first qualifier will progress through the final, while the winner of the eliminator and the loser of the first qualifier will square off in the second qualifier, also to be played in Bengaluru on the 19^th of May. The loser of the eliminator will no longer remain in contention for a spot in the final.

The winner of the both the qualifiers will then take the flight to Hyderabad for the final on the 21^st of May. No reserve day has been allocated for both the qualifiers and the eliminator. A reserve day has been allocated for the final.

Extra Cover: IPL 2017: The Injured XI

What’s next?

The start of the IPL will be vital for every team in order to gather some initial momentum which will help at the later stages of the competition. The teams usually look to finish in the Top 2 of the competition, that enables them to get two opportunities to win reach the final and consistency is usually the factor which takes them to that position at the end of the Group stages.

Author's take

Keeping in mind the wish for high scores from a large percentage of the fan base, the selection of Mumbai and Bengaluru seem like the right choice. Both venues with their smallish boundaries have produced some high-scoring encounters in the past and hopefully, that would be the case in 2017 as well.