KKR IPL 2025 Playoffs Chances: Can Kolkata Knight Riders Still Finish in Top 4 After Defeat to Gujarat Titans?

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Defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) suffered a slight dent to their title defence hopes following their third defeat at home in the ongoing IPL 2025 season against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Monday (April 21).

Ajinkya Rahane's KKR fell to their fifth loss in eight outings and occupy the seventh spot on the IPL 2025 points table. Opting to bowl first, KKR conceded a challenging total of 198 after spin duo of Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine had a off day at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

For GT, Shubman Gill smashed a 55-ball 90, while Sai Sudharsan (52 off 36 balls) and Jos Buttler (41* off 23 balls) helped set a target of 199. In response, Rahane scored a fifty, but the rest of the batting order failed to step up, seeing the team fall short of the target by 39 runs.

As mentioned earlier, this was KKR's fifth loss of the campaign, having suffered defeats at home against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Lucknow Super Giants and now GT. The reigning champions also lost on the road against Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings with both results coming on the back of batting failures.

Coming into Monday's match on the back of a demoralising defeat to PBKS at the New PCA Stadium in New Chandigarh, where they registered an unwanted record with 95 all out as the home side set the standard for the lowest total defended in IPL history at 111.

Having lost the match against PBKS in such disappointling manner, KKR needed to bounce back to keep their title defence hopes alive. But all is not lost for the Kolkata-based, who still have six games in hand. Here is a look at the possible chances for their qualification to the IPL 2025 playoffs:

How KKR can still finish in top 4 and qualify for IPL 2025 playoffs?

Having lost five in eight, KKR will have to win all of their remaining six matches to finish with 18 points and be assured of a spot in the playoffs. However, they can still qualify if they win 5 out of their remaining 6 matches.

If KKR win only 5 of their next 6 matches also they can still progress, but it will depend on the net run rate (NRR) and other team's results going their way. If KKR win only 4 of their remaining games in IPL 2025, they will be all but out of the playoffs race with a slight chance of qualification mathematically.

If KKR win only three or fewer games of their remaining matches, they will not be in the conversation for a playoff spot and their title defence will end with a league stage exit as a minimum of 16 points will be required to be in the playoff race.