Rain threatens IPL 2025 Qualifier in Mohali – What happens if match is washed out?

Heavy rain may disrupt the IPL 2025 Qualifier between Punjab Kings & RCB. If canceled, PBKS advances to final. Reserve day only for finals; late start possible. Read more on Dynamite News

Mohali: The weather in Mohali may deteriorate on Thursday, which may affect the first qualifier match of the IPL 2025 playoffs. This match will be played between Punjab Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the New PCA Stadium in Mullanpur, reports Dynamite News correspondent.

The winning team of this match will reach the final directly, while the losing team will get another chance in Qualifier 2, where it will face the winner of the Eliminator.

Earlier this match was to be held in Hyderabad, but the IPL management has now shifted it to Mohali by changing the venue. With this, the eliminator match will also now be held in Mohali. Punjab Kings, who topped the points table, are captained by Shreyas Iyer, while RCB defeated Lucknow Super Giants to secure second place.

Now the question arises: what will happen if this qualifier match is canceled due to rain? According to the rules, if the match is not completed due to weather and no result is achieved, then the team at the top of the points table is given priority. This means that in such a situation, Punjab Kings will directly enter the final, while Royal Challengers Bangalore will have to play Qualifier 2.

As far as the reserve day is concerned, this time the BCCI has fixed a reserve day only for the final match; no official information has been given for the rest of the playoff matches at the moment.

However, to save the match from rain, BCCI has implemented a new rule this time, under which the match can be started late by 9:30 pm. An additional 120 minutes have been given for this so that the game can be prevented from being canceled.

Talking about the weather, the maximum temperature in Mohali on Thursday is expected to be 36 degrees Celsius, and the sky will remain cloudy. Light rain is also expected. However, there is a high chance of heavy rain on Friday, the day the eliminator match is to be played between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans.

Gujarat finished third and Mumbai fourth, and the losing team of this match will be out of the tournament.