IPL 2021 PBKS vs SRH Match 14 Preview

image: Hotstar

This is the second doubleheader of the 14th season of the Indian Premier League. In the first match, Punjab Kings to take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. The match begins at 3:30 PM.

Both the teams have played three matches till now, in those Punjab Kings won the match against Rajasthan Royals. Sunrisers Hyderabad is yet to win a match this season, this is a bad start for them after the rebranding of the franchise.

Punjab Kings

They have got good batting and bowling lineup and a plan of action but, they are failing in implementing the plan on the ground. The pressure is getting them at the very early stages of the game.

Their batting lineup is good compared to the Sunrisers Hyderabad, so, opting to chase is the best option in my opinion.

Punjab Kings need to do a good opening partnership without losing any wickets in the powerplay. As Sunrisers bowling is good enough to take wickets at the beginning of the match and starts to pressure the batsmen.

It would be the wise choice to send the Sharukh Khan ahead of Nicholas Pooran and even replacing him with Sharfarz Khan would be even a better option for the Punjab Kings.

Coming to the bowling department, PBKS need to take the important wickets in the powerplay. David Warner, Jhonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey are dangerous batsmen and PBKS bowlers need to get rid of them as early as possible.

Punjab Kings squad

Probable Playing 11

1 KL Rahul (capt & wk), 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Chris Gayle, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Jalaj Saxena, 8 Jhye Richardson, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Ravi Bishnoi/M Ashwin, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Sunrisers Hyderabad needs to change the batting lineup in this match, else, they would be in big trouble. Except for few batsmen, no one in the middle order is standing long in the crease to score few runs for the team.

The captain needs to find a place for Kane Williamson and Kedhar Jhadav in the playing 11 to reinforce their batting lineup for some extra power. In a match, Vijay Shankar tried to score few runs but, because of few mistakes, he got out.,

Mohammed Shami is a threat to the team if, he got any wickets of the openers in the powerplay and in the middle overs, SRH is in big trouble for the rest of the game.

SRH's bowling department is strong enough but not strong enough to win the matches without any help from the batting department with a big score to defend.

The first five batsmen of the Punjab Kings are the most dangerous enough to score and build a few big partnerships. SRH needs to be careful and stop those big partnerships before any damage is done Compared to PBKS, SRH is way weaker unless a few miracles happen while they are batting.

Sunrisers Hyderabad squad

Probable playing 11

1 David Warner (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Abhishek Sharma, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 11 Khaleel Ahmed

IPL 2021 MI vs DC Match 13 report

image: BCCI

Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bat first in the 13th match of the Indian Premier League. At first, they trembled after losing Quintin de Kock 2(4) in the Marcus Stoinis 3rd over, then Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma started to play a good knock.

They both made a wonderful partnership of 58 runs in 29 balls and the run rate is hovering at 8 runs per over. Then this partnership is broken by the Avesh Khan at the end of the 7th over by taking Suryakumar Yadav's 24(15)wicket.

Immediately after that, Mumbai Indians lost Rohit Sharma 44(30) and Hardik Pandya 0(1) in the Amith Mishra's 9th over. From then, Mumbai Indians batsmen switched to survival mode, just to stay long in the crease.

In the 11th over, the survival plan didn't work well in Lalit Yadav's bowling, Kurnal Pandya, got out, followed by Keiron Pollard in Amit Mishra's 12th over. The run rate is dropped to 7 after losing wickets regularly.

Jayant Yadav and Ishan Kishan tried to revive the team's score but their partnership of 39 runs in 39 balls didn't have much impact on Delhi Capitals. 

In Amit Mishra 18th over, the ball hit the stumps after bouncing on Ishan Kishan's 26 (28) bat, this is the awkward dismissal in this IPL after Jhonny Bairstows hit-wicket. You can watch this wicket in the highlights below.

By the end of 20 overs, Mumbai Indians scored 137 after a loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

With a low score to chase, Delhi Capitals batsmen Prithvi Shaw and Shikar Shawan opened the second innings. Like Mumbai Indians, Delhi Capitals too had a starting problem, after losing Prithvi Shaw's wicket in the 2nd over to Jayant Yadav.

With help of Steven Smith, Shikar Dhawan, scored a wonderful partnership of 53 runs in 48 balls. At his point, Mumbai Indians started to tight the fielding and bowling. In the Pollard's 10th over, Steven Smith 33(29) got out after an LBW.

Then Lalit Yadav and Shikar Dhawan slowly started to score some runs in that tight bowling and fielding. In Rahul Chahar's 15th over, Shikar Dhawan 45(42) was caught by Kurnal Pandya at the long leg.

Then Rishab Pant 7(8) departed immediately after that, Shimron Hetmyer and Lalit Yadav scored all the runs and lead the team to victory. The last run is a reward from Keiron Pollard for his mistake.

With this victory, Delhi Capitals broke the Mumbai Indians winning streak in this season and took second place in the points table.

IPL 2021 DC vs MI Match 13 Preview

Image: BCCI

Till now both Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals have played 3 matches till now in the tournament and won only two matches. Mumbai Indians won the two consecutive matches if they won this match, it would MI's hat-trick win in the league.

The match is going to start at 7:30 PM IST in M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians are unable to score more runs in the death overs, since the beginning of the tournament. This is because the lower middle-order high strike-rate batsmen are underperforming and losing way more wickets in the death overs. 

This is the main reason behind losing the first match against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Eventhough, they scored less in the next two matches, their bowling squad rescued the team from losing the match with tight bowling and fielding. 

If this continues in the tournament, Mumbai Indians might lose more matches this year than compared to last year. By playing carefully and scoring more runs in the death overs, the team might just afloat in this tournament till last.

Openers in the team need to make more runs in the powerplay to increase the run rate which decreases the pressure on the next batsman.

Coming to the bowling department, Mumbai Indians have the best players in the Indian Premier League but, they need to focus on taking wickets early on in the match to take control of the match.

Mumbai Indians Squad

Probable playing 11

1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Lalit Yadav, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Avesh Khan

Delhi Capitals

In the last 3 matches they have played, Delhi Capitals lost to Rajasthan Royals till now and won against Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings. In these two matches they played well but, Rajasthan Royals, their batting lineup just collapsed.

Delhi capitals need to be careful with the Mumbai Indians bowling line up which is much stronger compared to the Punjab Kings.

Replacing Ajinkya Rahane with Steven Smith is a great idea but the team need to put him for good use with the bat. He can bat well but he needs some time to connect the ball. Once he settles, he is a more dangerous batsman.

Unless the team gets a good start with the bat in the powerplay, the team is in big trouble and might lose the match. They can do a fair bit with bowling but can't do wonders like Mumbai Indians did in those two matches.

In the last two games, the scores in Chennai are considerably more when compared to the previous matches and the team that bats first can score more and defend the other team to less score. The chasing team needs to do a good partnership in the powerplay and death to win this match. 

Delhi Capitals Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Rohit Sharma (capt), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Ishan Kishan, 5 Kieron Pollard, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Jayant Yadav, 9 Rahul Chahar, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

IPL 2021 CSK vs RR Match 12 report

 

image:BCCI

After the toss, Rajasthan Royals elected to bowl first and told that the bowling first works in this pitch and trusts his team and played with the same team as the last match. Even CSK has gone with the same team as the last match.

In the 4th over, Rutraj Gaikwad 10 (13), departed in the Mustafizur Rahman's over after giving a catch to Shivam Dube at the mid-off.

After that, in the Jaydaev Undakat's 5th over, Faf du Plessis 33(17), scored 19 runs with the help of four boundaries and caught out R Parag in the 6th over by Chris Moriss. This the one of the costliest over for Rajasthan Royals.

Then, it's Moeen Ali Turn to hit a few boundaries and got out in Rahul Tewatia's 10th over after giving the catch to R Parag in the deep mid-wicket.

When Ambato Rayadu and Suresh Raina are about to get a 50 runs partnership, in Chetan Sakariya's 14th over the ball was caught by R Parag at sweeper cover.

From then on, Rajasthan Royals bowlers started to take regular wickets and didn't give any time for CSK batsman to settle.

But in the last three overs, RR bowlers gave no less than 15 runs per over, this is the costly mistake they have done. Dwyane Bravo and Sam Curran are the heroes for scoring runs in the death overs.

By the end of the Innings, Chennai Super Kings made 188 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

With a big target to chase, Rajasthan Royals batsmen came to the crease. The openers Manan Vohra and Jos Buttler started with a good 11 runs in the first over. From then the dot balls started to increase, in Sam Curran's 5th over, Manan Vohra 14(11) was caught by Jadeja.

Immediately after that, Sanju Samson was departed in Sam Curran's 6th over by giving a catch to Dwyane Bravo at the mid-on.

With help of Shivam Dube 17(20), Jos Buttler 49(35) trying to build a partnership to rescue the team but, in the 11th over, Jadeja took both of their wickets at the start and end of the over.

From this moment Rajasthan Royals lost their upper hand, the CSK bowlers are taking wickets regularly and made their situation worse.

Rahul Tewatia and Jaydev Unadkat tried to revive the RR from the death bed but, the equation is unsolvable for them too and departed later. In this innings, Ravindra Jadeja took four catches which are almost near the boundary line.

Chennai Super Kings won the match by 45 runs. These are the runs that Chennai Super Kings scored in the last 3 overs of their innings. Those three overs did cost Rajasthan Royals a match.

 

IPL 2021 CSK vs RR Match 12 Preview

image: BCCI

Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals lost a match each after playing 2 matches in the tournament. This match is important for everyone as the CSK is in the 4th position before this match with 2 points and the RR is just behind CSK with the very same 2 points, just a difference in run rate.

Those who win this match will claim the 4th position and two extra points in the table. The match is going to begin at 7:30 PM at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

Chennai Super Kings

Till now, CSK lost a match to Delhi Capitals and won the match against the Punjab Kings. We can say that the CSK bowlers performance is improved from the first match compared to the second. 

In the first match against DC, CSK bowlers felt the pressure to deliver the wickets but failed to do so and gave runs to the DC batsmen. In the second match against PBKS, from the beginning, CSK bowlers showed their upper hand by taking 3 wickets in the powerplay.

Today, it might be different, as, in the last game between the DC and PBKS, the bowlers seem too hard to pick wickets in the first innings of the match. So the team that opt to bat first might have the advantage.

CSK's batting is improved compared to the last season of the IPL. The top order is in the good form and scored runs till now and has a good strike rate in the powerplay.

The CSK batsmen need to be cautious with Chetan Sakariya, Jaydaev Unadkat and Criss Morris as they are the most dangerous bowlers from RR.

And the CSK bowlers need to pick the RR's top order as soon as possible to decrease the risk of leaking the runs.

Lungi Ngidi might be playing this match as he has completed his mandatory quarantine after coming from South Africa. 

Chennai Super Kings Squad

Probable Playing 11

 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad/Robin Uthappa, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Ambati Rayudu, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 9 Dwayne Bravo/Lungi Ngidi, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Deepak Chahar.

Rajasthan Royals

In the first match against the Punjab Kings, the captain missed the victory by just a few yards. That's a match that will be remembered for a while.

In the second match against the Delhi Capitals, the bowlers showed their full extent of performance. Especially, Jaydev Unadkat, who took 3 wickets of the DC's top order in the powerplay which helped to win the game.

Compared to the first match, RR batsmen struggled to bat in the second due to some exceptional bowling from Delhi Capitals. If RR batsmen tremble like this today's match, the CSK's bowling lineup will finish them off in no time.

The most dangerous bowlers for RR batsmen is Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar in the powerplay and Sam Curran in the death overs.

RR bowlers need to pick CSK batsmen wickets regularly by not allowing them to build any full-fledged partnership in the game. This is the only strategy that helps them to restrict them.

Rajasthan Royals Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 Jos Buttler, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Shivam Dube, 5 David Miller, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Jaydev Unadkat/Shreyas Gopal, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Mustafizur Rahman.

IPL 2021 PBKS vs DC Match 11 report

image: BCCI

After winning the toss, Delhi capitals elected to bowl first in the second doubleheader match of the day.

Punjab Kings had a wonderful start with KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal in the first innings of the match. They both scored a whopping  122 runs in 77 balls, which is the highest opening partnership in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League till now.

Mayank Agarwal scored his 8th IPL fifty in just 25 balls with seven 4's and two 6's, which really helped the team to cross 50 runs in just 31 balls. By the end of the powerplay, PBKS scored 59 runs without losing a wicket.

KL Rahul too scored a wonderful 50 in just 45 balls with six 4's and a 6 on his birthday. With regular running between the wickets and regular boundaries, the duo made a feast for the eyes until the partnership is broken.

In Meriwala's 13th over, Mayank Agarwal 69 (36) departed after giving a catch to Shikar Dhawan. A first breakthrough for the Delhi Capitals. Their happiness didn't last long as the universal boss entered.

In Marcus Stoinis's 15th over, KL Rahul 61(51) got out after giving a catch to Rabada in the deep mid-wicket. Immediately in the next over of Chris Woakes, Chris Gayle 11 (9) caught in the extra cover a substitute player RV Patel.

Then Nicholas Pooran 9(8) just like in the other matches he got out quickly. Deepak Hooda 22 (13) and Sharukh Khan 15 (5) played really well in the last few overs. By the end of the innings, Punjab Kings scored 195 runs with a loss of four wickets in 20 overs.

Delhi Capitals

With a big score to chase, Delhi Capitals openers Shikar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw opened the innings with a good start.

Delhi Capitals crossed the first 50 runs in just 29 balls, which is 2 balls less compared to Punjab Kings. In the 6th over, Delhi Capitals lost its first wicket of Prithvi Shaw32 (17) in the Arshdeep Singh's over caught by Chris Gayle at square leg.

Then Steven Smith 9 (12) got out a 48 run partnership with Shikar Dhawan in  Meredith's 9th over which is caught by Richardson at third man.

After that, Rishab Pant and Shikar Dhawan made another 45 run partnership in 25 balls which in turn helped to decrease the required run rate. 

Especially in Meridith's 14th overs, Shikar Dhawan smashed 3 consecutive 4's and the next ball is wide and KL Rahul failed to stop the ball, which went to the boundary. This is the most expensive over bowled by the Punjab Kings to Delhi Capitals.

In the 15th over, Richardson got Shikar Dhawan 92(49), the ball hit the middle stumps. Shikar Missed his hundred in the match. Then Stoinis and Pant played for a while and smashed a few boundaries.

Then in the 18th over, Deepak Hooda caught Rishab Pant 15(16) in Richardson's over, the catch is comical in its own way, as he succeeded in the 4th attempt. You will able to watch it in the highlights below.

Then Marcus Stoinis and Lalit Yadav scored the remaining runs with 10 balls left. Mohammed Shami failed to take wickets in the middle overs as the pressure got to him and gave more runs.

Overall, a wonderful game with full-on entertainment and a festival of boundaries in the 11th match and the second match of the first doubleheader. 

Watch the highlights here

IPL 2021 RCB vs KKR Match 10 report

image: BCCI

After winning the toss, RCB chose to bat first in the first doubleheader of the IPL in M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

At first, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost 2 wickets, Virat Kohli 5(6)and Raj Patidar 1(2) in the 2nd over of  Varun Chakravathi's. From then, Glen Maxwell and Devdutt Padikal made a wonderful partnership of 86 runs in 56 balls.

Most of the runs are from Glenn Maxwell, he played his best innings in the last few years in the IPL and scored his 8th IPL fifty since his debut in 2012. 

From 2017 to 2020, he didn't score any fifties, this is the second fifty in this year. The change in camp from Kings XI Punjab to Royal Challengers Bangalore has really worked for him. 

In Prasidh Krishna's 11th over, Rahul Tripathi caught the ball after Devdutt Pidikal 25 (28) tried to hit for a boundary and got out. The AB de Villiers entered and the scoreboard started to change the score fast after every ball.

In 37 balls, both Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers smashed the Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers balls to every corner of the boundary and made a beautifully 50 runs partnership. The boundaries literally rained in the Chepuk Stadium, Chennai just because of them.

Unfortunately for RCB, Glenn Maxwell 78(49), got out in Pat Cummins 17th over while trying to pull the short ball, which was caught by Harbajan Singh in the third man. After this innings, right now he is the batsman in this season of IPL with the most runs.

Even after then, AB de Villiers didn't stop to rain boundaries with Kyle Jamieson. In the last 4 overs, AB de Villers and K Jamieson scored 70 runs against KKR. This is the highest runs scored by a team in death overs in this edition of IPL.

After the end of the innings, RCB scored 204 with a loss of 4 wickets in the 20 overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders

With a huge target to chase, Kolkata Knight Riders opened their innings. At first, KKR batsmen started with good pace but, in the second over Shubman Gill 21(9) caught to in Jameison over. Then Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana tried to revive the situation but no use.

At the end of the powerplay, KKR lost Rahul Tripathi 25 (20) in Washington Sundar's over. Then in the next over Nitish Rana 18 (11) departed in the Yuzuvendra Chahal's over, caught by Devdutt Padikal at the deep midwicket.

In the Y Chahal's 8th over, Dinesh Karthi 2(5) departed after an LBW. From then, the required run rate is increasing and the RCB is gaining control of the match by taking regular wickets and bowling the dot balls.

After that Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hassan tried to revive the KKR, by building the partnership. Their efforts almost succeeded until Harshal Patel took Eoin Morgan's 29 (23) wicket, in the 14th over. They both built a partnership of 40 runs in 31 balls.

Then Andre Russell came and started to hit consecutive boundaries, suddenly the run rate started to come down for a moment. 

In Jameison's 18th over, he took two wickets of Shakib Al Hassan and Pat Cummins. With these wickets, RCB had confidence that they are going to win this match but Andre Russell is in the crease.

In Mohammed Siraj's 19th over, the bowler just gave a run in that over. As the penultimate over is crucial for both the chasing and defending team, Siraj did a wonderful job which confirmed the RCB victory.

At last, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match by 38 runs. What an interesting match to watch, but by the end, the game converted to one side after the powerplay in the second innings.

IPL 2021 DC vs PBKS Match 11 Preview

image: BCCI

This is the second match of today's doubleheader where Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings will be playing each other in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

In the previous match, Punjab Kings lost to the Chennai Super Kings as their batsmen failed to face the CSK bowler. In the first match against the Rajasthan Royals, they successfully defended the total they scored in the last over.

Delhi Capitals won their first match against the Chennai Super Kings with their amazing all-around performance in the game. But in the second game, they lost to Rajasthan Royals after poor top-order performance and unavailability of their star bowlers.

Delhi Capitals

First, let's talk about the top-order, Prithvi Shaw and Shikar Dhawan were the important batsmen for their team score. If they failed to do so, Rishab Pant is their next best hope. 

Anjikya Rahane and Shimron Hetmeyer aren't guaranteed players who can score runs, depending upon the situation they both acts.

Coming to Marcus Stoinis, he needs to come into the crease a couple of overs early before the death overs, then only he can do a good score.

Coming to the bowling, Anrich Nortje might join the team today as per the espncricinfo.com reports. If he is back into the attack, Delhi Capital's bowling will be as strong as a wall. They have got good spinners and death over bowlers to stop the flow of runs.

Delhi Capitals Squad

Probable Playing 11

 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Lalit Yadav, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Avesh Khan, 11 Anrich Nortje

Punjab Kings

In the match against the Chennai Super Kings, the Punjab Kings made a huge mess in the powerplay by losing wickets way too early. This has built a lot of pressure to score runs on the batsmen who came into the crease later on. 

With that pressure, they lost the wickets quickly and unable to score any runs in the match. Sharukh Khan has done a good job for the Punjab Kings in the middle overs. If the team can find a place for him up in the batting lineup, he can do wonders in the matches with the bat.

In today's match, PBKS top-order batsmen need to be extra careful and score few extra runs before Kagiso Rabada comes to the bowling, as he can break the partnership in his overs.

PBKS spinners need to spin more in this match as the pitch will be helping them, if not R Ashwin uses it against them in the middle overs.

Punjab Kings Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 Mayank Agarwal, 2 KL Rahul (capt, wk), 3 Chris Gayle, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Jhye Richardson, 8 M Ashwin, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 Riley Meredith, 11 Arshdeep Singh

IPL 2021 RCB vs KKR Match-10 preview

image: BCCI

Today is the first doubleheader of the 10 scheduled in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League. In the first session, Royal Challengers Bangalore will play with Kolkata Knight Rider at M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. In the second session, the Delhi Capitals will play with Punjab Kings.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Royal Challenger Bangalore is the only team that won two consecutive matches till now compared to other teams. 

This year, RCB has a good start with Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad. This team has done a good job till now but, they too have serious flaws in their team.

In the first two matches, the top-order batsmen failed to withstand till the end of the powerplay. They are losing one or two wickets and scoring an average of 40 runs by the end of the powerplay.

RCB has to find a pair of openers in the playing 11 who can score and stand in the crease for a while till the end of a couple overs after the powerplay.

Sending AB de Villiers and Glen Maxwell in the middle-order is a good decision, as they are the only players fighting against the bowlers and score some runs in previous matches.

Coming to bowlers, Harshal Patel done really a good job in the first match against the Mumbai Indians by picking the five-wicket haul. And took two wickets in the second match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Shabaz Ahmed took three wickets in the second match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad in just two overs. Promoting him to a full four-overs or at least three overs might be a good idea for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

RCB needs to be cautious with Andre Russell in the death overs as he can pick wickets and need KKR's opening batsmen Shubman Gills and Nitish Rana's wicket as early as in the powerplay to have a chance of winning.

Royal Challengers Bangalore Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Shahbaz Ahmed, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 Dan Christian/Daniel Sams, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammad Siraj, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Kolkata Knight Riders

Till now Kolkata Knight Riders won the match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad and lost a match to Mumbai Indians. 

In the first match, KKR has exploited the weak SRH batting lineup and won the match by 10 runs with good fielding and bowling efforts. In the second match, Mumbai Indians has exploited their weak batting lineup which costed their match.

TIll now no team in the IPL has scored big runs in the death overs, the bowling teams are exceptionally good with their spells. In the match against MI, KKR just scored 20 runs by losing 3 wickets in the last 4 overs of the match.

No one except for Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill Scored a double-digit. The poor middle-order might cause KKR more matches if they are unable to fill the gap soon with strong players.

In the match against the MI, Andre Russell took a five-wicket haul, which is really impressive from the Caribbean man. Those wickets didn't help the team to bag a victory in that match. As the MI bowling is been exceptional against KKR.

The KKR players need to cautious while playing Harshal Patel's and Washington Sundar bowling and need Virat's, Glen Maxwell, AB de Villiers wicket as soon as possible in the game. 

Here is the Kolkata Knight Riders Squad

Probable playing 11

1 Shubman Gill, 2 Nitish Rana, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shakib Al Hasan, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Toss: In the last match, the toss winning captain Rohit Sharma, chose to bat first and won the match in the M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Today also the toss winning captain might choose to bat First.

IPL 2021 MI vs SRH Match 9 report

image: BCCI

After Mumbai Indians won the toss they chose to bat first. This is the first time in this season of the Indian Premier League that the toss winning captain chose to bat first.

In the powerplay, Mumbai Indian's didn't lose any wickets to the Sunrsiers bowler and scored 53 runs by the end. Then in the third ball of the 6th over, MI captain Rohit Sharma 32(25) got out by giving a catch to Virat Singh in the deep midwicket.

R Sharma and Q de Kock gave Mumbai Indians a perfect start with a 55 runs partnership in 41 balls before got out in Vijay Shankar's over.

From then, no batsman in the Mumbai Indian's playing 11 really played well in the match. 

With occasional boundaries and regular runs between the wickets, MI batsmen got out with less than 15 runs, except Kieron Pollard. He scored 35 runs in 22 balls with three sixes.

By the end of the Innings, Mumbai Indians has scored 150 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in 20 overs. As usual in the last three matches, the death over batsmen didn't perform well to their full extent.

With a decent target to chase Sunrisers Hyderabad opened their Innings with David Warner and Jhonny Bairstow. A batting line up problem that is worrying the Sunrisers for the past few years.

They both started slowly in the first two overs but started to gain speed from the third over. From then, the run rate started to climb and crossed the Mumbai Indians run rate before Jhonny Bairstow got out.

In the Kurnal Pandya's 8th over, Jhonny Bairstow 43 (22) got out after hitting his own stumps by mistake. Manish Pandey 2(7) followed him soon.

David Warner got run out after a greedy run when the ball is inside the 30-yard circle. Hardik Pandya single-handedly hit the stumps from a distance and made a contact with the stumps, which is really awesome to watch it slowly in the replay.

From then, every SRH batsmen returned back to the pavilion after getting out in the Mumbai Indians bowlers. As there are no strong middle-order batsmen, and missing Kane Williamson is the reason behind the underperformance.

The team tried to change the batting position of Jhonny Bairstow to middle order but, the top order is collapsing without him. Unless SRH does something fast to their batting lineup they will continue to lose matches because of poor batting.

IPL 2021 MI vs SRH Match 9 Live Blog

 

image: BCCI

Mumbai Indians Playing 11: Rohit (Capt), Quinton (WK), Surya, Ishan, Hardik, Pollard, Krunal, Milne, Chahar, Boult, Bumrah

Sunrisers Hyderabad Playing 11: D Warner, J Bairstow, M Pandey, V Singh, A Samad, V Shankar, A Sharma, R Khan, B Kumar, M Ur Rahman, K Ahmed

TOSS: Mumbai Indians have won the toss and opted to bat first. First time since the beginning of IPL a toss winning captain chose to bat first.

IPL 2021 MI vs SRH Match 9 Preview

Image: BCCI

Today is the 9th match of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League, which is between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad at M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

This the 5th match played in Chennai. Till now, Mumbai Indians lost a match to Royal Challengers Bangalore and won a match against Kolkata Knight Riders out of the two matches played in this stadium.

Sunrisers Hyderabad lost both the matches they have played on this ground, against the Kolkata Knight and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Right now, Srunrisers Hyderabad is now at the bottom of the points table and Mumbai Indians are at the third position on the table after Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings after the 8th match of the tournament.

The match starts at 7:30 PM IST and can watch it live on Star Sports and Disney Plus Hotstar with a subscription.

Mumbai Indians

In the last two matches, they have not scored any huge runs in the death overs, as their death over specialists Hardik Pandya and Keiron Pollard are failing to do so.

In the first match against RCB, they have lost six wickets and scored 31 runs in the last four overs. In the second match against KKR, MI lost 7 wickets and scored 38 runs. 

Usually, the MI will score anywhere between 50 to 60 runs in the last four overs and they used to have a high run rate in the death overs.

Mumbai Indians should be played with caution in Rashid Khan's over, especially in the middle overs. And the bowlers have to be careful if the team, replaces someone with Kane Williamson, and Manish Pandey.

Mumbai Indians Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 Rohit Sharma (capt) 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Suryakumar Yadav, 4 Ishan Kishan, 5 Hardik Pandya, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Rahul Chahar, 9 Marco Jansen/Jayant Yadav, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Jasprit Bumrah

Sunrisers Hyderabad

In the last two matches, the team lost due to the bad batting line-up. These problems are following by the team for the past two years. Unless they made subtle changes in the batting lineup, it's difficult for SRH to even enter knockouts.

Coming to the bowling, they have a few good players, Rashid Khan and Buhvaneshwar Kumar are the heart of their bowling squad as they give results without fail.

They need to pick a least two wickets of the Mumbai Indian's openers in the powerplay before they settle, to compete against the five-time champions.

And the Middle-order batsman has to be careful with Jasprit Bumrah in the death overs and with Trent boult in the powerplay. And the bowlers have to be careful in the death, even though MI is not in the form, don't know when the gun will fire back.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 David Warner (capt), 2. Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Vijay Shankar, 5 Kedar Jadhav, 6 Rashid Khan, 7 Jason Holder, 8 Abdul Samad, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Shahbaz Nadeem, 11 T Natarajan

Toss

The winning team captain will choose to bowl first just like in the previous matches. Till now every toss winning captain chose to bowl first. Few won the matches, the others have lost them. We will see today if there is any change in the toss.

IPL 2021 PBKS vs CSK Match-8 report

image: BCCI

 

In this match too, the toss winning captain MS Dhoni chose to bowl first. That really seems to be a good decision as Chennai Super Kings restricted Punjab Kings for just 108 runs in 20 overs.

Most of the damage is done by Deepak Chahar in the powerplay, as he took a total of 3 wickets and runout in these overs. 

The Punjab Kings started with a very tough over, as their opener Mayank Agrawal 0(2) departed in the Rahul Chahar's first over. 

Followed by Punjab Kings Captain KL Rahul's 5(7) wicket in the 3rd over, after a miscommunication with the striker Chris Gayle, the skipper got run out, stumped by Ravindra Jadeja.

In the 4th over, Deepak Chahar took two wickets, Chris Gayle 10 (10), was caught out by Ravindra Jadeja in the short cover and Nicholas Pooran 0(2) was also caught by Shardul Thakur.

Hurricane Hooda of the last match also departed just after the powerplay in the Deepak Chahar's over caught by the Faf du Plessis in mid-off.

For then, Sharukh Khan 47(36) and Jhye Richardson 15 (22) tried to build a partnership, but that didn't help the Punjab Kings to score more.

By the end of the innings, Punjab Kings scored 106 with a loss of 8 wickets in 20 overs.

With a small target to chase, the CSK batsmen had a good start compared to PBKS as they just lost Rutraj Gaikwad's 5(16) wicket in the Arshdeep Singh's over. 

From then, Moeen Ali 46 (31) and Faf du Plessis 36*(33) built an amazing partnership of 64 runs in 46 balls with regular boundaries. As the target is short, the PBKS bowlers have no option of building pressure on the CSK batsmen.

By the end of the match, CSK batsmen struggled a bit after losing wickets to Mohammed Shami in the 15th over and chased the target with 26 balls and 6 wickets remaining.

Overall, the match is one-sided from the beginning and the match bored me a lot.

IPL 2021 PBKS vs CSK Match 8 Preview

image: BCCI

In the first match, Punjab Kings won against the Rajasthan Royals by defending a huge total and won by just 4 runs shy. Both the teams took the match to the final ball of the final over. Just by sheer luck, the Punjab Kings have won the match.

This time it will be different, today Punjab Kings will be playing against the Chennai Super Kings in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. In the 6th between RR and DC, both the teams found it difficult to score runs in the middle and final overs of the innings.

Let's see if any of the winning team captains chose to bat first. Since the first match, everyone is closing to bowl first.

Punjab Kings

In the first match, the top and middle-order batsmen played most of the innings, with more boundaries than the singles. In today's match, running between the wickets is important than the boundaries as the CSK bowlers are hard to hit for too many boundaries like in the previous match.

A partnership of the top and middle-order batsmen might be crucial for the PBKS to get a good score or chase a score. And the effective blowing from PBKS is going to decide their fate.

Arshdeep Singh really done a good job in the match against the Rajasthan, especially the last over of that match is unforgettable.

Shardul Thakur, with his bowling, can really do the damage to the PBKS batting lineup during the powerplay and Sam Curran at the death over. Sam can really show his impact on the scoreboard, if he can stop runs from flowing, the PBKS squad will be in real trouble. 

Coming to the batsmen, in the middle overs Ambati Rayadu and Suresh Raina can score runs for the team. More the time they stay in the field, the more damage for PBKS.

Here is the squad of Punjab Kings

Probable playing 11: 

1 KL Rahul (capt, wk), 2 Mayank Agarwal, 3 Chris Gayle, 4 Deepak Hooda, 5 Nicholas Pooran, 6 Shahrukh Khan, 7 Chris Jordan, 8 Jhye Richardson, 9 Ravi Bishnoi, 10 Mohammed Shami, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Chennai Super Kings

In the first match against the Delhi capitals, CSK bowlers are unable to stop the runs from leaking. This is the main reason to lose the match. 

CSK didn't get any wickets of DC in the powerplay, if this happens today against PBKS, the score crosses 200 again.

KL Rahul, Chris Gayle and Deepak Hooda are done the most damage for the Rajasthan Royals. These three wickets are important for Chennai Super Kings.

CSK batsmen need to look after Arshdeep Singh in middle and death overs and Mohammed Shami in the powerplay. Both the bowlers can take wickets and will not give any runs which may hurt the run rate for CSK.

Here is the squad of Chennai Super Kings

Probable Playing 11 

1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Moeen Ali, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Ambati Rayudu, 6 Ravindra Jadeja, 7 MS Dhoni (capt, wk), 8 Sam Curran, 9 Dwayne Bravo, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Deepak Chahar

IPL 2021 RR vs DC Match 7 report

 

image: BCCI

After winning the toss, Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson opted to bowl first in the 7th match of the IPL.

Delhi Capitals

Prithvi Shaw and Shikar Dhawan opened for the Delhi Capitals as usual but, the star of the first match Prithi Shaw2 (5) got out early in the game in J Undadkat's over. As I said earlier in the preview, Prithvi Shaw will not play good for two consecutive innings.

In the 4th over, the second of Unadkat's he picked Shikar Dhawan 9(11) and A Rahane 8(8) in his next over. By this point, Delhi capitals lost their top order in the powerplay to Jaydev Unadkat. He really proved his worth and showed his comeback to the world.

In the 7th over, Mustafizur Rahman took the Marcus Stoinis wicket 0(5), from then Rishab Pant and the new debutant Latith Yadav made a good partnership of 51 runs in 36 balls. In the 13th over, R Pant got runout by trying to take a single when the ball is near the bowler Rayan Parag..

Then Tom Curran and Chris Woakes tried to revive the match but the Rajasthan Royals didn't allow them to score runs in the death overs. By the end of the innings, Delhi Capitals has scored 148/9 without any sixes in the Innings. 

Chetan Saakariya who did pick wickets in the first match didn't pick any wickets in this match. Jaydev Unadkat's good bowling in the powerplay has really worked well for the Rajasthan Royals.

Rajasthan Royals

With a 149 to chase in the second Innings, Jos Buttler and Manan Vohara opened the second innings. After hitting two consecutive fours in the Chris Woakes 3rd over, Manan Vohra 9(11) got out by giving a catch to K Rabada in the mid-on.

In the same over, Jos Buttler 2(7) gave a catch to R Pant behind the wickets after the ball edged the bat. Then came Sanju Samson 4(3), the hero of the last match also got out early in Rabada's 4th over by giving a catch to Shikar Dhawan in the slip.

From then on, Shivam Dube 2(7) and Riyan Parag 2(5) got out in the Avesh Khan's bowling. He is the guy who picked the MS Dhoni wicket in the first match against CSK.

Then David Miller and Rahul Tewatia build an exceptional partnership when the top and middle order is failed to score the runs for the team. They have both made 48 runs in 34 balls. 

In Rabada's 15th over, this partnership is broke after Rahul Tewatia 19 (17) was caught by Lilith Yadav,, Eventhough, Tewatia struggled a bit in the start, by the end he did really well in the match.

After two consecutive sixes of the match, David Miller 62(43) got out in Rabada's 16th over. His excellent performance in the middle overs really boosts the morale of the batsmen to score runs in the game.

Then Jaydev Unadkat and Chriss Morris won the game for the Rajasthan Royals by hitting wonderful sixes by the end of the game. Their partnership of 46 runs in 26 balls is impressive.

In the end, I thought, what if Sanju Samson would have taken that single against the Punjab Kings in the previous match?

Rajasthan Royals won the match with 3 wickets in hand and 2 balls remaining. Watch the match highlights here

IPL 2021 RR vs DC Match 7 Live Blog

Rajasthan Royals Squad:

Sanju Samson (C), Andrew Tye, Anuj Rawat, Ben Stokes, David Miller, Jaydev Unadkat, Jofra Archer, Jos Buttler, Kartik Tyagi, Mahipal Lomror, Manan Vohra, Mayank Markande, Rahul Tewatia, Riyan Parag, Shreyas Gopal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Christopher Morris, Shivam Dube, Chetan Sakariya, Mustafizur Rahman, Liam Livingstone, K.C Cariappa, Akash Singh, Kuldip Yadav

Probable Playing 11:  1 Jos Buttler, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Andrew Tye/Mustafizur Rahman

Delhi Capitals Squad: 

Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (C & wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Chris Woakes, Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, R Ashwin, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Umesh Yadav, Ripal Patel, Vishnu Vinod, Lukman Meriwala, M Siddharth, Tom Curran, Steven Smith, Sam Billings

Probable Playing 11: 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Avesh Khan

IPL 2021 RR vs DC Match 7 Preview

image: BCCI

The 7th match of 2021 IPL is going to begin at 7:30 PM in the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Both the teams have already played a match on this pitch. 

Rajasthan Royals lost to Punjab Kings in the first match with 4 runs short. As the team new captain, Sanju Samson hit the last ball a few yards inside the boundary.

Coming to the Delhi Capitals, the team has won the first match against the Chennai Super Kings after chasing a total of 188 in 18.4 overs.

Both the teams are in the quest to win that two points in the early on the league stage to stay top by the end of the league stage.

Rajasthan Royals 

After losing the first match closely, Rajasthan had another blow Ben Stokes is ruled out of the Indian Premier League due to a finger injury in the first match.

The team already lost their star bowler, who also showed us his power with the bat in the previous season of the IPL in Dubai Jofra Archer.

While cleaning his fish tank at home, Jofra Archer injured his hand which lead to surgery. Eventhough, he was cleared for the small training session by ECB, it hard to say when he will be joining the Rajasthan Royals for the ongoing IPL series.

The team will be in trouble if they didn't improve the bowling in the middle and death overs. Except for Sanju Samson, the top and middle-order failed to share the load of scoring runs. If this continues, they will be in deep trouble with the Delhi Capitals.

RR's star new bowler Mustafizur Rahman seems to be expensive in death and middle overs of the last match. He gave 45 runs in 4 overs without taking any wickets with an economy of 11.25 and followed by the team's spinner at 13.0.

Here is the squad of Rajasthan Royals 

Probable Playing 11

 1 Jos Buttler, 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Shivam Dube, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Rahul Tewatia, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Andrew Tye/Mustafizur Rahman

Delhi Capitals

In the first match against the Chennai Super Kings, the team started the IPL with a good victory. Delhi Capitals won by 7 wickets in hand. As the majority of the score is scored by the openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikar Dhawan.

If they both failed to repeat the Innings like the first match, the responsibility will fall on the middle-order batsmen. Let's hope they are good and strong to face the young spinner Chetan Sakariya.

The other good thing in the Delhi Capitals bag is Chris Woakes and Avesh Khan. They both picked two wickets in the first match. Especially, Avesh Khan has picked the Dhoni's Wicket. A wicket he is going to remember his life.

Eventhough, R Ashwin picked a wicket, his economy rate is high as Mooen Ali smashed his balls to boundaries.

The South African Player, Kagiso Rabada might join the team after his completion of quarentine as he came from overseas after playing ODI matches with Pakistan. 

Here is the Squad of the Delhi Capitals

Probable Playing 11

1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Chris Woakes, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Avesh Khan

IPL2021 SRH vs RCB Match-6 Report

image: BCCI

Same as the previous match, the chasing team is unable to chase the low scores in M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. In the previous match, Kolkata Knight Rider are unable to score 152 runs in the 20 overs as the wickets fell in the middle overs to spinner Rahul Chahar.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

In this match, Royal Challengers Bangalore has struggled to score runs in the middle overs as the opener batsmen Devdutt Padikal 11(13) and Shahbaz Ahmed 14 (10) lost their wickets in the 3rd and 7th overs of the match.

Then Glenn Maxwell and Virat Kohli built a partnership of 44 runs in 38 balls. In Jason Holder's 13th over, Virat Kohli's 33(29) gave a catch to Vijay Shankar in the outfield. The new addition to the team has proven worthy.

Rashid Khan took the AB de Villiers's 1(5) wicket in the 14th over by giving the catch to David Warner at the extra cover while trying to slash the ball to the boundary. In the next Rashid Khan's over, Washington Sundar 8(11) gave a catch to Manish Pandey, he ran from the long-off and dived to catch the ball.

In the 17th overs, the Natrajan's ball edged the bat and caught by the wicketkeeper behind. Dan Christain 1(2) didn't agree with the decision of the on-field umpires and went upstairs. In the ultra edge, there is a spike when the ball is passing the bat and RCB lost their review.

From then, Glenn Maxwell started to show that he is an X factor in the game. He made his first IPL 50 in 4 years. With this half-century, he made a total of 7 IPL half centries from his debut in 2012.

If he didn't play like he played in this match, the RCB would have scored below 130. By the end of the game, RCB has scored 149 with a loss of 9 wickets.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

With an easy target to chase, Sunrisers Hyderabad has started their Innings, at first, they have lost their opener Wriddhimam Saha 1(9) to Mohammed Siraj in the 3rd over.

Then came Manish Pandey to the crease, with the help of their team captain David Warner, he built a partnership of 83 runs in 69 balls. Before David Warner wicket is down, I thought that the match would be completed before 20 overs.

But everything changed after Jameison took David Warner's 54(37) wicket in the 14th over. By the end of the 14th over, SRH needs 48 runs in 36 balls which is pretty much easy and the equation can be reachable.

From then the RCB bowlers done their magic by taking wickets regularly in the last 4 overs. Three wickets in Shahbaz Ahmed's over, he took Bairstow 12 (13) in the first ball, Manish Pandey 38(39) in the second ball and Abdul Samad 0(2) in the last ball of his over. He has really done big damage to the SRH batting lineup.

The big gun of the first match, Harshal Patel took the wicket of Vijay Shankar 3(5) and the wickets of the bottom order fell due to pressure and Sunriser lost their second match by 6 runs.

Watch the Match Highlights here

IPL 2021 SRH vs RCB Match 6 preview

Image: BCCI

 In the last match against Kolkata Knight Rider, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost its first match with 10 runs short to the target. As the openers handed the wickets early on in the match.

Royal Challenger Bangalore played well in the season opener match against Mumbai Indians. AB de Villiers played a wonderful one-man show while chasing the target.

The match is going to begin at 7:30 PM in the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Both the teams have already played a match on this pitch. This might help them to understand the behaviour and plan the strategy according to it.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

In their first match, the team is unable to score the runs as the openers failed to stand in the crease to score the runs and the bowlers failed to stop leaking the runs.

Except for Manish Pandey and Jhonny Bairstow, all the batsmen failed to support the team with a good partnership. Only Rashid Khan in the bowler's squad able to restrict the batsmen with gorgeous spells.

What to expect from the SRH?

Well, if the top-order batsmen stay strong and bowlers bowled well, the victory could be in their hands. All these things depend on David Warner, Jhonny Bairstow and Manish Pandey's hands.

There could a chance that the all-rounder Jason Holder will be back in the team as an extra bowling option and as middle-order batsmen. This could raise a few stakes in the SRH batting line up.

Here is the Sunrisers Hyderabad Squad.

Probable Playing 11

 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 3 Manish Pandey, 4 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Abdul Samad, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 T Natarajan

Royal Challengers Bangalore

In the first game against the Mumbai Indians, Royal Challengers Bangalore won the match, a hard way by chasing the target till the last moment.

The top-order collapsed in the first match in just no time, as Devdutt Padikall is available this time, things could be different for RCB in the powerplay, if not the first match history repeats.

 If the first match situation is repeated, Rashid Khan will eat the batsman alive in his overs and get wickets as early as possible.

The X factor didn't show much effect in the previous match. Eventhough, he built a 50 run partnership with Virat Kohli, his strike rate is just 140 in that match which is considerably less.

The most crucial wickets for the RCB is David Warner and Jhonny Bairstow. If their wickets fell early with any damage to the scoreboard, the RCB can restrict SRH to a less score.

Here is the Squad of Royal Challengers Bangalore

Probable Playing 11

1 Virat Kohli (capt), 2 Devdutt Padikkal, 3 Rajat Patidar, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 AB de Villiers (wk), 6 Daniel Christian, 7 Washington Sundar, 8 Kyle Jamieson, 9 Harshal Patel, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal.

IPL 2021 KKR vs MI Match 5 report

 

image: BCCI

Like all the games that happened till now, the toss winning captain Eoin Morgan chose to bowl first in this match too.

Same as in the first match, Mumbai Indians lost their first wicket of Quinton de Kock 2 (6) in the second over of Varun Chakravarthy. 

Then Suryakumar Yadav and brought some boundaries with him while coming from the dug-out. He and Rohit Sharma built a wonderful partnership of 76 runs in 56 balls with occasional boundaries and regular singles. At this point in the match, the run rate was pretty good and Mumbai Indians were looking at 180 runs by the end of the innings.

But this beautiful partnership was broke by the Shakib Al Hassan in the 11th over. Suryakumar Yadav 56 (36) gave a catch to Shubman Gill at the long-on.  Then Immediately after that, Ishan Kishan 1(3) got out at the beginning of Pat Cummins 12th over.

Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma struggled to play big shots after the early fall of wickets in the match. Eventhough, they punished the bowler for their bad balls to boundaries, their both partnership didn't last too long enough.

In Pat Cummin's 16th over, the ball hit the stumps and Rohit Sharma 43(32) got out, followed by Hardik Pandya 15 (17) in the Prasidh Krishna's 17th over.

Then on the massacre starts, one by one all the players in the Mumbai Indians team got out. As we have discussed in the match preview, the MI is not scoring any proper runs in the death overs.

In the 18th and 20th over, Andre Russell took 5 wickets, his best in the Indian Premier League. Keiron Pollard 5 (8), Kurnal Pandya 15 (9), Marco Jansen 0(1), Rahul Chahar 8(7) and Jasprit Bumrah 0(1).

By the end of the first Innings, the Mumbai Indians scored a total of 152 runs in the 20 overs and Kolkata Knight Riders need 153 runs to win the match.

Second Innings

With a 153 runs target, KKR batsmen Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill opened the Innings with a four. For a few overs, they both are really playing well and steady. They both are building a wonderful partnership of 72 runs in 54 balls. 

In Rahul Chahar's 9th over, Shubman Gill 33 (24) gave a catch to Keiron Pollard in the long-off, then after a short cameo, Rahul Tripathi 5(5) departs after giving a catch to the wicket-keeper behind after the ball edging the bat.

From this point, the KKR started to get into trouble, as the middle order batsmen are unable to score the runs required. The MI players started to tight the fielding and even Rohit Sharma bowled an over to pressure the KKR.

Due to pressure, the KKR batsmen started to lose the wickets while trying to hit boundaries, this made the MI set more aggressive fielding to stop leaking singles. The plan worked and more wickets started to fall.

In the last over, KKR needs 15 runs in 5 balls. T Boult finished the over by taking two wickets and without giving any boundaries to the KKR batsmen.

KKR lost the match by 10 runs deficit to MI. The main reason for KKR's loss is the inconsistent middle order. In the first match, the top order stood in the crease to make runs in the early stage which helped them in the later stage even though the middle order failed in that match too.

KKR needs to reconsider their middle-order and death overs batting economy to win future matches in the league stage of the 14th edition of the IPL.

Here are the match higlights