IPL 2021 PBKS vs KKR Match 21 Report

Image: BCCI

Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and chose to bowl in the 22nd match of the Indian Premier League and the first match at Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad.

K L Rahul and Mayank Agarwal opened the innings for the Punjab Kings, with a slow start as they just scored only 2 runs in the first over.

By the end of the powerplay, Punjab Kings lost a wicket of  K L Rahul in Pat Cummins 6th over which was caught by Sunil Naraine in the mid-off.

In the next over, Chris Gayle was caught by the Dinesh Karthi behind the wickets in Shivam Mavi's 7th over. Then in the 8th over, Deepak Hooda was caught at backward point by Eoin Morgan in Prasidh Krishna's over.

By the end of 10 over, Punjab Kings just scored 56 runs and lost 3 big wickets and they had a run rate of 5.56 per over. No opener was able to build a partnership in the powerplay which is the main reason behind the low score.

In the 12th over, Mayank Agarwal was caught by Rahul Tripathi in Sunil Narine's over at deep mid-wicket. Then in 14th over, Sunil Narine bowled Moises Henriques with an off-break.

Then slowly, one by one started to lose their wickets in the last few overs. Chris Jordan tried to revive the innings but, eventually, he got out too.

In the death overs,  Punjab Kings managed to score only 32 runs and lost 3 wickets in the process. By the end of the innings, the team made a total of 126 runs in 20 overs by losing 9 wickets.

With a small score to chase, Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill opened the innings for Kolkata Knight Riders and lost their first wicket in the 1st over. Nitish Rana was caught by Shahrukh Khan in Moises Henriques's over.

Then KKR lost Shubaman Gill and Sunil Naraine in the first three overs of the second innings. Then Eoin Morgan and Rahul Tripathi managed to build a partnership of 66 runs in 48 balls. 

At the end of the 11th over, Rahul Tripathi was caught by Shahrukh Khan at the long-on in Deepak Hooda's over.

With the help of Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan finished the game by scoring 126 with 20 balls remaining, after Andre Russell got run out.

At last, Kolkata Knight Rider won their second game in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League.

IPL 2021 KKR vs PBKS Match 21 Preview

image: BCCI

Now all the matches have shifted from Mumbai and Chennai to Ahmedabad and Delhi. These new stadiums will have an impact on the team's performance. Till now teams have to adjust for new pitches and new stadiums.

The 21st match of the Indian Premier League is to be played in the all-new Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad. In this match, Punjab Kings will be playing against the Kolkata Knight Riders. In the 5 matches they have played, Kolkata Knight Riders won only a match and Punjab Kings won a couple of matches till now.

Eventually, one team will win and secures two points after winning the match. This match is important for both teams to stay alive in this tournament.

Punjab Kings 

In the last match, Punjab Kings won the match against the Mumbai Indians and claimed their 2nd win in the tournament. PBKS players are making most of their blunders when the pressure is on. This is making them vulnerable during the match.

They have got good openers and a good bowling squad and can reach the scores the opposition has set for them. But in the process, the team is failing somewhere. 

The middle-order is concerning for the PBKS, Nicholas Pooran has gone for duck 3 times in the last four matches which the team has to look after.

After finding the good bowling combination with Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin the team can do wonders in the middle overs if their plan goes well against the KKR.

Punjab Kings Squad

Probable Playing11

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

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders just won their only match against Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first match this season. They have got superb openers and a good bowling lineup but they are failing to secure a win for the team.

The openers are losing their wickets early in the matches, which is increasing the pressure on the batsmen coming next. This pressure is making them lose wickets. Every game needs a good start for a clear and neat win at the end. But the KKR players are failing to do so.

In the match against CSK, the team fought till the last moment and they are inches closer to victory but, due to bad decisions, they have lost a game. They have got batsmen with firepower in their batting lineup but the fire isn't quite igniting when required.

Their bowling lineup is taking wickets regularly but not when they needed the wicket most. 

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad

Probable Playing 11

 1 Nitish Rana, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Andre Russell, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Sunil Narine, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Shivam Mavi, 10 Prasidh Krishna, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

IPL 2021 KKR vs RR Match 18 Report

image: BCCI

Rajasthan Royals won the toss and chose to bowl first, KKR begins with a slow and steady over. RR bowlers didn't give any chance to KKR openers Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill. By the end of the powerplay, KKR lost a wicket of Shubman Gill and scored 25 runs and had a run rate below 5 runs per over.

Then Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana tried to revive the score but, in Chetan Sakariya's 10th over, Nitish Rana was caught by Sanju Samson behind the wickets. From then on, the RR bowlers picking the wickets regularly and not giving KKR batsmen any chance of scoring runs.

Except for Rahul Tripathi, no one scored more than 30 runs in this innings. An exceptional bowling performance from the Rajasthan Royals bowlers helped them to restrict KKR for just 133 runs with a loss of 9 wickets in 20 overs.

The top order of KKR just collapsed to RR bowlers in this innings. Chris Morris took 4 wickets in the death overs.

With decent runs to chase, Jos Buttler opened the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal instead of Manan Vohra, it seemed to have worked this time. 

In Varun Chakravarthy's 4th over, Jos Buttler got out after the ball hitting the pads before the stumps. In the hawk eye, the ball is just touching the bails. Jos Buttler departed without reviewing it after a heated discussion with the RR's young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal.

Then, Yashasvi departed after trying to hit a boundary in Shivam Mavi's 5th over. Sanju Samson and Shivam Dube made a 45 runs partnership in 39 balls. In Varun Chakravarthi's 11th over, Shivam Dube was caught by Prasidh Krishna at the third man.

After a short cameo from Rahul Tewatia, David Miller ad Sanju Samson scored the final runs for the Rajasthan Royals and lead the team to victory. 

RR won this match because of good bowling from the start of the match. Chris Morris took 4 wickets in the death overs and won the Man of the Match award for his contribution to the team's victory.

 

IPL 2021 RR vs KKR Match 18 Preview

image: HotStar

Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders will play against each other in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. This is the penultimate match of the Indian Premier League season in this stadium. The match is going to start at 7:30 PM today.

Till now, both the teams played four matches each and won a match each. Rajasthan won the match against the Delhi Capitals and Kolkata Knight Riders won the match against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. In the remaining matches, both the teams lost few matches with a close margin.

Rajasthan Royals

This team lost their best opener, Ben Stokes, due to a finger injury, Jos Buttler is replacing him as the opener. Jofra Archer is ruled out from IPL as his hand is injured while cleaning a fish tank in his house during his own free time.

In the last match, when the openers lost their wickets early, the middle order and lower middle-order batsmen fought a good fight and scored 177 runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore. This is a good sign for the team, but, they are not using this for their advantage in the games.

Jaydev Unadkat took 3 wickets in the powerplay against Chennai Super Kings and the debutant Chetan Sakaryia is also taking the wickets. Those bowlers are not taking the wickets when the team needs it the most.

The captain made a tough call not to take that single against the Punjab Kings in the last over. In the next match, Chris Moriss won the match for the team against the Delhi Capitals by hitting sixes while chasing.

The team needs some luck and a good turn of events to win today's match against the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Rajasthan Royals Squad

Probable Playing 11

 1 Jos Buttler (wk), 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal/Anuj Rawat, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Shivam Dube, 5 David Miller, 6 Riyan Parag, 7 Rahul Tewatia, 8 Chris Morris, 9 Jaydev Unadkat, 10 Chetan Sakariya, 11 Mustafizur Rahman/Andrew Tye

Kolkata Knight Riders

This team has the strongest openers compared to the Rajasthan Royals. Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill are my choices of opening pair compared to inconsistent RR openers Jos Buttler and Manan Vohra.

Both the team openers have lost their wickets either in the powerplay or in the next over to the pacers. And the batsman at the 3rd position in the batting line up seems to find it difficult to settle in that pressure as a result of losing the wicket early.

This team also works hard and puts all the effort into winning the game but bad luck ad some wrong decisions pulling them away from the victories.

Today's match is going to be a wonderful chance for both teams to show their strengths and bounce back and show that they are in the game.

The team that dominates from the start is going to win the match. Both the teams are failing to show that dominance in the matches that happened till now.

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad

Probable Playing 11

1 Nitish Rana, 2 Shubman Gill, 3 Rahul Tripathi, 4 Sunil Narine, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Andre Russell, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Kamlesh Nagarkoti/Shivam Mavi, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Prasidh Krishna

IPL 2021 KKR vs CSK Match 15

image: BCCI

In the second match of today's doubleheader, Kolkata Knight Riders won the toss and chose to bowl first to stop the CSK batsmen. But their plan failed, Ruthraj Gaikwad did perform well today with the help of the Faf du Plessis.

In 77 balls, the duo scored a whopping second-highest partnership in this season of the Indian Premier League. KKR has waited till Varun Chakravarthy's 13th over to take their first wicket of the match. Rutraj Gaikwakad 64 (42), caught out by Pat Cummins at deep mid-wicket.

Then, Moeen Ali and Faf du Plessis made another 50 runs partnership in 27 balls. In Sunil Naraine's 17th over, when Moeen Ali 25 (12) missed the ball, Dinesh Karthi stumped the wickets and got him out.

Then, Faf du Plessis with help of Dhoni and Jadeja scored an amazing total of 220 runs just by losing 3 wickets in 20 overs.

Kolkata Knight Riders bowlers proved to be costly this night. Only Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine and Andre Russell took a wicket each. Only Varun Chakravathy's economy is under 8 in the bowlers, which is not good and KKR needs to focus a bit on the bowling.

With a high score to chase, Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill opened the innings for Kolkata Knight Riders. They had a very bad start in the powerplay, the team lost half of the wickets in the powerplay.

Starting with Shubman Gill in Deepak Chahar's 1st over, Nitish Rana in D Chahar's 2nd over, Eoin Morgan and Sunil Narine in D Chahar's 5th over, And Rahul Tripathi in L Ngidi's 6th over.

Out of the 5 wickets, Deepak Chahar took 4 wickets in the powerplay. As I mentioned him as the dangerous bowler in the powerplay for CSK in the match preview. He's done what I feard to the KKR.

From then Andre Russell and Dinesh Karthik really revived the match with regular boundaries. The required run rate is coming down while the duo is playing.

They both made  81 runs partnership in 53 balls, which is later broken by Sam Curran in the 12th over. The ball has struck the leg stump and dislodged the bails with blinking red lights. At once, I felt sad to watch Andre Russell walks out of the ground with a heavy heart.

 Then with the help of Pat Cummins, Dinesh Karthik played for a while with regular boundaries. Chennai Super Kings has tightened their fielding to avoid singles. There more dot balls in these middle overs after the match has picked up.

In the 15th over, Ngidi has got Dinesh Karthik for a LBW. Since then, Pat Cummins has done a one-man show in the field. He is the only guy who is able and hitting the boundaries. Especially in Ngidi's 16th over, Pat Cummins hit 5 consecutive boundaries. In that over, he scored 30 runs.

It seemed like, he can win the match for KKR and the equation is still reachable but with his stupid decisions, he sacrificed others and his wickets to CSK fielders. At last Chennai Super Kings won the match by 18 runs and 5 balls left.

IPL 2021 KKR vs CSK Match 15 Preview

image: Hotstar

The second match of the second doubleheader is between Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at 7:30 PM in Wankhede stadium, Mumbai.

Both the teams have played three matches, in which Chennai Super Kings won two against Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals and lost one match to Delhi Capitals. Whereas Kolkata Knight riders won a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad and lost two matches against Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Kolkata Knight Riders

Kolkata Knight Riders are losing the matches due to the weak middle order, in the last three matches, no player in the middle order scored more than 30 runs. All the runs are scored by the openers and the upper-middle-order batsmen. 

If openers lost their wickets, the runs scored per over is reducing and the batsmen are eventually losing his wicket. and thus they are unable to win the matches.

Against RCB, KKR bowlers have done a good job by picking two wickets early but, they are unable to pick Glenn Maxwell's and AB de Villiers wicket in the middle overs. By the time Maxwell is dismissed the damage is already done.

Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar can do unrecoverable damage to the KKR if, the openers dismissed early. If that happened, this game also will be a low scorer.

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/Sunil Narine/Lockie Ferguson, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Harbhajan Singh/Shivam Mavi, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Prasidh Krishna

Chennai Super Kings

With the two consecutive victories, CSK is in full form and can easily win this game just by following a few basic tricks.

Right now, the CSK opener Ruthraj Gaikwad is the only flaw in the top order batsman. And I don't agree with the position of MS Dhoni playing. He could have gone up for two places.

If Chennai Super Kings won this match they will be the table toppers, irrespective of the morning sessions win.

To win the match early, the CSK bowler just needs to pick the wickets of the openers before the powerplay and the remaining wickets will come automatically as the game progress.

The new addition to the team Jason Behrendorff, will not be available for this match too, as he is under quarantine after landing in India.

Chennai Super Kings Squad

Probable Playing 11

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

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 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.

Andre Russell's wonderful five wicket haul

 

image: BCCI

Andre Russell took a 5 wicket haul in the 5th match of the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League against Mumbai Indians.

He came to bowl the 18th and 20th over against, he took 2 wickets in the e18th over,  Keiron Pollard 5 (8), Kurnal Pandya 15 (9) just by giving 5runs in that over.

Then he bowled again in the 20th over and took 3 wickets, Marco Jansen 0(1), Rahul Chahar 8(7) and Jasprit Bumrah 0(1) by just giving only 10 runs in the final over of the first innings.

This made clear that the Mumbai Indians are not playing well in the death overs like they used to in the previous editions of the IPL. 

Eventhough, Mumbai Indians scored less, they managed to win the match by showing excellent bowling and fielding in the match.

Watch the massacre of wickets taken by Andre Russell in the 5th match against Mumbai Indians.

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

IPL 2021 KKR vs MI Match 5

image: BCCI

Every team in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League has now played a match each. Out of the eight teams, four teams are on the top and the four teams are at the bottom of the points table.

These positions will be changed entirely in the due course of the tournament but, we can see which team has flaws and which team doesn't with this table. 

In the forthcoming games, we will see how the teams will be able to rectify their flaws to be the table-toppers at the end of the league stage.

Today, the fifth match is going to be between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians in M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

Kolkata Knight Riders

In the first match against Sunrisers Hyderabad, KKR managed to win the game by scoring big in the first innings and bowling really well in the second Innings.

The middle-order batsmen didn't perform well in the last match but, luckily the top order did stay strong in the crease for a while. Especially, Rahul Tripathi's innings is amazing he scored 53 runs out of 29 balls.

Coming to bowling, the team did choose to go first over with Harbajan Singh but didn't give another chance in the middle overs. With his experience, he can be able to pick wickets.

Kolkata Knight Riders Squad

Probable Playing 11:

Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Shakib Al Hassan, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakraborty. 

Mumbai Indians

In the first match, Mumbai Indians lost to Royal Challengers Bangalore by 2 wickets. Mumbai Indians are unable to score runs in the death overs of the first innings of the match. 

RCB bowler Harshal Patel picked a five-wicket haul in that match. Out of those five, four are in the final over of the match and he didn't give the Mumbai Indian's batsmen score extra runs in the final over.

What the Mumbai Indians should sort in this match?

The teams opening pair - Eventhough, Chris Lynn scored a good 49 runs in 35 balls, he failed to communicate with his partner at the other end of the 22 yards. This costed Mumbai Indians Rohit Sharma's wicket in the early stages. They need to get Quinton de Kock back to the playing 11.

The death batting - The Mumbai Indians have the highest death overs run rate compared to other teams due to their famous players Hardik and Kieron Pollard. But they failed to deliver the runs for their team. This need to change very soon.

Bowling - Except for Rahul Chahar, everyone bowled well and able to pick the wickets but the team need Hardik Pandya as the all-rounder to play more efficiently.

Mumbai Indians Squad

Probable Playing 11 *: Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan (wk), Anmolpreet Singh, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya. Kieron Pollard, Adam Milne, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Piyush Chawla/Rahul Chahar.

Toss:  The team who won the toss will be going to bowl first. They didn't want to break the trend which is happening in the IPL right now.

The new celebration of Nitish Rana indicates friendship

image: BCCI

After scoring his 12th IPL 50, Nitish Rana gestured something different to celebrate his half-century and unseen before in the Indian Premier League history.

Later on, in the match, he played wonderful innings and scored 80 runs in 56 balls before giving a catch to Vijay Shankar in Mohammed Nabi's 18th over.

If a player scored a half-century, each player has a different style of celebration according to the moment. Jadeja does his sword with the bat and I have seen Tendulkar lifts his bat and helmet while looking up to the sky. 

In an interview with Harbajan Singh After the completion of the match, Nitish Rana said, that he made the gesture to show the bond between their friends, and he has also sung the song for their friendship.

You can watch the video here.

IPL 2021 SRH vs KKR Match 3 Report

 

image: BCCI

After winning the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad Captain David Warner choose to bowl first just like in the first match between MI and RCB.

The match started with a four from Nitish Rana in Buvaneshwar Kumar's over and ended with an LBW appeal, David Warner didn't take it upstairs.

From then, Nitish Rana and Shubman Gill punished the bad balls to the boundaries and defended the good balls from the Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers.

They both made a good partnership of 52 runs in 42 balls until Rashid Khan got Shubman Gill's 15 (13) wicket at the end of the 7th over. 

After that Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana made another marvellous partnership of 93 runs in 50 balls. When the Natrajan Bowled a slower ball to Tripathi 53 (29), the ball edged and raised high towards and caught by the wicketkeeper.

Immediately after that, Andre Russell 5(5), Nitish Rana 80(56) and Eoin Morgan2(3) got out to the Afghan spinners. 

Rashid Khan and Mohammed Nabi stopped the runs massacre for SRH with their brilliant bowling efforts. If they didn't pick those wickets in time, the score would have crossed 200 runs. 

Then in the death overs, Dinesh Karthik 22(9) and Shakib Al Hassan 3(5) played few shots which sent the ball to the boundaries and they both scored a total of 27(16).

With their effort, Kolkata Knight Riders scored 187 runs in the 20 overs at a loss of  6 wickets.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

With a Target of 188 runs to chase in 20 overs, David Warner and Wriddhiman Saha opened the Innings. Harbajan Singh bowled the first over after the 2019 CSK finals.

In the second over, David Warner 3(4) gave a catch to wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthi in the Prasidh Krishna's over. Then the SRH lost W Saha's 7(6) wicket at the beginning of the third over to Shakib Al Hassan.

Manish Pandey and Jhonny Bairstow made an excellent partnership and scored a whopping 92 runs in 67 balls. At the end of the 13th over, Pat Cummins claimed the J Bairstow wicket 55(40). 

From then, the SRH run-rate started to decline, Manish Pandey tried to revive it but no use. The Sunrisers batsmen started to surrender their wickets to the KKR bowlers. At last, there are no balls remaining to score the runs.

Kolkata's wonderful bowling and experience helped them to win this first match. Sunrisers Hyderabad's bad middle-order and the inexperienced batting lineup costed the match. Manish Pandey's and Jhonny Bairstows fabulous fifty's goes in vain.

Nitish Rana has awarded with man of the match for his excellent innings of 80 runs in 56 balls.

IPL 2021 SRH vs KKR Match 3

image: Hotstar

The third match of the Indian Premier League 2021 is between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kolkata Knight Rider on the 11th of April.

Sunrisers is captained by David Warner and the Kolkata Knight Riders are led by the Worldcup-winning team captain Eion Morgan.

Both the teams won the title at least once in these fourteen years, but last year the teams fought a very thought fight to enter the knock-out stage.

Only Sunrisers Hyderabad was able to enter the knockout stage but, in the 2nd qualifiers match Delhi Capitals won the match by 17 runs, which led the team to drop out of the series.

Coming to Kolkata Knight Riders, they were in the 5th position in the points table last year. The team announced a change in captaincy in the midseason due to the frequent loss of the matches on the league stage. 

Dinesh Karthik stepped out of the captaincy, and England cricket team captain, Eion Morgan took his place, after that the team started to win the matches.

The match is going to be played in Chennai. The broadcast starts at 6 PM today on Star Sports Channels.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

SRH just added three players in the auction this year. The big buy is Kedhar Jadhav for 2 crores, followed by the Bangladesh Bowler Mujeeb Ur Rehman for 1.5 crores and Jagadeesha Suchit for 30 Lakhs.

The main problem for the Sunrisers are the middle order, if the top order performed well the team will win obviously. But, if the top order fails, there is no one in the middle order to win the matches.

Here comes the Kedhar Jadhav, he performs well in the middle order than in the top-middle or lower-middle order.  

Coming to the bowling department, they have the best bowlers in the team with good spin options and fast bowling. Adding Mujeeb Ur Rehman to the squad is a plus point for the team.

Here is the Sun Riser Hyderabad Squad.

Probable Playing 11* : 

 David Warner (c), Jhonny Bairstow, Manish Pandey, Kedar Jhadav, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Vijay Shankar, Rashid Khan, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Sandeep Sharma, T Natrajan.

Team News:

Kolkata Knight Riders

After last year loss, KKR brought in some big guns to the team Shakib Al Hassan was one among them for 3.5 crores, next inline was Harbajan Singh for 2 crores to strength up the spin bowling, followed by Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Pawan Negi, Venkatesh Iyer, Sheldon Jackson and Vibhav Arora.

Hope this team would deliver the trophy this year.

Coming to last year performance, KKR just lost their touch in winning the matches. They scored big runs but unable to defend or unable to chase the small totals.

The team has flaws in both the batting and bowling department. With the new recruits, the team has huge chances to overcome their flaws very soon. Otherwise, the history repeats this year too.

Here is the KKR Squad

Probable Playing 11* :

Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Shakib Al Hassan, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik, Eoin Morgan, Andre Russell, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Varun Chakraborty.     

Team News

Pitch

In the first match between the Mumbai Indians and the Royal Challengers Bangalore, the team won the toss to choose the fielding first to restrict the opponent to a small score.

In this match too, the team which won the toss may choose to bowl first and restrict the opponent to a lower score and chase the score.

Here is the video of the pitch report in the first match.

New Replacements in KKR and SRH

image: RCB

In KKR, Gurkeerat Singh will be replacing Rinku Singh for the forthcoming 14th edition of IPL, which will begin on the 9th of April.

Rinku Singh, the 23-year-old Uttarpradesh batsmen, will be unavailable for the entire season due to his knee injury. Kolkata Knight Riders issued the statement on Saturday. He made his debut in IPL in 2017 and played a total of 11 IPL games.

Gurkeerat Singh, the 30-year-old Punjab all-rounder, played 41 IPL matches since his debut in 2012. In his IPL career, he played for King XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings), Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals), and Royal Challengers Bangalore.

KKR acquired Gurkeerat Singh for 50 Lakhs, his base price. He played at least two matches a season, except in 2018. In which, he scored 511 runs including two half-centuries and he also picked two wickets in 2016.

image: SRH Twitter

Jason Roy, a 30-year-old, English batsmen signed up for Sunrisers Hyderabad replacing Mitchel Marsh. Marsh opted out of IPL due to personal reasons.

Jason Roy made his debut in 2017 with Gujarat Lions in IPL and later joined the Delhi Daredevils in the 2018 edition. During the Auction, no team bid for him. During the England tour of India, he played beautiful innings and made the limelight again fall back on him.

In IPL, Roy has played a total of eight matches and scored 179 runs. He signed Sunrisers Hyderabad for his base price of two crores.