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 RCB vs RR match 16 Report

image: BCCI

After winning the toss for the second time in this season of IPL, Virat Kohli chose to bowl first and it did work for them. RCB took 3 wickets in the powerplay and slowed the Rajasthan Royals run rate.

Jos Buttler and Manan Vohra opened the innings for the Rajasthan Royals, in Mohammed Siraj's 3rd over, Jos Buttler got after a successful appeal of an LBW. 

In Kyle Jamieson's 4th over, Manan Vohra caught out by Kane Richardson at Mid-on. Followed by David miller in the next over, a successful DRS decision from the TV umpire declared him out in Mohammed Siraj's 5th over.

By this point, Rajasthan Royals were in deep trouble. They lost 3 wickets in the powerplay and scored just 33 runs. The misery followed the RR in the 8th over too, Sanju Samson was caught out in the Midwicket by Glenn Maxwell.

Then, Shivam Dube and Rayan Parag revived the RR innings by scoring a 66 runs partnership in 39 balls. Both the players departed, later on. The lower middle-order batsmen Rahul Twatia scored 40 runs in 23 balls which put RR in a comfortable scoring position. 

At one point, I doubted that they didn't even cross 120 runs but, they put on 177 runs by the end of the innings. All thanks to Shivam Dube, Rayan Parag and Rahul Tewatia and it's a good come back for the team.

Mohammed Siraj and Harshal Patel took 3 wickets each in this innings and made the RR batsmen sweat blood during their batting

With decent runs to chase, RCB openers Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal opened and finished the innings by not losing a wicket and with 21 balls to spare.

From the beginning, both the players played aggressively and scored more runs than the RR in every over. This made them build such partnership in the game. 

Devdautt Padikkal scored his first century in the IPL. With this century, he is the second batsmen to do a century after Sanju Samson against Punjab Kings.

Rajasthan Royals bowlers weren't able to put pressure on the batsmen, instead, both RCB openers put a lot of pressure on the bowlers.

Overall, the Royal Challengers Bangalore showed their dominance from the begging of the match and able to win it without breaking any sweat and chance to other batsmen.

IPL 2021 RCB vs RR 16th Match Preview

The two teams played three matches till now, Royal Challengers Bangalore won all three matches whereas Rajasthan had won only a match in this season till now.

Today these both teams will play against each other in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. this is the first match for the Royal Challengers Banglore in Mumbai. The team have travelled for the first time, according to the IPL schedule, every team will travel only three times in this tournament.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Till now, this team didn't lose a match and at present, they are the table-toppers with three consecutive victories in this tournament. All thanks to the AB de Villiers, Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikal. If these guys didn't play well those would have been lost too. 

Glenn Maxwell did his first fifty in four years. This team is really helping him to prove himself, which he can't in the last four years. Till now, he scored two half-centuries and helped the team to win the matches.

AB de Villiers is coming to bat in the middle order to re-enforce the team strength in the middle overs. He usually opens with Virat Kohli, this change in the batting lineup really worked in the last three matches. 

Coming to the bowling department, Harshal Patel's five-wicket haul in the first match against the Mumbai Indias is the best thing that happened in that game. Now, he is the most wicket-taker in this season of the IPL. The spinners are also helping the team to pick the wickets when the team needed them the most.  

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Probable Playing 11

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

Rajasthan Royals

In the three games, they played, they won only a match against the Delhi Capitals. In this match, the bowlers did a really good job by taking the wickets in the early stage of the match and Chris Moriss last over proved that he can hit sixes to win a match.

In the match against the PBKS, the team captain didn't seem to trust Chris Moriss with the last ball but he proved to be useful in the next match. In the match against the Chennai Super Kings, the team lost the match by 45 runs.

The CSK bowlers didn't give any chance to the Rajasthan Royals batsmen to score any runs in that match. If this situation happens again in this match, there is no chance for Rajasthan Royals to win this match.

They need to be extra careful with Harshal Patel, Y Chahal and Shabaz Ahmed and try not to lose any wickets in the powerplay and death overs. If the Rajasthan Royals bat first, they need to score more than 190 runs to stop the current RCB.

If they bowl first, they need to restrict the RCB to less than 170 runs to take a clean and calm victory without any tensions. Chetan Sakariya and Jaydev Unadkat need to take the wickets as early as possible and most importantly the RCB's top-order batsmen.

Rajasthan Royals Squad

Probable Playing 11

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

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 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

Hurricane Hooda of Punjab Kings

image: BCCI

When the Punjab Kings lost Universal Boss Chris Gayle's wicket in the Parag's 10th over, a hurricane struck the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

Deepak Hooda, this 25-year-old right-hand batsmen really rained sixes and four in the stadium against the Rajasthan Royals in the 4th match of 14 the edition of the Indian Premier League and scored 64 runs. This IPL fifty make's the third in his IPL career. 

In the 28 balls, he faced in the match, he sent 10 balls to the boundaries. In which six of them were 6's and four of them were 4's. In the 4th match, he has the highest strike rate of 228.57 and has recorded the fastest fifty in this edition of IPL.

Last year in Dubai, Hooda scored a whopping 62 runs in 30 balls against the Chennai Super Kings when the team needed the most.

Watch his wonderful innings down below.

IPL 2021 RR vs PBKS Match report

image: BCCI

After winning the toss, Rajasthan Royals new captain Sanju Samson choose to bowl first like in the previous games of the IPL.

From the start, Punjab Kings showed their dominance by scoring 10 runs per over. I the third over bowled by the Sakariya, Mayank Agarwal 14 (9) got out.

Then Chris Gayle entered the pitch, he and KL Rahul built a partnership with fours and sixes. In the 10th over from Parag, Chris Gayle 40 (28) got out by giving a catch to Ben Stokes. Parag has tried bowling an underarm to him earlier, which is actually funny to watch.

Then entered the Punjab Kings hero of the match, Deepak Hooda. I think Rajasthan Royals have made a mistake by taking the wicket of Chris Gayle at a certain point in time during the match. 

Hooda is so destructive than the universal boss, Chris Gayle, especially during the middle overs as his strike rate is amazingly more than him. He started to hit the boundaries as the boundary line is in the 30-yard circle.

In the 18th over Deepak Hooda 64 (28), surrendered his wicket to Chris Moriss, by that time the damage is already done to Rajasthan Royals as the score crossed 200.

We need to talk about the good catch of Nicholas Pooran 0 (1) taken by the Sakariya at the end of the 18th over. Nicholas Pooran stayed longer at the boundary line waiting for the third umpire to review than in the crease.

Then the Punjab Kings captain KL Rahul 91 (50) got out in the Sakariya's over. By the end of the Innings, the Punjab Kings scored 221 runs in 20 overs.

Chetan Sakariya is the only bowler from the Royal's camp to have the economy rate under 8 with three wickets. The new buy Mustafzur Rahman seems to be costly with no wickets for him in the four overs he bowled.

To stop the leaking runs, the captain tried eight different bowling options in this game. Every bowlers seems to be expensive in the match.

Second Innings

With a huge target to chase, Rajasthan Royals, started with Ben Stokes and Manan Vohra as their openers. In the third ball of the first over, Mohammed Shami took the first wicket of the Ben Stokes 0 (3). This wicket is a huge loss for the Rajasthan Royals.

Then in the 4th over, Arshdeep singh, a bowler from Punjab Kings took the wicket of Manan Vohra 12 (8). Now the Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju and Jos buttler in the crease. They both have built a good partnership of 45 runs in 26 balls. 

In the 8th over of Jhye Richardson, Jos Buttler 25 (13) got out after a perfect yorker hit the wickets. Then Shivam Dubey got out after a 53 run partnership in the 13th over, when the ball hit his gloves and caught by the wicketkeeper behind.

Then Parag 25 (11) has also built a partnership of 52 runs in the 23 balls and got out to Mohammed Shami's bouncer in the 17th over.

Then last year's sensation lower order batsman for the Rajasthan Royals, Rahul Tewatia 2(4) small cameo didn't made much effect to the scoreboard.

In the final over, Rajasthan has to score 13 runs which is possible for the man in the crease Snaju Samson. But finished with 5 runs short by trying to hit a SIX which is caught by Deppak Hooda in the out field.

My heart is broken and felt sad for the Sanju Samson 119 (63). Eventhough he made a debut century as a captain for his team, that effort goes in vain. 

I thought they should have run for a two in the penultimate and the last ball, which would have leveled the score and would have gone for a super over. 

Here are the Match Highlights.

IPL 2021 RR vs PBKS Match 4

image: BCCI

Today in the Indian Premier League, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings are going to fight for the two points in their first match of the season in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.

In the second match between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals, the team won the toss chose to field and restrict the opponent to a lower score.

You can expect that same strategy today also on this ground. Just like in the last game the pitch may favour seamers and can easily score runs between 180-190 in the innings.

Rajasthan Royals

In the previous edition of the IPL in Dubai, Rajasthan Royals found it hard to win the matches even with good lower-middle order and a good bowling line up.

The team just managed to win 6 out of 14 matches on the league stage and finished last in the points table. There are a few matches that are lost just because of a lack of planning and implementation.

Rahul Tewatia, an unknown player before last year IPL match started to hit sixes and saved a few matches when the top and middle-order batsman failed.

The team management changed the entire stakes in the team by releasing their captain Steven Smith and others from the team and brought few new players.

 The most interesting buys are Chris Morris for 16.25 crores and Shivam Dubey for 4.4 crores. These all-rounders have to bring a good batting lineup for the team.

Here is the squad of Rajasthan Royals

Probable Playing 11

Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson (C), Mahipal Lormor, Shivam Dube, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Sreyas Gopal, Karthik Tyagi, Andrew Tye 

Punjab Kings

With a brand new team and brand new players, the franchise looks promising on the paper. The team brought new players for a huge price as they had a deep purse at the start of the auction.

The costliest buy for the team is a bowler, Jhye Richardson for 14 crores followed by another bowler Riley Meredith for 8 crores followed by an all-rounder Moises Henriques for 4.2 crores.

With these new buy's the team had a decent bowling lineup in the paper and with the addition of Shahrukh Khan for 5.25 crores the batting lineup might also improve.

Even though they fought hard for the victories the old team finished third last just top of Chennai Super Kings last year in Dubai.

Here is the Punjab Kings squad.

Probable playing 11 

KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Shahrukh Khan, Chris Jordan, Jhye Richardson, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami.

Few overseas players to miss their first match

image: ICC

A few of the South African players to miss their first match. As they have just arrived in Indian after completing the first two ODI matches against Pakistan. According to the BCCI guidelines, the players have to be quarantined for a certain period of time.

If the quarantine period is two weeks, the players are going to miss at least three to four matches in this period. Most of these players are very important for the teams to win matches on the league stage.

I think the players will be under quarantine just for a week, to see whether they have developed symptoms and test regularly for the virus.

The list of players includes 

• Quinton de Kock, wicketkeeper and the opener of Mumbai Indians, 
• Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje, wicket-taking bowlers from Delhi Capitals, 
• David Miller, a middle-order batsman from Rajasthan Royals, 
• Lungi Ngidi, pacer from Chennai Super Kings.

With this list, Delhi Capitals have to lose the most. As the team already missing their star captain Shreyas Iyer due to shoulder injury, Axar Patel Tested Positive for the coronavirus and the two most important bowlers will be missing their first match.

Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock can be easily replaceable by Ishan Kishan. But you can't replace the reliable opener batsman Quinton de Kock. He has played a few wonderful innings in that position.

I think Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan will open the first match followed by Chris Lynn/ Anmolpreet Singh.

For Rajasthan Royals, David Miller is an option for the squad but not the only choice for the top-middle-order. For Chennai Super Kings, Lungi Ngidi is also an option as they use their new recruits to fill the seamer position in the team.