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