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 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