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 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 PBKS vs SRH 14th Match report

 

image: BCCI

In the first match of today's doubleheader, Punjab Kings won the toss and elected to bat first in M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal opened the innings for the Punjab Kings.

Punjab Kings started with a slow over and tried to increase the run rate in the 2nd over but, in the Bhuvaneshwar Kumar's 4th over, KL Rahul  4(6) got out by giving a catch to Kedhar Jhadav in the mid-wicket.

After a 24 runs partnership with Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal 22(25) departed in Khaleel Ahmed's 8th over which is caught by Rashid Khan at mid-wicket. In the next ball, Nicholas Pooran 0(0) got runout by David Warner, by not even facing one ball in the match.

At this point, the run rate is hovering at 5.6 runs per over. In the 9th over, Chris Gayle 15(17) departed after an LBW in Rashid Khan's 9th over. 

PBKS total score didn't even cross 50 and lost 4 wickets. This showed the Sunrisers Hyderabad's hunger for a win in this tournament.

Then Hurricane Hooda lost his wicket to Abishek Sharma in the 12th over, after a ball hit his pads before the wicket. Then followed by Moises Henriques wicket in Abishek Sharma's 14th over. A small and good cameo from Sharukhan has led the score to 120 runs after losing all wickets with 2 balls remaining.

A wonderful fielding and bowling from the Sunrisers Hyderabad for a win in this tournament after losing 3 consecutive matches. Khaleel Ahmed and Abishek Sharma really turned the table for SRH with their exceptional bowling.

With a low score to chase, Sunrisers Hyderabad batsmen, Jhonny Bairstow and David Warner played a wonderful knock. They both made a wonderful partnership of 73 runs in 64 balls. Their partnership was broken by Fabian Allen in the 11th over after taking David Warner's 37(37)wicket.

Then Kane Williamson and Jhonny Bairstow started to scored the remaining runs with regular runs between the wicket as the score is less and they didn't want to risk any more wickets. 

Sunrisers Hyderabad, at last, won a match in the 14th edition of the Indian Premier League.

PBKS bowlers didn't show any effect on the Sunrisers Hyderabad's top order, the three batsmen didn't give any chance to the PBKS bowlers.

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