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 SRH vs DC Match 20 Preview

image:BCCI

The second match of the third doubleheader out of ten in this season of the IPL. The match will be played at M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai. Sunrisers Hyderabad will be playing against the Delhi Capitals at 7:30 PM.

In the four matches SRH has played, the team have lost three of them and won a match against Punjab Kings by restricting them to just 121 runs in 20 overs. Finding place for both Kane Williamson and Kedhar Jadhav in the playing 11 is a good move to stop the team from sinking further. 

Delhi Capitals have won three out of four matches till now in this season, they have lost against Rajasthan Royals as they failed to defend 148 runs in 20 overs. They have upper hand in the batting department compared to sunrises compared to the four matches.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

In the first three matches, the team has lost the matches due to the weak batting lineup. Only the opening pair is able to do score some runs. If they got out early, the middle order is failing early and losing the matches. 

But this team has one of the strongest bowling line up in this season of the IPL compared to the other teams. As there is no support from the batting department, the bowling department can't alone win the matches for Sunrisers Hyderabad.

The addition of the Kane Williamson and Kedhar Jadhav in the playing 11 turned the table for the SRH in the last match. They were able to restrict the Punjab Kings for just 120 runs with bowling and able to chase it with the help of Kane Williamson in the top-order.

T Natrajan was ruled out of the IPL due to an knee injury which happened during the Australia tour. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar walked out of the ground in the last match due to strain in the thigh.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

Probable Playing 11

 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Kedar Jadhav, 5 Vijay Shankar, 6 Virat Singh, 7 Abhishek Sharma, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Sandeep Sharma, 10 Siddarth Kaul , 11 Khaleel Ahmed  

Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals won the match against the Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings in this season. They are playing really well with good team effort and planning compared to the Sunrisers Hyderabad. 

In the four matches they have played till now, they lost a match against the Rajasthan Royals as they scored less in the first innings and were unable to pick the wickets in the second innings. 

There is a huge chance that their All-rounder Axar Patel would join the team's playing 11, as he already started to join the team for practice session since his last negative covid test.

If he is in the playing 11, the would get more confident and stronger in both bowling and batting department. 

R Ashwin is bowling quite good enough but unable to pick wickets in the first half of the match. Avesh Khan and Kagiso Rabada are their present weapons against the SRH. If the DC bowlers able to pick wickets of SRH openers in the powerplay, they almost won the match.

Delhi Capitals Squad

Probable Playing 11 

 1 Prithvi Shaw, 2 Shikhar Dhawan, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt & wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Shimron Hetmyer, 7 Lalit Yadav, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Kagiso Rabada/Chris Woakes, 10 Amit Mishra, 11 Avesh Khan

IPL 2021 CSK vs RCB Match 19 Preview

image: BCCI

This is the 3rd doubleheader out of 10 in this season. In the first match, Chennai Super Kings will be playing against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. This is the last match that is to be played at his stadium in this 14th season of the Indian Premier League.

Chennai Super Kings lost only their first match against Delhi Capitals and they won the remaining all the matches. CSK scored 220 runs against KKR and stopped them chasing the runs in the last over by taking all the wickets. That match is so intense and thrilling to watch.

Till now in this season, Royal Challengers Bangalore didn't lose a match. In the last game, the team openers completed the match without flinching to Rajasthan Royals bowling. Devdutt Paikkal is the first player from RCB to score a century except for Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle.

Chennai Super Kings

All the batsmen are performing wonderfully compared to the last year. Eventhough they lost the first match they bounced back with a wonderful win against Punjab Kings. 

Their bowlers are taking wickets in the powerplay and in the death overs and keeping the run rate to minimal.

The only thing that bothers me is the performance of the CSK middle-order batsmen. If the top order collapsed to the RCB bowler in the first 10 overs, the CSK will be in deep trouble. 

The only assured player in the middle order is MS Dhoni and his performance is questionable against the RCB bowling line up.

In the last four matches, Dhoni has got a chance to play in 3 matches, in which he scored just 35 runs during the death overs. This is a bit scary for CSK while playing against RCB.

Jason Behrendorff will not be available for the CSK as he is under quarantine.

Chennai Super Kings Squad

Probable Playing 11

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

Royal Challengers Bangalore

Till now, this team didn't lose any match this season. All thanks to their exceptional bowling and batting in the last four matches. 

All the players in the team have performed well this season and helped the team when they are required the most.

At first, I want to talk about RCB bowling, Harshal Patel is the leading wicket-taker this season. He started with a five-wicket haul against the Mumbai Indians in the first match of the season. And he consistently taking wickets in the matches.

Mohammed Siraj is a dangerous bowler in the powerplay and in the death. CSK batsmen need to be cautious with him and the spinner Y Chahal has become quite expensive.

Then the RCB batsmen need to be cautious with Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar in the powerplay and middle overs. Both the Chahar brothers are fighting for the purple cap this season. If the top order collapsed, no one can save RCB.

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 Washington Sundar, 7 Kyle Jamieson, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Kane Richardson, 10 Yuzvendra Chahal, 11 Mohammad Siraj

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 MI vs PBKS Match 17 report

image: BCCI

Miracles do happen in the Indian Premier League, exceptional bowling from the team after losing two consecutive matches is really amazing and a good comeback for the team.

After winning the toss, KL Rahul chose to bowl first and his plan to restrict the Mumbai Indians to a low score was worked. Ravi Bishnoi and Mohammed Shami helped the team by taking 3 wickets each and just by giving 21 runs in 4 overs.

Mumbai Indians lost their first wicket in Deepak Hooda's second over, Quinton de Kock was caught by Henriques in the mid-on. Then Ishan Kishan was caught by KL Rahul behind the wicket in the 7th over. By this time, the run rate is just 3.75, the Punjab bowlers and fielders are not giving any singles at this point.

Then with help of Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma made 79 runs in 56 balls. They both tried really hard to revive the match but the Punjab Kings bowlers are not giving any chance to the Mumbai Indians batsmen to score any runs.

At the beginning of the death over, MI lost Suryakumar Yadav's after he was caught by Chris Gayle at the short third man in Ravi Bishnoi's over. Rohit Sharma lost his wicket in the next over to Mohammed Shami and both Pandya brothers lost their wicket at the end.

Once again the mighty Mumbai Indians barely scored any runs in the death overs. This is the one reason the team has failed to secure a victory. At the end of the innings, Mumbai Indians scored 131 for a loss of 6 wickets in 20 overs.

With a moderate target to chase, Punjab Kings started their innings with KL Rahul and Mayank Agarwal. They might have had a tough 1st over but, the table turned from the 2nd over. 

Both the openers started to maintain a decent run rate till the fall of their first wicket in the match. In the Depak Chahar's 8th over, Mayank Agarwal was caught by Suryakumar Yadav. This is the only wicket Mumbai Indians managed to take in the second innings.

With the help of Chris Gayle, KL Rahul reached the target of 132 runs with 14 balls remaining.  As MI bowlers are desperate for a wicket and breakthrough, they have appealed for Chris Gayles to run out. But the TV umpire rejected it.

Overall, The Punjab Kings showed their dominance and exploited the Mumbai Indians weak batting lineup perfectly. If they continued like this they might be in the top 4 in the points table at the end.

Mumbai Indians need to change their batting lineup and experiment with a new team. Eventhough the same team won the cup last year, the very same team is not winning now as they should.

IPL 2021 PBKS vs MI Match 17 Preview

image: Hotstar

Today, Punjab Kings will be playing against the Mumbai Indians in M.A Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai at 7: 30 PM.

Till now, both the teams have played two matches, in which Mumbai Indians won two and Punjab Kings won only a match. Right now, the MI is in the 4th position in the points table and PBKS is the last but one position.

If PBKS wins today's match, they will go to the fifth position and the MI's position is depending on the run rate they achieve in this match.

Mumbai Indians

Mumbai Indians lost to the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first match and to the Delhi Capitals in the 13th match of this season. In the first match, they were unable to score runs in the death overs as Harshal Patel took 5 wickets, in which  4 wickets are in the last over alone.

In the 13th match against Delhi Capitals, the team lost the top-order wickets in the powerplay and unable to score the runs later on.  As the score is less, the Delhi Capitals openers scored the most runs and confirmed the victory to their team.

Mumbai Indians need to change their batting lineup or the batsmen need to score more runs in the middle and death overs. The openers need to make use of the powerplay to score more runs without losing the wickets at the early stage of the game.

MI batsmen need to be cautious with Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh in the powerplay and in the death overs.

The Mumbai Indians need more dot balls while bowling to Punjab Kings, as their openers are very dangerous and once they settled in the crease, they will make more runs in the over. MI bowlers need to avoid this situation to leak runs. They need as many wickets in the powerplay to stop them from scoring more.

Mumbai Indians 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

Punjab Kings

Punjab Kings won their first against Rajasthan Royals out of four matches they played. They won that match because Sanju Samson hit the ball 10 yards short to the boundary. In the remaining matches, all of them are one-sided from the very beginning.

PBKS have good bowlers and batsmen but they are failing to take control of the match while playing. The team is basing on the miracles rather than their players. The opposition team are controlling them more than them. 

I have one suggestion for the Punjab Kings, send Sharukh Khan ahead of Nicholas Pooran. Khan is the only consistent player in the lower middle order. 

If they continued to play like this, the change of name, change of jersey, change of players will have no use. Punjab Kings need some miracle to happen to win this game.

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 Moises Henriques, 8 Fabian Allen/Ravi Bishnoi, 9 Mohammed Shami, 10 M Ashwin, 11 Arshdeep Singh

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.