It’s been a familiar tale for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) this season. Their batting neither had the consistency nor the potency to match up to their usual standards. The CSK batsmen once again disappointed largely due to an underwhelming start in the opening 10 overs and ultimately limped to a total of 125/5 even as the Rajasthan Royals (RR) bowlers put in a disciplined show on a slow Abu Dhabi surface on Monday. The total was nowhere near enough as Jos Buttler showed with an unbeaten knock of 70 to help RR romp home with seven wickets in hand and 15 balls to spare. Although Royals lost three wickets early in the run chase, the Englishman ensured along with skipper Steve Smith (26 not out off 34 balls) that there were no further hiccups. While RR notched up their fourth win from 10 matches to move to fifth in the points table, CSK are now at the bottom with only six points.
Kings XI survive two Super Overs
It was a day when two games went into the Super Over for the first time. Producing thrilling cricket, Kings XI Punjab, riding on consecutive boundaries by Mayank Agarwal and a six by Chris Gayle off Trent Boult, chased down 12 in the second Super Over to stun the Mumbai Indians in Dubai on Sunday night. Agarwal had earlier pulled off a goalkeeper-like save to deny Kieron Pollard a certain six at long on. MI took 11 off Chris Jordan in the second Super Over. India pacers Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami conceded just five each to leave the first Super Over tied. While Bumrah dismissed Nicholas Pooran with the second ball, before trapping KL Rahul, who tried a reverse ramp shot, lbw off the last ball, Shami too was on the ball with his yorkers as he restricted Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock.
Super over win for KKR
It doesn’t matter where David Warner bats, he ends up doing most of the running. A hamstring injury necessitated Kane Williamson to move up the batting order to maximise the Powerplay overs and the skipper came in at No.4 as Sunrisers Hyderabad made a raft of changes to their batting order in a crucial match against Kolkata Knight Riders. The skipper stroked a 33-ball unbeaten 47 and became the first overseas player to cross 5,000 IPL runs, but his effort was good enough only to force a tie at 163/6. The Knight Riders finally won, in the Super Over, which was over all too quickly for SRH, at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. It was brave of Andre Russell to bowl the final over – after pulling his hamstring – just as it was of Williamson to open the innings and stroke a pleasing 29. But the Sunrisers lost the plot in the middle after Lockie Ferguson broke the spine of SRH batting with splendid returns of three for 15 by using the slow yorker to good effect.
Dhawan, Axar lead Delhi to fine win
Shikhar Dhawan's unbeaten century and Axar Patel's belliergence led Delhi Capitals to a five-wicket win over Chennai Super Kings in their IPL match on Saturday. Chasing 180 for a win, Delhi were seemingly cruising when they lost Marcus Stoinis for 24 in the 16th over and then Alex Carey for 4 in the 19th over. They still had 21runs to get when Carey was caught by Faf du Plessis off Sam Curran with just 11 balls left. While the 19th over yielded just four runs, Axar (21) was in a punishing mood in the final over bowled by Ravindra Jadeja, scoring three sixes off him, the last of which fetching the Capitals a well-deserved win and two points. Earlier, Faf Du Plessis hit his fourth half-century of the season before Ambati Rayudu produced another useful cameo as a collective batting effort propelled Chennai to 179 for four. Du Plessis (58) added 87 runs with Shane Watson (36) after early fall of Sam Curran (0), setting it up nicely for the CSK. Rayudu hit 45 off 25 balls while Ravindra Jadeja hit four sixes in his fiery 33-run knock as CSK collected runs in the last three overs. One of Jadeja's sixes landed on the road outside the stadium. They added 50 runs in 3.3 overs during their unbeaten fifth wicket partnership.
AB de Villiers props up Bangalore
Another destructive innings by AB de Villiers helped Royal Challengers Bangalore make short work of a 178-run target set by Rajasthan Royals on Saturday. With 35 needed from the last 12 balls, De Villiers upped the ante in scintillating fashion, hitting three consecutive sixes off Jaydev Unadkat. He finished it off with another six off Jofra Archer’s next to guide RCB to a seven-wicket win. De Villiers’ 22-ball 55 trumped a 36-ball 57 by Royals skipper Steve Smith earlier, leaving the Jaipur-based franchise’s campaign to make the playoffs in tatters. RCB now have 12 points from nine games, at par with Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians, who are ahead on account of their net run rates. RR, on the other hand, are at seventh spot with just three wins from nine outings. Unadkat’s expensive 19th over cost Rajasthan 25 runs and tilted the balance in RCB’s favour. The hat-trick of De Villiers sixes deflated Smith’s men as the left-arm medium-pacer’s strategy of bowling slower ones failed completely.
Easy win for Mumbai Indians
He dropped a crucial catch, but then Quinton de Kock more than made up for it with the bat. The opener stroked a magnificent unbeaten 78 to lead the Mumbai Indians to their fifth win on the trot, as they trounced the Kolkata Knight Riders by eight wickets at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Friday night. MI have now beaten KKR 21 of 27 times in the IPL, and this win, coming with 19 balls to spare, has to be the most comprehensive of those wins. With their sixth win in eight games, the defending champions are again back on the No. 1 spot in the table. Putting in a clinical show, Mumbai showed no mercy as they completely outplayed the Knight Riders, who clearly seemed rattled by its top spinner Sunil Narine being reported for chucking, and then a change of the captaincy baton from Dinesh Karthik to Eoin Morgan just a few hours before a key game.
Kings XI snap losing streak
Both Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab changed tactics on Thursday. RCB decided to send their trump card AB de Villiers down the order, while Chris Gayle (53) made his maiden appearance for the Punjab outfit this season. It backfired for the former, while KL Rahul (61 n.o, and his men, for the second time in this edition of the Indian Premier League, got the better of RCB. Well, it wasn’t without the last over drama. Needing two runs off the last over bowled by Yuzvendra Chahal, the equation came down to 1 off 1 after Gayle was run out. But Nicholas Pooran came in and finished with a six. KXIP broke the five-match losing streak with an eight- wicket win. Responding to RCB’s 171/6, KXIP finished with 177/2. Their second win in eight matches will breathe some air into KXIP’s wilting fortunes.
DC pacers put the choke on RR
In a war between the fast bowlers of the two teams, Delhi Capitals had two speed merchants in their corner while Rajasthan Royals had one. That proved to be crucial as Kagiso Rabada (1-28) and Anrich Nortje (2-33) turned on the screws just when it mattered and eked out a 13-run victory for Delhi at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday. Just when it seemed the Royals were going to get past the winning line, Nortje bowled a cracking 18th over in which he rattled Robin Uthappa’s (32) stumps with a searing 150kph yorker. Rabada followed it with a 3-run over in the 19th, after which the game was done and dusted in DC’s favour. During the DC innings, Jofra Archer was in full flight. It is a sight to watch when Archer runs in and bowls 150kph thunderbolts at batsmen. More often than not the ball hits the bat. The batsman seldom has control over the sequence. And if it is a bouncer, the batsman gets a whiff of leather whizzing past his nose. Archer is one of the very few speedsters among contemporary bowlers whose length ball gathers pace after it pitches.
