Last ball win for Lucknow in IPL

If the Royal Challengers Bangalore trio of Virat Kohli (61), Faf du Plessis (79) and Glenn Maxwell (59) had the spectators on their toes, Lucknow Super Giants’ Marcus Stoinis (65) and Nicholas Pooran (62) took the wind out of RCB’s sails with a ruthless display of batting prowess. Chasing RCB’s imposing total of 212/2, Lucknow were in cruise mode and needed nine runs off the last over. But Harshal Patel came with a fighting final over, picked up two wickets and took the game to the last ball. A fumble from wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik off the last ball allowed Lucknow to escape to a one-wicket win. Stoinis, who was dropped when he was on 0, made RCB pay the price. Pooran too toyed with the spin duo of Karn Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed for their inconsistency. Pooran’s half century came off 15 balls.
Miraculous win for knight Riders
Rinku Singh’s five six blitzkrieg in the last over turned a losing cause for the Kolkata Knight Riders into a winning one as they eked out a three-wicket win over the Gujarat Titans, at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Sunday. A tight two-wicket spell in the middle overs by Alzarri Joseph and a hat-trick by stand-in captain Rashid Khan had earlier neutralized an aggressive half-century from Venkatesh Iyer, as the Titans looked on course for another victory. But, Singh (48* off 21b) had other ideas. When last match hero Shardul Thakur was pinned in front by a Khan googly, the Knight Riders were staring down the barrel, needing an improbable 50 runs from 21 balls, with three wickets in hand. And, after Umesh Yadav handed him the strike, Rinku did the improbable. He hit Yash Dayal’s second ball, a full toss, over long off before depositing the next one, also a full toss, to the leg-side boundary. Dayal then bowled another full toss and two short-of-length deliveries which were clobbered for sixes as delirious Knight Riders team members ran on to the ground to celebrate.
Markande, Tripathi lead SRH to first win
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) beat Punjab Kings (PBKS) by eight wickets in Hyderabad on Sunday. With the triumph, SRH registered their first win of the ongoing season. SRH won the toss and opted to bowl. They came up with an excellent performance to restrict Punjab Kings to 143 for 9. Leg-spinner Mayank Markande was the star performer for SRH with the ball. For PBKS, skipper Shikhar Dhawan played a lone hand with the willow. In the chase of 144, SRH lost Harry Brook to Arshdeep Singh for 13, while Mayank Agarwal was dismissed by Rahul Chahar for 21. However, Rahul Tripathi (74 not out) and Aiden Markram (37 not out) added 100 runs for the third wicket to pave the way for an easy win for SRH.
Jadeja, Rahane floor Mumbai
Spinner Ravindra Jadeja's 3-20 and a bludgeoning 61 by Ajinkya Rahane guided Chennai Super Kings to an emphatic seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians on Saturday. Rahane made an impactful debut for Chennai with a fastest 50 in 19 balls as CSK achieved their victory target of 158 in 18.1 overs in Mumbai. Coming one down after the fall of Devon Conway for a duck, Rahane tore into the Mumbai attack. Jadeja was ably supported by New Zealand left-arm orthodox Mitchell Santner, who returned figures of 2-28 including getting T20 sensation Suryakumar Yadav caught behind for one.
Royals run over Capitals
Rajasthan Royals demolished Delhi Capitals by 57 runs in Guwahati in the IPL match. Sent into bat, RR scored 199 for four in 20 overs and in reply, the Capitals were restricted to 142 for nine. Opening the innings after Delhi Capitals skipper David Warner opted to bowl first, young Yashasvi Jaiswal along with Jos Buttler gave Rajasthan an explosive start as they piled an enormous 199/4 on the board. The pair added 98 runs for the opening wicket before Mukesh Kumar removed the former for 60(31) in the 9th over. Trent Boult, who was on a hat-trick and finished with outstanding statistics of 3/29 in four overs, took two wickets in DC’s opening over.
Spinners continue to serve KKR well
Kolkata Knight Riders were served well by their mystery spinners. Right from Sri Lankan Ajanta Mendis, who created a buzz in IPL’s inaugural edition in 2008 to Suyash Sharma, who made his IPL debut against Royal Challengers Bangalore last week, KKR have been served well by these spinners. For the first time in IPL, nine wickets were taken by the spinners in an innings as the KKR trio of Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy and Sharma bowled out RCB for 123 runs in 17. 4 overs thereby recording an 81-run victory. KKR skipper Nitish Rana was all praise for 19-year-old Sharma. “Suyas is a normal leg-spinner. But he has an x-factor,” he stated at a post-match press conference.
Gujarat Titans beat Delhi Capitals
Gujarat Titans won its second successive game of IPL 2023 as they beat Delhi Capitals by six wickets in Delhi. Asked to bat, Delhi posted 162 for eight in their 20 overs and in response Gujarat chased down the target in 18.1 overs to finish on 163 for four. Delhi lost their top-order cheaply as they were reduced to 37 for two in 4.2 overs. Then skipper David Warner held the innings together. But there was another collapse. It then required debutant Abhishek Porel to team up with Sarfaraz Khan as they put on 34 runs for the fifth wicket. Later Axar Patel (36) played a good hand as he smashed three sixes and two boundaries. Delhi finished on 162 for eight in their 20 overs. For Gujarat the best bowlers were Mohammed Shami (3-41), Rashid Khan (3-31) and Alzarri Joseph (2-29).