TATA IPL MATCH REVIEWS: MATCHES 43-46

Hello and a warm welcome to yet another blog on the daily match reviews on this year’s IPL. I will be covering the 4-weekend games in this blog, where there was a thriller at Delhi, JacksBall at Ahmedabad and much more. So without any further delay, let’s get started!

Delhi Capitals VS Mumbai Indians | Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi
Hardik Pandya won the toss and opted to field first in the first-afternoon game happening on Saturday this year. But they were immediately met by the fiery Fraser-McGurk, who didn’t even spare Bumrah and got Delhi off to a flyer in the powerplay. The Capitals did lose their openers shortly after the powerplay but the platform was set for the middle-order. Shai Hope impressed with the bat, hitting a quick 40, followed by Pant and Stubbs having another normal day, stitching yet another 50-run partnership and bringing the Capitals close to 260. In MI’s second 250+ run chase, the top order faltered and were bundled out quickly. But Hardik and Tilak Varma played a beautiful hand and kept their team alive in the contest. But soon wickets tumbled, but still Tilak refused to give up and alongside David, gave another chance for their team but Rasikh was brilliant in the end, picked up key wickets and MI fell short, handing the Capitals a 10-run victory.
In yet another thriller at Delhi, I would say the DC management has picked 2 superstars, Jake Fraser-McGurk with the bat and Rasikh with the ball. Both played instrumental roles in their team’s victory this game as Fraser-McGurk was the one who set a perfect platform for a 250+ score and while the chase was going tense, Rasikh was accurate in his line and lengths and picked up 3 key wickets. For MI, they have entered a must-win scenario in their remaining matches but they would be happy that their skipper finally had a good hit with the bat and Bumrah’s bowling, where he gets wickets regularly and is also economical. The Capitals have reached the mid-table and would be hoping to continue their new-found momentum and enter the top-4. So overall, again DC posted a 200+ total in their home ground and yet again, the chase was nervy but in the end, they prevailed in both games and in this one, they won by 10 runs

Lucknow Super Giants VS Rajasthan Royals | Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow
Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to field first on a high-scoring track at the Ekana. This move worked in his favour as the Royals picked up 2 quick wickets but Rahul and Hooda counter-attacked beautifully and played at a brisk rate. At a point, it looked like LSG would cruise past 210 but Sandeep Sharma was brilliant yet again and restricted the Super Giants to 196, about 15-20 runs on what they intended to hit. The Royals had a solid and quick start but soon the top-order fell and it seemed like LSG would win the game. But Samson and Jurel settled in together and then called in the big shots, suddenly taking the game away from LSG. Some dropped chances also helped the Royals as both Samson and Jurel cruised past the target with an over left and with 7 wickets in hand.

In RR’s 8th win of the season, once again their domination in the powerplay set the tone in the first innings and even though Rahul and Hooda were completely in control, a man with not many wickets, Ravi Ashwin broke the partnership and from there on Sandeep took over and the Royals displayed some extraordinary death bowling. In the batting, even though Parag had a rare failure, Samson showed his true potential and took all the responsibility, supported well by Jurel, who has had a bad season so far. Samson now is on the leaderboard to the orange cap. For LSG, they would be happy that KL’s strike rate has improved as well as he is scoring a heap of runs, but they would want to work on their fielding especially as they were sloppy on the field this game. So overall, even the Super Giants in Ekana failed to stop the Rajasthan Royals juggernaut as they have 8 wins out of 9.

Gujarat Titans VS Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad
Faf du Plessis once again won the toss and opted to field first in the second day game played at the iconic Narendra Modi Stadium. The Titans lost Gill and Saha early but the TN boys, SRK and Sudharsan were phenomenal, getting a six almost every over and sparing no spinner. Both got their fifties and Miller also showcased his brilliance, setting up a target of 201 for RCB, about 10-15 runs above par. Faf and Kohli started the innings quickly but Faf departed in the back end of the powerplay. Kohli never let the game slip away and carefully played the spinners well. On the other end was Will Jacks, who was struggling to get momentum initially, entered beast mode to the power infinity after the strategic powerplay, getting his fifty in the 15th over and his 100 in the 16th over, hitting Rashid Khan for 6, 6, 4, 6, 6 in the end to get his 100 as well to give RCB a huge victory by 9 wickets and 4 overs spare.
In RCB’s third win in the season, the bowling by both teams was under par as it was a 180 wicket, a rare track where the bowlers did get some purchase. The Titans would be happy to see the rise of SRK finally in the IPL, getting a quick fifty and would want Sudharsan to continue his glorious run in the tournament. But their bowlers were put down by the Royal sword of the top three as Faf started, Kohli took the initiative and steadied the ship and Jacks finished a chase, intended to end in the 19th or 20th over, finished it by the 16th over. So now we have 4 games in our hands, 4 must-win games, the next one against the same opposition at the Chinnaswamy and pray the Royals win almost every game to help us. So overall, a bad day for the bowlers on a track which did give them something, but the silver lining was Jacks’s innings, mainly after the second time out, where we managed to score a mammoth 58 runs in the next two overs.

Chennai Super Kings VS Sunrisers Hyderabad | M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai
Pat Cummins won the toss and opted to field first surprisingly, given that his team are the masters batting first. The CSK batters had quite a similar innings comparing with the LSG game. Rahane left early, Ruturaj and Mitchell counter attacked and notched up fifties and Dube giving the finish, the difference being Ruturaj missed his 100 by 2 runs and CSK ending at 212. The Sunrisers also had a similar innings comparing with the RCB game, where both Head and Abhishek fell early and the innings completely falling apart after the openers were dismissed cheaply. The difference being that they were hardly able to hit a boundary against CSK, who completely executed thier plans and didn’t allow Klaasen or Samad to tee off and give SRH even a bit of hope, giving the Super Kings a massive 73-run victory and they climb to number 3 on the points table.

In a classic CSK win, they would be proud that they replicated the same kind of batting as shown in the LSG game, giving a stiff target for SRH to face. One problem is the form of Rahane which they will definitely try to solve. For SRH, they wouldn’t be proud because they almost replicated the way they played against RCB, and here it was much worse because there were no fireworks from the middle-order and crumbled in the pressure again of batting second. So a traditional win for CSK at Chepauk I would say, with the batters hitting a 200+ total and the bowlers clinched it with brilliant execution, similar to their victory against GT on the same track as well… So maybe they can use this track in the knockouts if they qualify as they have been scored dominant victories here….