Chasing the super over, RCB shows the Blue army and their fans how to bleed red!

MI batsman Ishan Kishan dismissed on 99 won hearts while Navdeep Saini sailed RCB through the ocean of super over.

What a match!

It was the first time in the IPL history when the Mumbai Indians managed to cross 200 runs while chasing the score. However, they lost the game against the Challengers post the tie.

Playing at Dubai International Stadium, the chase was really a difficult part for both the teams. The long didn’t-really-connect sixes turned into catch-outs so the long boundaries demanded twice the strength to play the big shots. We saw a rebirth of team RCB who had played such a fantastic game back then in 2016.

The match played between the biggest rivalries, best vs best, was nerve cracking to watch. MI, the eight time winners from the 10 matches played against RCB had a bad day out.

Dubai International Stadium, biggest stadium of this season, the Challengers managed to set a target of 202 for the Paltans. Last six overs by RCB turned the ground into a Kurukshetra but they didn’t knew that the blue army had their Kishan coming as a savior. Pollard hit a stunning boundary in the last ball so that MI managed to make the scores equal. Viewership on Hotstar, digital streaming partner of Dream11 IPL 2020, hit a whopping 6 million in the super over.

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Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bowl first. Looking at the size of the stadium, the decision taken by the captain Rohit Sharma seemed to be good until the end of the power play. Opening batsman Aaron Finch completed his half-century in just 31 balls but got catch-out by Pollard. Captain Virat Kohli coming after Finch didn’t seem to be comfortable. He departed after making 3 runs in 10 balls. With the best strike rate, AB de Villers and the young debutant Devdutt Padikkal took the partnership ahead, both scoring a half century. Boult turned to be the wicket taker for Mumbai after Pollard took catches of Finch and Dev. However, the men in Red managed to put a pressure on the men in Blue for Shivam Dubey and De-Villers hiked the score, setting the target of 202. AB rightly deserves the man of the match trophy for scoring 55 runs from 24 balls.

Virat collecting the Player of the match award on behalf of ABD said, “I wish I was AB to be honest. He was coming after a long break. The way he batted and some of the shots he played was outstanding. Getting suck into the bowlers and only he can do the best. He keeps things simple and doesn’t watch a lot of cricket. Enjoys his life and comes out here, backs his ability. He is relaxed and that’s exactly what we want from him.”

Picture courtesy: Twitter/@IPL

MI Captain Rohit Sharma started the chase by hitting a six. No sooner then he was catch out. The memories of playing back home at Wankhede, Mumbai, must have hit him hard. The Paltan’s home ground is about 15-18 meters shorter than the park last night.

Ishan Kishan coming out to bat at 4th place happened to be the game changer. He got off the mark with a boundary off Isuru Udana. Kishan was truly unstoppable. The Ambani-owned franchise had found another good batsman in Ishan Kishan. Scoring a half century off 39 balls, hitting 9 exhilarating Sixes and 2 boundaries, the stadium mourned at him when he got out on 99-58. Playing for the team and chasing the score he had to sacrifice his first century in his IPL carrier.

MI Captain Rohit Sharma at the post match presentation ceremony said, “Ishan Kishan and Pollard literally stole this from their bag with some unbelievable hitting. The calmness they showed when the asking rate was over 16 was just amazing to see. Kohli literally couldn’t watch his bowlers sail over the rope. Kishan is still gutted, mainly because had he got a bit more bat on that hit he was caught, MI would have got home and he would have had that deserved hundred as well. RCB bag two crucial points.”

Picture courtesy: Twitter/@IPL

Kiran Pollard was as usual brilliant and completed his half century in just 20 balls. He had a very good partnership of 104 runs from 48 balls with the young Ishan Kishan. Blizzard shots of 5 sixes and 3 boundaries, Pollard pushed the scoreboard till the decision of super over.

Not letting Kishan play the super over might have been a wrong decision for MI Captain but letting Saini bowl in the super over served as a wise decision by the RCB Captain. Navdeep Saini sailed his team safely by giving only 7 runs in his over whereas Jasprit Bumrah tried his best by bowling shot against AB and Virat.

The Super Over ended with the Challengers wining the match.

ABD and Kohli’s brotherhood expression😍
Twitter/@pranitasubhash

The Indian Premier League could rightly be said the league for the youngsters. Be it Devdutt, Sanju Samson, R Chahar, Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Ravi Bishnoi or the heart stealer Ishan Kishan, each one of these debutants have proved themselves till now. It will be interesting to watch how they play hereafter, as they are the real future of Indian Cricket Team.

MI wipe out KKR with all-round performance, register first win in UAE since 2014

After losing their first game this season, MI pulled out all stops and outdid KKR in every department in a hard fought contest.

On 23rd September 2020, Mumbai Indians took on Kolkata Knight Riders in the fifth match of Dream 11 Indian Premier league (IPL). Team MI led by Rohit Sharma won against KKR by 49 runs. It was MI’s first win this season.
KKR won the toss and chose to field while the Rohit Sharma along with Quinton De Cock decided to open for MI. De Cock exited the pitch after Shivam Malvi dismissed him in second over.

SKY’s the limit was the word going around after MI’s Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) came in bat blazing and fired off four fours in the third over. He settled in to score a breezy 90 runs, laying the foundation for a big total.

Picture courtesy : NDTV sports

In the fifth over, MI captain Sharma
lit up the stands and punted KKR’s Pat Cummins for two sixes. Sharma then went off on Russell, firing off a four and a six. A strong partnership was led by Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav resulted as fifty run partnership.

By the eighth over, team MI hit 80 runs with Kuldeep Yadav bowling at Suryakumar. MI was reaching 100 runs with this spectacular partnership, until Suryakumar got knocked out. Rohit then brought up his 37th IPL fifty in the IPL before MI moved past hundred in the twelfth over. Till the fourteenth Over, MI had completed their more than 140 run. Later on Sharma went onto hit super sixes twice, which made his record of 200 sixes in IPL. Saurabh Tiwary was on the pitch, looking good, scoring 21 in 13 balls before getting out off Sunil Narine’s bowling.

After Tiwary’s dismissal, Hardik Pandya carried MI past the 150-run mark in 17th over. Rohit Sharma’s stellar innings came to an end in the 18th over after scoring 80 off 54 balls, hitting 3 fours and 6 sixes, as Mavi picked up his second wicket of the match.

In the 19th over, Kolkata got their hands on the game as Hardik got knocked out by Russell’s outstanding bowling. It was hit wicket. Scoring 13 runs in the final over, MI’s total score was 195/5.

Kolkata Knight Riders needed 196 to win against the Mumbai Indians. But none of the KKR batsmen could get going, and their only hope faded when Jasprit Bumrah clean-bowled Andre Russell.

Starting with first wicket in third over itself, Shubham Gill was dismissed by Trent Boult.

Picture courtesy: Hindustan Times

But as the match proceeded, the KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik hit a couple of spectacular sixes. De Cock in the field chased the fine ball hit by Narine, got it caught and made it a wicket. It was in fifth over MI got their second wicket.

KKR got their powerplay in place when Nitish Rana got on field. KKR lost their third wicket in the 11th over as Rahul Chahar trapped Karthik before the wickets for 30.
As the game went on, in the 18th over, Cummins scored three sixes on Bumrah’s bowling. In the final over, the MI sealed the win as Mavi was stumped on the final ball of the innings.

Post the innings, Rohit Sharma was titled ‘Man of the Match’. Rohit, who did not get his timings right against CSK in the first match of this IPL, still looked slow in running between the wicket, but showed glimpses of his old self as he almost single-handedly took MI to a position of strength. He was supported well by Suryakumar Yadav.
Now it would be interesting to see how tomorrow’s match between Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore turns.

Setting the sun of the Risers, RCB won by 10 runs.

Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini changed the game for RCB.

The third match of Dream11 IPL 2020 played between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) took-off in Dubai on 21st September. A happy day for all the RCBians! The team had a very difficult start last season but they bounced back starting with a winning match this year.

Taking a perfect estimation of the new ground, the Sunrisers chose to bowl first. However, they had a bad start amidst power play when they saw an astonishing opening partnership between Devdutt Padikkal and Aaron Finch.

Aaron Finch was supposed to take the pressure off the young debutang. But no, it was the other way round. Hitting a huge six on Abhishek Sharma’s ball, Padikkal made his first half century at IPL in 37 balls. Sunrisers bowler Vijay Shankar came back into the attack by taking the wicket of unstoppable Padikkal and breaking the partnership.

Devdutt Padikkal said, “It was great to get the half century out of the way. It was the first game and I wanted to start of well. I am happy to have done that. So happy to be training with Kohli. I was just eating his ears trying to pick up as much as possible. He said who you face doesn’t matter as long as you have confidence in yourself. I enjoyed batting with finch. I was comfortable from the word go batting alongside with him.”

Picture courtesy: Sportsgrasp.com

The match was taken ahead by the fastest run taker AB de Villers and RCB captain Virat Kohli. Taking the responsibility of the team, De Villers scored his half century in 30 balls later hitting two sixes back to back on Sandeep Sharma’s over and setting a higher score for the Risers to chase. ABD also hit 200th six for the Royal Challengers.

Bowlers from Sunrisers were bowling pretty well after the power play. When Abhishek Sharma took wicket of Finch and Rashid Khan got the catch of the skipper Virat Kohli, the Risers built a little pressure on Challengers.

The conditions would have best suited the Sunrisers bowler Mitchell Marsh but succumbed to injuries, he had to walk-off the ground due to a limp in his leg. This brought a twist into the match and affected the best bowling side lethally.

Royal Challengers set a target of 164 which looked 20 runs short until Yuzi Chahal and Navdeep Saini came as a savior with their fantastic bowling. This match has given a feeling that RCB is now a well balanced side with the likes of 4 good batsmen in the top and middle order and a great mix of spinners and pacers in their team.

With the opening partnership of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, Sunrisers were all set to chase the score made by the Royal Challengers. In the very first over by Dale Steyn, Warner started-off the chase by hitting a boundary.

RCB bowler Umesh Yadav who wasn’t bowling good, fortunately ran-out Warner at the non-strikers end. Bairstow who scored a half century, managed to do that because of the weak fielding by RCB where he got saved thrice from a catch out. Manish Pandey and Bairstow had built a good partnership which could have led to a win.

However, it was then the RCB’s bowlers show. Yuzvendra Chahal came into the picture by taking Manish Pandey’s wicket in his 3rd over and stumped Bairstow and Vijay Shankar back to back. Another bowler from RCB, Navdeep Saini who stumped Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Rashid Khan one after the other.

With the never say die attitude, Mitchell Marsh came to bat but his injured leg did not allow him to stay on the pitch for long. He got a catch out by Virat Kohli after hitting the first ball. Pulling up the score to 146 SRH needed 18 runs in the last 6 balls. But with a brilliant show put up by RCB bowlers, the tailenders were dismissed soon and consequently lost all 10 wickets.

Picture courtesy: Moneycontrol.com

The man of the match award was given to RCB spinner Yuzvendra Chahal for taking 3 wickets and giving just 18 runs in his spell of 4 overs.

Yuzi Chahal said, “When I bowled my first over, I realized I need to bowl stump-to-stump line and backed myself. When Vijay came Virat and AB told me to go for a googly and it worked. I put some mud on my hands to make sure there is no dew.”

Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings defeated Mumbai Indians by 5 wickets with 4 balls to spare.

The yellow army cruised to victory after 5 straight losses against the men in blue!

Dream11 IPL 2020 kick started with the mother of all clashes. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) beat the Mumbai Indians (MI) in the final over after losing 5 consecutive matches in the past tournament. Dhoni’s Super Kings put up a brilliant show on a Saturday night to win over the IPL 2019 winners. It was the skipper’s 100th win for the CSK franchise since the inception of IPL in 2008.

After 437 days of no cricket, Dhoni returned with a bang. After recently retiring from International cricket, he looked fitter than ever.

Picture courtesy : Business Standard

With empty stands, no display of placards and banners, it was odd not just for the players but the audience as well. The governing body did make an attempt to replicate the atmosphere by playing pre-recorded audio of fans hooting from previous matches, but it didn’t create much of a difference.

Correct decisions made by the winning captain turned the match in their favour with splendid batting performance by Ambati Rayudu (former MI player) and Faf du Plessis. Faf also contributed with 3 out-of-the-world catches down the part. Sam Curran also displayed an all-round show with both, bat and the ball.

The “opening match jinx” continued for MI as this loss was their 8th consecutive loss at their opening match. The last time they won their opening match was back in 2012 when the master blaster Sachin Tendulkar was still playing for the franchise.

“Something for us to learn. Still early days in the tournament where momentum is important. A few things for us to learn in this game, we did make a few mistakes. Hopefully we’ll rectify those and come out smarter in the next game” – Rohit Sharma, the losing captain, at the post match presentation.

Picture courtesy : Inside Sport

Mumbai Indians are known to bounce back, for they’ve won all 4 titles after losing the first few matches. However, Shaikh Zayed Stadium is the one with biggest dimensions. So hitting some shots here isn’t easy like back home at Wankhede in Mumbai.

The match started with Dhoni winning the toss and putting Rohit Sharma’s Mumbai Indians to bat first. The grassy pitch told that there’s something for the new ball. An average scoring game with 160-180 runs was on the charts.

The new normal… (at the toss)

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MI’s skipper opened the innings with a boundary alongside Quinton de Kock. But they got out cheaply at 12(8) and 33(20) respectively. At the end of 10 overs, everyone felt that Mumbai can take the total to 180-190. But after the De kock departed at 121/3, no partnership was built. Suryakumar Yadav 17(16) and Saurabh Tiwary 42(31) tried to carry on the momentum only to be put down by the bowlers in yellow. Saurabh, who was picked against Ishan Kishan was bang on business. Hardik Pandya with SR 140 and Pollard with SR 129 did hit a couple shots in the park. They made their intentions clear and targeted Lungi Ngidi to do so.

The wickets kept toppling for MI as they put 162 on board at the loss of 9 wickets. Clearly, 15-20 runs short of what they should be with such a great batting line up. They lost 7 wickets in the second half of the second innings with 3 in the death overs. Scoring just 2 runs off the final ball, Mumbai Indians put up 162 for 9 on board with CSK to chase it down at the asking rate of a little above 8 runs per over.

Mumbai Indian’s Rohit Sharma in action

Picture courtesy : Gulf News

Meanwhile, CSK’s bowlers kept impressing. They kept hitting the right line and lengths. CSK took advantage of the pitch and the outfield. It was a Faf-ulous show for Faf du Plessis took 3 brilliant catches at the boundary to dismiss Tiwary, Hardik and Rahul Chahar. While in his lucky headband, Sam Curran joined the party and took 2 catches to dismiss Rohit early in the innings and then SKY. Sam also played decently with the ball to give CSK a breakthrough by taking de Kock’s wicket who seemed dangerous in the powerplay. Bringing back Piyush Chawla to the franchise also proved to be a good pick. He dismissed Rohit early on in the innings with his smart bowling.

In the second innings, Mumbai came back hard. They attacked early and dismissed both the openers Murali Vijay and Shane Watson in the first 12 balls itself. Perhaps, Vijay was plumbed off James Pattinson, result of bad decision by the on-field umpire S. Ravi.

Ambati Rayudu and Faf du Plessis took control of the match. Both of them hit half centuries to chase down the scoreboard. They put up a good partnership of more than 100 runs. This shows the strength in Chennai’s batting line up and the way these two batsman controlled the innings speaks volumes. Panic and CSK don’t go hand in hand. The Captain’s coolness sweeps through the players.

Picture courtesy : India Today

Mumbai Indians could have beaten Rayudu early on if they hadn’t missed opportunities after opportunities. Rohit’ team failed to field tightly and kept falling short of catches. They also gave away easy runs with sloppy fielding. This in turn helped CSK build their inninings. The men in blue couldn’t build any pressure on the batters.

After Rahul Chahar’s unorthodox bowling approach, Rayudu got out after making 71 runs from 48 balls. The gun of CSK Ravindra Jadeja came out to bat when his team needed just 29 of 18 balls. Hitting the gaps well, he got off the mark with the boundary. He was soon plumbed by Krunal Pandya who pitched the outside outside off stump.

We could see Dhoni warming up in the stands and to our surprise, with less than 3 overs to go, Sam Curran was put up the order. Was it for the left and right hand combination with Faf or was it Dhoni just being Dhoni, always giving youngsters a chance to become better cricketers?

“One thing we haven’t done is giving a chance to Jadeja and Curran to come up the order and express themselves which is what we did today. It was a psychological thing of saying that okay, we have batsmen down, so we’ll send one or two of them up to hit a few” – M.S. Dhoni, the winning captain at the post match presentation.

Jasprit Bumrah, arguably the best bowler in the world right now, also fell prey to Chennai’s batting line up. He had started his spell with 4 dot balls but ended up giving 43 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Bumrah was given the 19th over to show some luck. The first ball to Curran went for a six and just the next ball was caught at covers. The English youngster departed after making 18 runs off 6 balls with one 4 and two 6s under his belt.

Picture courtesy : Business Standard

Faf’s half century came up on the 4th ball of the over. Playing with a strike rate of 119, that was Faf’s 13th IPL half century so far. Dhoni was new to the crease. The first ball that he faced could have been the last ball he faced that match if Dhoni hadn’t taken the DRS. He was caught behind but as a keeper himself, Dhoni knew that the noise was not from bat touching the ball. The next ball was a dot ball but hadn’t CSK sealed it already?

Just two balls in the final over were enough to clinch the game. The yellow army had a convincing win over the Mumbai Indians whose losing streak in the opening match continued.

Picture courtesy : Instagram/@iplt20

Rayudu was rightly awarded the man of the match award for his brilliant batting performance. He will turn 35 next week is the 8th member of the CSK squad to be 35 or plus and yet, the spirits are as high as they can get.

“I kept training in the lockdown. It was a stop-start but I was really eager” – Ambati Rayudu, MOM, at the post match presentation.

Match Summary :

Chennai Super Kings 166/5 (19.2)

Playing XI – Murali Vijay, Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav, M.S. Dhoni (C & WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Sam Curran, Deepak Chahar, Piyush Chawla and Lungi Ngidi.

Mumbai Indians 162/9 (20)

Playing XI – Rohit Sharma (C), Quinton de Kock (WK), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah

Winning team – Chennai Super Kings

Man of the Match – Ambati Rayudu

CRED Power Player of the Match – Quinton de Kock

Dream11 Game Changer – Faf du Plessis

Unacademy Let’s Crack it Sixes – Ambati Rayudu

Altroz Super Striker of the Match – Quinton de Kock

The El Clasico of the cash-rich league may have come to an end but we are looking forward to another thriller between Delhi Capitals and Kings XI Punjab which is just a few hours away from now.

Picture courtesy : Inside Sport

Is it going to be Shreyas Iyer’s young blood or KL Rahul’s sheer passion for the game? Leave a comment down below and let us know who you will be supporting tonight!