MATCH 10: RCB VS MI

Brief Scores:Royal Challengers Bangalore 201/3 (AB de Villiers 55*, Devdutt Padikkal 54; Trent Boult 2/34) tied Mumbai Indians 201/5 (Ishan Kishan 99, Kieron Pollard 60*; Isuru Udana 2/45) Super Over: Royal Challengers Bangalore 11/0 beat Mumbai Indians 7/1 Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) played out the second Super Over-thriller of Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 and it was Virat Kohli and Co. who emerged triumphant to win the game at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Monday. RCB, who made two changes to their playing XI, bringing in Adam Zampa and Isuru Udana, made a solid start after put into bat.

While he was hit into the box on the fourth delivery he faced and there were a few hits and misses, Aaron Finch made his intent clear. The right-hander creamed a Trent Boult delivery for a six in the third over before hitting four fours across the next two overs. In the final over of the powerplay, RCB moved past fifty, with Finch batting on 40 and Devdutt Padikkal batting on 14. MI kept the things tight over the next couple of overs and it helped them scalp a big wicket of Virat Kohli in the 13th over. Chahar got the RCB skipper out as Kohli’s counterpart Rohit Sharma held onto an easy catch.

RCB needed to break the shackles that MI applied over the last few overs, and Devdutt Padikkal answered that call, clobbering two sixes off James Pattinson in the 14th over as RCB moved to 110. Devdutt Padikkal, who completed his second fifty in the last three games, and AB de Villiers hit two fours, each across the next two overs before ABD went after Jasprit Bumrah for two sixes and a four in the 17th over to take RCB past 150. The 62-run stand, though, was broken on the first ball of the 18th over as Boult dismissed the left-hander for 54. However, ABD continued to take on Bumrah as the Indian pacer’s final over and the innings penultimate over went for 17 runs, with ABD hitting a four and a six to go past fifty, and Shivam Dube hitting a four to push his side past 180. Dube, then creamed three sixes in the final over off Pattinson as RCB posted 201/3 on the board.

Needing 202 runs to win, MI required a strong opening start, but it was not to be as Washington Sundar struck in the second over to get the big scalp or Rohit. RCB debutant Isuru Udana, then, dismissed Suryakumar Yadav in the next two over. Kishan, who was playing his first game of the season, then, went on to bring up his fifty. By the time 16 overs were over, MI were 122/4, needing 80 off the last four overs.

Kieron Pollard, then, turned it on and how. He went after Zampa in the 17th over, hitting him for 27 runs with the help of three sixes and a four. Three overs to go and MI now needed 53 runs to win and Pollard, who marched past fifty in 20 balls, slammed two sixes while Kishan tonked one as Chahal’s final over of the night went for 22 runs, reducing MI’s target to 31 off 12 balls.

While Navdeep Saini kept his composure, conceding just 5 runs on the first four deliveries, Kishan hit a six off the fifth ball before scoring a single on the final ball of the 19th over.

MI needed 19 off the final over, with Isuru Udana bowling that over. The first two balls went for two runs, but Kishan hit a six on the third ball as Gurkeerat Singh Mann dropped catch at long-off. The MI left-hander then hammered one more on the next ball to move to 99. With MI needing 5 from the last two balls and Kishan needing 1 for his ton, he went for another big hit, only to be caught at deep mid-wicket.

MI required 5 to seal a win on the final ball and Pollard sent one past the boundary rope for a four to tie the scores and push the game into the Super Over. Mi batted first in the Super Over, with Pollard and Hardik being the first two batsmen. Saini, though, did remarkably well to limit the opposition to 7 runs, picking up a wicket of Kieron Pollard. RCB needed 8 to win the Super Over and out came ABD and skipper Kohli as MI picked Bumrah to bowl the over. There was no shortage of drama. After Bumrah conceded just two off the first two balls, ABD took a review to overturn the decision on the third ball. RCB needed 6 off the last three deliveries and ABD did well to hit a four off Bumrah’s bouncer to bring down the target to 2 off 2. Although the match went to the final ball, Kohli hit a four to take RCB home.

MATCH 9: RR VS KXIP

Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 226/6 (Sanju Samson 85, Rahul Tewatia 53; Mohammad Shami 3/53) beat Kings XI Punjab 223/2 (Mayank Agarwal 106, KL Rahul 69; Ankit Rajpoot 1/39) by four wickets

Rajasthan Royals (RR) put up a sensational show with the bat and created a record for the highest successful run-chase in the Indian Premier League history as they beat Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) by four wickets in the ninth match of the Dream11 IPL 2020 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday.

Put in to bat, KXIP were off to a flying start as Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul pretty much matched one another shot for shot. The two good friends were in for some fun and it was RR who wore the brunt of it as KXIP marched towards sixty at the end of powerplay, with Mayank and Rahul scoring 29 and 26 runs, respectively. The mandatory powerplay was over, but that did not deter either as KXIP continued to score at a rapid pace. While Mayank got a reprieve in the seventh over despite a fine fielding effort from Riyan Parag near the boundary rope, the KXIP opener continued to attack, hitting two sixes and a four in the next over bowled by Rahul Tewatia.

The merry ways continued for Mayank as he then went after his Karnataka teammate – Shreyas Gopal – in the ninth over, slamming two sixes to bring up his fifty and team’s hundred. While Rahul completed his fifty in the 12th over, Mayank had moved past 80. The two, then completed the 150-run stand in the 14th over.

Mayank, who had scored 89 during KXIP’s first game against Delhi Capitals, then completed his first IPL ton, hitting the final delivery of the 15th over for four. RR, though managed to stop the Mayank-Rahul juggernaut over the course of the next three overs. While Tom Curran dismissed Mayank after his 50-ball 106-run knock, which included 10 fours and 7 sixes, Ankit Rajpoot got Rahul out for 69 on the final ball of the 18th over.

However, RR still managed to score 29 off the last two overs as Nicholas Pooran scoring 25* off 8 and Glenn Maxwell scoring 13* off 9 balls to take KXIP to 223/2, which now is the highest team score in the IPL 2020.

With 224 runs to win, RR needed a blistering start and skipper Steve Smith did not waste any time to get going as he hit two fours in the first over of the chase. But KXIP managed to dismiss Jos Buttler in the third over as Sarfaraz Khan took a good low catch off Sheldon Cottrell. Sanju Samson then joined Smith in the middle, and the pair continued from where they had left in the first game against Chennai Super Kings.

Sanju Samson needed no sighters whatsoever as he creamed the first legal delivery that he played for a six before hitting the third ball he faced for a four. Smith, then, hit Mohammad Shami for a six and a four in the fourth over. KXIP introduced Ravi Bishnoi into the attack in the fifth over and Sanju Samson hit him for a six and a four to push RR past fifty. Smith brought up his second successive fifty of IPL 2020 in the ninth over but lost his wicket in the same over.

Rahul Tewatia then joined Sanju Samson in the middle. While Sanju Samson moved past fifty, KXIP managed to keep things tight, conceding just 21 runs in the next four overs. Sanju Samson and Tewatia then hit a six each in the two overs, but RR still needed something extraordinary to push themselves past the finish line, and Sanju Samson opened the floodgates, hitting Maxwell for three sixes in the 16th over. But he departed in the 17th over after scoring 85 off 42 balls, hitting 4 fours and 7 sixes.

By the end of the 17th over, Tewatia was batting on 17 off 23 balls and RR needed a miracle to score 51 off last three overs. But then, Tewatia changed the gears and how. He went after Cottrell and creamed as many as five sixes to move to 47 off 29 balls and brought the target down to 21 off 2 overs.

While Shami got Robin Uthappa out on the first ball of the penultimate over, Jofra Archer hammered two sixes off the next two deliveries before Tewatia hit one more to notch up his fifty, bringing bring down the winning target to two runs. Although he got out on the final ball of the 19th over and Murugan Ashwin bowled a dot and took a wicket off Riyan Parag, Curran hit a four on the third ball of the final over to seal a sensational RR win.

MATCH 8: KKR VS SRH

Brief Scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 145/3 (Shubman Gill 70*, Eoin Morgan 42*; Rashid Khan 1/25) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 142/4 (Manish Pandey 51, David Warner 36; Pat Cummins 1/19) by 7 wickets

Shubman Gill and Eoin Morgan starred as Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) secured two points following their seven-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the eighth match of the Dream11 Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Needing 143 runs to win, KKR lost Sunil Narine in the second over as David Warner held on to a catch off Khaleel Ahmed’s bowling. Nitish Rana and Gill, though, scored at a brisk pace, taking on the SRH pacers. In the 13th over, the stylish right-handed batsman brought up his fifty with a four as KKR moved closer to 100. Two overs later, Gill and Morgan completed fifty-run stand. Morgan then hit a six and a four off Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rashid respectively. While Gill, then hit a six off Abhishek Sharma, Morgan, who scored an unbeaten 42, closed out the game, hitting a six and a four to help KKR cross the finish line with two overs to spare.

-TIN Bureau