Ours is a nation of cricket lovers who can never have enough of the game. Many were heartbroken when the IPL was suspended back in May in view of the ferocious onslaught of the Second Wave of the COVID pandemic. Now the tournament has resumed and the matches continue in the UAE. Here’s what happened when the IPL resumed ‘break ke baad’:
Winning the toss, Chennai Super Kings decided to bat, but lost early wickets. Faf du Plessis, Moeen Ali and Ambati Rayudu were dismissed without scoring.
Apart from Ruturaj Gaikwad (88 off 58) it was lean pickings for CSK. Apart from him, only Ravindra Singh Jadeja (26 off 33) and Dwayne Bravo (23 off just 8) reached double figures. Dhoni made just 3 off 5.
However, the 156 run total was proved out of reach for Mumbai Indians. Saurabh Tiwary’s 50 was of note, but MI lost ultimately.
MI could only manage 136 for 8 in their 20 overs. Predictably, Gaikwad was adjudged Player of the Match for his 88*.
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bat. It was a disaster and they were all out for 92 in 19 overs.
Only Devdutt Padikkal (22 off 20), Srikar Bharat (16 off 19), Glenn Maxwell (10 off 17) and Harshal Patel (12 off 10) reached double figures.
Openers Shubham Gill made 48 off 34 and Venkatesh Iyer made 41* off 27 to obliterate the opposition and win the match with ten overs to spare.
For RCB fans the sense of loss was a familiar feeling. Varun Chakravarty of KKR was adjudged MoM for his bowling spell of 3/13.
Winning the toss, Punjab Kings decided to bowl first. Rajasthan Royals made 185 in their allotted 20 overs.
K L Rahul made 49, Mayank Agarwal made 67, but the middle order didn’t seem up to the task.
Kartik Tyagi had the unenviable job of defending 4 runs in the final over but he did it and steered RR to victory by a mere 2 runs.
It seemed a done deal for PBSK, with just 4 to get. However Tyagi did the deed and was declared MoM for his 2 wickets and in particular his brilliant last over.
Sun Risers Hyderabad won the toss and decided to bat. They made 134 for 9 and would have hoped to do better.
They overhauled the SRH total in the 18th over without much fuss.
Anrich Nortje was declared man of the match for his bowling.
After the 33rd match of the IPL 2021, DC are at the top. SRH languish at the bottom. This evening, MI take on KKR in the 34th match of the IPL.
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