- Win the toss and field first trend continues
- Big individual scores for Sai Sudharsan, Dhuv Jurel and Sameer Rizvi
- Games becoming tighter contests
The IPL Season continues to throw up some big scores, both individual and for the team, but these scores are making for some tight games.
Game 7: Chennai Super Kings v Punjab Kings
The Punjab Kings won the toss again and yet again decided to field first. CSK scored a reasonable 209-5 from their 20 overs. Ayush Mhatre top scored with 73 off 43, with Shivam Dube helping out with 45* off 27 balls. Best of the Punjab bowlers was Vyshak Vijaykumar with 2-38 from his 4 overs. Xavier Bartlett, Marco Jansen and Yuzvendra Chahal got one wicket each.
Punjab Kings got to 210-5 to win by five wickets with 8 balls to spare to make it two from two. Shreyas Iyer top scored with 50 off 29, followed by Prabhsimran Singh, who got 43 off 34 balls. All of the bowlers were hit for a few runs, but Anshul Kamboj, with 2-43, and Matt Henry, with 2-54, took the wickets.
Game 8: Delhi Capitals v Mumbai Indians
Yet again, winning the toss and fielding first seems to be the done thing as the Delhi Capitals continued the trend. Mumbai Indians struggled to get going as they amassed 162-6 from their 20 overs. Skipper Surya Kumar Yadav top scored with 51 off 36, with Rohit Sharma scoring 35 off 26 at the top of the innings. Mukesh Kumar was the pick of the Delhi bowling with figures of 2-26 off three overs, with Ngidi, Axar Patel, Nigam and Natarajan took one wicket apiece.
Delhi fell to 7-2 after 10 balls, as they lost K L Rahul and Nitish Rana. But Sameer Rizvi scored an impressive 90 off 51 balls, with Pathum Nissanka (44 off 30) keeping him company. David Miller finished the game off with a quick fire 21 off 18, as the Capitals scored 164-4 with just under two overs to spare and also go two for two. Deepak Chahal, with 1-20 from three overs, and Mitchell Santner (1-22) were the pick of the Mumbai bowling.
Game 9: Gujarat Titans v Rajasthan Royals
The Rajasthan Royals broke the trend by winning the toss and deciding bat first. Dhruv Jurel, with 75 off 42, was the top scorer, with Yashasvi Jaiswal (55 off 36) and the 15 y-o Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hitting 31 off 18 balls, as they scored 210-6 from their allotted overs. Kagiso Rabada was the pick of the Titans bowling, taking 2-42 from his four overs.
The Titans started their run chase quickly, with an opening partnership of 78 from 8 overs. However, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals and with just over five overs left, the Titans were 161-7. Some big hitting from the tailend got the Titans close, but the Royals held on to win by 6 runs. Sai Sudharsan top scored with 73 off 44, but no-one else could stay with him. Ravi Bishnoi was the top bowler with 4-41 from his four overs.
Game 10: Sunrisers Hyderabad v Lucknow Super Giants
Lucknow Super Giants went back to the trend of winning the toss and fielding first. Hyderabad struggled early on in their innings, falling to 26-4 after seven overs. Then a partnership of 116 (off 63 balls)between Heinrich Klaasen, with 62 off 41, and Nitish Kumar Reddy, with 56 off 33, got the innings back on track but Hyderabad could only muster 156/9 from their 20 overs. Mohammad Shami was the pick of the bowling by far, with 2-9 from his four overs, Avesh Khan and Prince Yadav took two wickets apiece.
With such a low target to get, LSG could take their time a little, but maybe they took that too far as LSG eventually got their target of 160 with five wickets in had but only one ball left of the 20 overs. Rishabh Pant top scored with 68* off 50 balls, and Aiden Markram scored 45 off 27 opening the batting.
Game 11:Royal Challengers Bengaluru v Chennai Super Kings
Chennai, as seems to be the norm, won the toss and decided to field first. RCB scored a massive 250-3 in their allotted overs. Tim David smashed an unbeaten 70* off only 25 balls in a 99-run partnership with Rajat Patidar, who ended up with 48 off 19 balls. Shivam Dube, Jamie Overton and Anshul Kamboj each took a wicket.
Chennai’s innings got off to a really bad start, as they slipped to 30-3 from only 17 balls. Sarfaraz Khan settled the innings down with a rapid 50 off 25 balls, with help from Prashant Veer, who scored 43 off 29. But Chennai ended up being 207 ao with two balls to spare, and RCB picked up their second win by 43 runs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with 3-41 from four overs.
Game 12: Kolkata Knight Riders v Punjab Kings
Kolkata broke the trend and won the toss and decided to bat first. However the game ended after only 28 balls being bowled as the heavens opened with Kolkata on 25-2, leaving the outfield too wet to play on. Both sides took one point each from the game.
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