KKR V KXIP
Kolkata Knight Riders 184 for 9 beat Kings XI Punjab 183 for 5 by one wicket
Kolkata Knight Riders went to the top of the points table with the first one-wicket win in IPL history, off the penultimate ball against Kings XI Punjab. In their final league game of IPL 2015 at home, Knight Riders completed the second-highest chase of the tournament at Eden Gardens to finish the season with a 5-1 scoreline in Kolkata.
Kings XI's spinners had them 83 for 4 in the 11th over in pursuit of 184, but a partnership of 53 in 4.1 overs between Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan revived the chase. After Pathan fell for 29 off 19, Russell went on to blitz 51 off 21. After Russell fell with 25 needed off 19, Piyush Chawla leveled the scores before the last pair scrambled a leg-bye.
Robin Uthappa had kick-started the chase with smooth timing against the seamers and Manish Pandey had taken over from him before the spinners slowed things down.
Pandey, Gautam Gambhir and Suryakumar Yadav fell to the part-time offspinner Glenn Maxwell and Gurkeerat Singh. The asking-rate had gone past 12 by the end of the 12th over when Knight Riders began their fightback.
Russell powered a couple of pulled boundaries off Anureet Singh before he and Pathan launched straight hits off Axar Patel in a 24-run over. Beuran Hendricks, playing his first game of the season in place of Mitchell Johnson, took some punishment as well but removed Pathan with a short ball in the 15th.
Undaunted, Russell swung Anureet repeatedly over midwicket for 19 more in the 16th. Axar had the allrounder caught behind in the 17th but Chawla hit Hendricks for successive fours in the 18th. With seven needed off the last five balls, Chawla heaved Anureet for six over deep midwicket. He was caught behind next ball, but his 18 off 11 had sealed it for Knight Riders.
The hosts had been responsible for having to chase such a big total in the first place. They put down M Vijay thrice and Manan Vohra twice at the start of the Kings XI innings to let the openers put on 45 inside six overs. Maxwell and Wriddhiman Saha then added 65 for the third wicket in 5.4 overs. Maxwell belatedly found some form as he connected with some reverse-sweeps and slogs, going past 100 runs for the season in his eighth innings with 43 off 22.
Both Saha and Maxwell went to Sunil Narine in the 17th over, the offspinner ending with figures of 4 for 19, his best performance of the season tripling his wicket-tally.
Narine out of the way, David Miller slammed Russell for two sixes and two fours in the last over to set the hosts a daunting target. It consumed almost all their resources, but they scraped through in the end.
DD V SRH
Sunrisers Hyderabad 163 for 4 beat Delhi Daredevils 157 for 4 by six runs
A blitzy half-century from Kedar Jadhav, only his second in the IPL, brought the required run-rate for Delhi Daredevils from almost 12 with eight overs remaining down to less than eight in the last three overs, but the hosts ran out of steam on the last stretch.
Ishant Sharma bowled his last two overs for just 16 runs, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar served up a mix of yorkers and low full-tosses to give away six in the penultimate over, the two helping Sunrisers Hyderabad to hold on to a narrow six-run win that propped them up to number four in the points table. The result also meant Daredevils became the second team after Kings XI Punjab to fall out of the race of making it to playoffs.
Jadhav hit seven fours and two sixes in the four-over period after 13, reached his fifty off 24 balls, but after edging the first ball off the 18th over to the boundary, he couldn't get the groove. When a six was needed off the last ball to tie the game, he could merely drill it back to Ishant, the bowler, to Sunrisers' delight.
The curve Jadhav's innings followed sloped the other way in comparison to Moises Henriques' unbeaten 74, that had injected life into Sunrisers innings in the second half and helped it grow to 163, a total that was going to be testing on a sticky, bouncy pitch and the refreshingly large outfield in Raipur.
Unlike Jadhav, Henriques had started slow. He was in early, in the fourth over, struggled for timing in the initial half of his innings, and was 10 off 16 deliveries at the end of 11 overs. By that time, Sunrisers had lost all three of their half-centurions this season and the innings was hobbling at less than six an over. Then, with a slog off Amit Mishra in the 12th over landing over the boundary at midwicket, the timing appeared.
Still, Henriques waited for the start of the last five overs before going all-out attack. He smashed a long-hop from Mishra into the stands, then took a treble of couples in the same over to kick-start Sunrisers' surge. He continued running hard and brought up his maiden IPL half-century off 39 balls in the 18th over. Three more sixes from Henriques in the last two overs helped Sunrisers to ratchet up 64 off the last five overs, with Henriques scoring 46.
Daredevils' chase started in sprightly manner, with Quinton de Kock, playing for the first time this season, sprinting to a half-century off 29 balls by the eighth over. But Karn Sharma struck twice in two overs, getting de Kock out stumped and beating JP Duminy's cut to have him out bowled. In between, Yuvraj Singh disappeared in a painfully familiar, yet now almost expected, manner.
Jadhav and Saurabh Tiwary played their respective best innings this season, adding an unbeaten 91 for the fifth wicket, but it all came too late for Daredevils.
MI v RCB
An unbeaten century from AB de Villiers helped the Royal Challengers Bangalore to ease to a 39-run victory over the Mumbai Indians in the IPL this afternoon.
The South African came to crease following the early dismissal of opener Chris Gayle, who was caught by Lendl Simmons off the bowling of Lasith Malinga for 13.
That would prove to be the last wicket that the Indians took during the 20 overs as De Villiers, supported by Virat Kohli, took the Challengers beyond the 200-run mark.
De Villiers ended the innings with 133 from 59 balls, while Kohli weighed in with 82.
In response, the Indians struggled to put together any major partnerships as they set about reaching their victory target of 236 runs.
Simmons top-scored with an unbeaten 68, but his side fell well short for the loss of seven wickets.
The victory leaves the Challengers requiring just one more win to reach the playoffs, while the Indians must record victories from two of their remaining three matches to stand any chance of joining them.
CSK v RR
Chennai Super Kings 157 for 5 beat Rajasthan Royals 145 for 9 by 12 runs
Chennai Super Kings almost confirmed themselves in the playoffs with a comfortable 12-run win against Rajasthan Royals that took them to the top of the table with 16 points. They still have two games at hand. Royals, on the other hand, were now placed precariously, needing a win from their last league game against Kolkata Knight Riders to qualify.
The positions the teams were in the table had an air of "I told you so", so had the pattern the game followed after Super Kings decided to bat on a sluggish pitch. The batsmen generally struggled for timing but Brendon McCullum, the only batsman to make a half-century in the match, braved the sapping heat to set up Super Kings for another sub-160 total. Then Ravindra Jadeja picked a bagful of wickets after a 15-day barren spell to derail Royals' chase.
It hasn't been a high-scoring season in Chennai this year. The home team batted first in each game, but only twice were able to go past 160. Still, such has been there control on this ground that except Mumbai Indians, no one else was able to breach the target.
After the early losses of Dwayne Smith and Suresh Raina, McCullum played an innings slightly out of character: it did not feature all-out aggression. He would hit a six, a boundary, then go back to nurdle the ball in the gaps. And such was the necessity, too, as the ball did not come onto the bat. That he found success was not surprising, his fast hands allowing him to generate pace on the ball.
McCullum reached his half-century, his third 50-plus score this season, in 44 balls despite five fours and two sixes. The run-rate at that stage - the 13th over - hovered just above six an over. Despite fatigue setting in, he ensured Super Kings accelerated by picking up 31 more runs in the next 17 balls. By the time he was dismissed, in the 18th over, the score had swelled to 132. MS Dhoni and Dwayne Bravo then pushed it to 157 with late hitting.
Royals knew they needed runs early on before the onset of spin. Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson started well, but once Mohit Sharma had Rahane top-edge a pull, Royals' innings lost steam. Jadeja, then, ran through the middle order in a spell that read 4-0-11-4, the highlight being the gravity-defying catch by Bravo at the long-on boundary.
Royals were left needing 65 to win from the last five overs. There were a few flashes of aggression from Sanju Samson, but the team slowly caved in to fall well short. That Dhoni did not use R Ashwin at all reiterated Super Kings' control.
The loss was Royals' first under Steven Smith's captaincy this year.
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