Sunrisers Hyderabad 207 for 4 beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 172 by 35 runs
The IPL opens new seasons with a match between the previous edition's finalists, and this year the teams seemed to have been handed the same lines. The characters speaking those lines changed, the stage changed, but Sunrisers Hyderabad once again posted a 200-plus total and defended it successfully after an early scare. This 207 was Sunrisers' second-highest IPL score, one behind the final last year, and despite all their power and matches in Bangalore, Royal Challengers have successfully chased 200 only once in the IPL.
Sunrisers' captain David Warner seemed to be repeating his lines from the final but it was Yuvraj Singh's sublime 62 off 27 that set up the 200 score after Moises Henriques provided him the springboard with 52 off 37. In response, Chris Gayle looked threatening as Royal Challengers raced away to 43 for 0 in four overs. Missing Mustafizur Rahman, Sunrisers found a new hero in Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan, who took the wheels of the chase off with quick legbreaks and wrong'uns, claiming two wickets on his IPL debut.
Royal Challengers turn left
Missing Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, having lost Mitchell Starc again and having let go of Chris Jordan, the selection of the runners-up was going to be interesting. They tried to emulate the champions, going for three left-arm quicks, but they got them on against a batting line-up that relies on three big left-hand batsmen. All three of Warner, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj boast better strike rates against left-arm quicks than their overall career numbers. Despite Tymal Mills' impressive debut, there was only one winner here. In all, the Royal Challengers left-arm quicks bowled 38 balls to the left-hand batsmen for 78 runs, including some sumptuous hitting from Yuvraj against the two IPL debutants, Mills and Aniket Choudhury.
Yuvraj and Henriques tee off
One of the under-rated players in Sunrisers' triumph last year, Henriques batted effortlessly at No. 3 after Warner fell against the run of play. Even though Dhawan struck at a potentially damaging strike rate of 129 over 31 balls, Henriques didn't let the momentum stall. And when he met Yuvraj in the middle, Royal Challengers had to face some carnage. Yuvraj had one of his nights where everything he hit went. The highlight of his innings was when Mills, one of the best at the slower legcutter, found him waiting for that very delivery. Yuvraj proceeded to send it sailing over midwicket for a six. Ben Cutting provided the final touches with two sixes in the last over, bowled again by Shane Watson.
Cutting, Rashid, Hooda drag Royal Challengers back
After yet another ominous start from Gayle, Cutting began the comeback for Sunrisers. He first gave Gayle what no one else had: a bouncer. Then came the offcutter, the delivery that had dismissed Gayle in the final. A wide yorker made an appearance. Despite just a five-run fifth over, Royal Challengers had had the first win. They had made Rashid bowl in the first six: in bowling 546 balls in T20Is, Rashid had bowled only one over inside the front six. Rashid, though, rose to the challenge, and bowled Mandeep Singh in trademark fashion: bowled with a straighter delivery, making it 14 of his 40 right-hand victims bowled. Now the World T20 final repeated itself. Warner went to the part-time offspinner in Deepak Hooda - remember Joe Root? - and Gayle holed out to long-off after hitting one six.
Cutting, Rashid, part II
Kedar Jadhav and Travis Head, though, kept Royal Challengers alive with a 56-run partnership in 5.1 overs. With 93 required in 8.3 overs, the asking rate was still in check, especially with Watson still in the shed. This is when Jadhav attempted an ambitious second only to find an effortless and flat direct hit from fine leg. Cutting had once again dragged Royal Challengers back. Rashid now repeated his second-favourite dismissal, the wrong'un to the left-hand batsman, as Head top-edged a slog sweep. Against the quality of Sunrisers' attack, Watson alone was always going to be one man too few, and they fell short by 35 in the end.
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2nd match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Mumbai Indians
Rising Pune Supergiant 187 for 3 beat Mumbai Indians 184 for 8 by seven wickets
One over can often change the course of a T20 game, and on Thursday it seemed as if Ashok Dinda had bowled that over. It was the most expensive 20th over in all IPL matches, and it cost Rising Pune Supergiant 30 runs. On another occasion, it could have cost them the match as well. On this occasion, however, Pune had already done just enough good work with the ball to keep Mumbai Indians, despite that 30-run over, down to a total of 184.
On a good batting pitch that seemed to quicken up under lights, it tested Pune's batting, but proved just short of a winning total. Ajinkya Rahane set the chase up with 60 at a strike rate of 176.47, and Steven Smith steered them home with an ice-cool, unbeaten 84 off 54 balls. The equation came down to 10 off three balls, but Smith wasn't going to be beaten - he finished the match with successive sixes off Kieron Pollard.
If there was one decisive factor that separated the two sides, it may have been the compositions of the two bowling attacks. Pune went into the match with two legspinners in Imran Tahir and Adam Zampa and a purveyor of stump-to-stump slow-medium cutters in Rajat Bhatia. These three ended up with combined figures of 6 for 68 in 10 overs. In the other ten overs, Pune's three faster bowlers - Dinda, Deepak Chahar and Ben Stokes - combined to take one wicket and concede 114.
Tahir and Bhatia, in particular, had profited from the slightly two-paced nature of the pitch, where they got some balls to skid on and others to stop on the batsman. When the quicker bowlers bowled, however, the ball came on to the bat far more uniformly. Mumbai had an attack full of quicks and short on bowlers who could take the pace off the ball. They had left out Harbhajan Singh, their most capped player, and picked only one frontline spinner in Krunal Pandya.
Buttler opens for Mumbai
Mumbai sprang a surprise after being sent in, promoting Jos Buttler to open alongside Parthiv Patel. Pune probably didn't expect this - before this, Buttler had only batted in the top three positions seven times in a 163-match T20 career, and in the IPL, he had only batted four times in the Powerplay.
Buttler made an immediate impression with his unpredictable movements around the crease and deft hands, spooking the raw Chahar in particular. There were three fours and three sixes in the Powerplay, the most eye-catching of them coming off successive balls from Stokes - a six shovelled down the ground and a six in the opposite direction, scooped over the wicketkeeper.
With Parthiv profiting from some loose bowling from Dinda at the other end, Mumbai raced to 61 for 1 in the Powerplay.
Tahir turns it
That one wicket came in the fifth over. With Buttler going the way he was, Smith, as he would later reveal at the presentation ceremony, brought Tahir on "earlier than he would have liked to". Having just swept his first ball for four, Parthiv tried again, missed, and was bowled around his legs by a googly.
In his next over, Tahir dismissed Rohit Sharma and then Buttler - one bowled, one lbw, one with a googly, the other with a slider, both with balls that pitched on a perfect length - both batsmen were pinned to the crease - and skidded on. There was a bit of luck involved too; umpire S Ravi failed to spot a big inside-edge onto pad and sent Buttler on his way.
That immediately brought the run rate down. Nitish Rana found the leg-side boundary every now and then with pulls and slog-sweeps, but there was little else by way of boundary-scoring as Mumbai scored only 66 in the ten overs after the Powerplay. There were three more wickets too - two to Bhatia and one to Zampa.
That over
Before this match, Ashok Dinda had bowled the 20th over on 19 occasions, for an overall final-over economy rate of 12.8, the worst among all bowlers with a minimum of 10 final overs. He had conceded 25 or more in the 20th over on two previous occasions. When Steven Smith handed Dinda the ball to deliver the 20th over of Mumbai's innings here, therefore, he must have done so with a certain amount of trepidation. For one, he had already conceded 28 from his first three overs.
Dinda had a field set for the wide yorker, and kept trying it and missing either the line or the length. It still needed a quality hitter to take four sixes off that bowling, and Mumbai had one in Hardik Pandya. He slapped a wide full-toss over the point boundary, held his shape for an extra fraction of a second to launch a back-of-the-hand slower ball over long-off, and whipped a straight, full ball over long-on. Then came another wide length ball - this one flew past the keeper off the edge - and a short ball that Pandya swatted over cow corner.
By the end of the over, 154 for 7 had become 184 for 8. Mumbai had never before lost while scoring 184 or more.
Rahane times it
Now, though, they ran into Rahane. He's not the quickest scorer across conditions, but give him a pitch where the ball comes on to the bat and he can pepper the boundaries. He seemed to be carrying on from the form he showed in India's small run chase in the Dharamsala Test, driving, chipping inside-out, and pulling with abandon. The surest sign of his form came when he came down the track to Krunal Pandya, found himself not close enough to the pitch of the ball to loft with a full extension of his arms, and checked his shot. The ball still managed to clear a leaping Kieron Pollard at long-on.
With a bit of help from Mumbai's seamers, who offered him width too often for their own good, Rahane ended up scoring quicker than he has done in any of his previous IPL innings. By the time he was done, Supergiants were 93 for 2 in 10.1 overs.
Smith does the rest
When Rahane was caught on the square-leg boundary, Pune needed 92 from 59 balls, and when Stokes, their No. 4, fell for 21 off 14, they needed 42 off 28. By then, Smith had already reached his fifty, managing to dispatch any length and any line from any bowler into his favourite leg-side spots. He had also been dropped once, on 36, Rana putting down a fairly straightforward chance at deep square leg when Smith pulled Mitchell McClenaghan in the air.
Given all that, it should have been a canter, particularly with MS Dhoni walking in at No. 5, but it wasn't. The ghost of Dinda's over stretched this match into some pretty uncomfortable territory for Pune. Jasprit Bumrah and McClenaghan almost bowled the perfect 17th, 18th and 19th overs, cramping Dhoni with back-of-a-length bowling angling into him, but Smith and Dhoni managed to find late boundaries in each of those overs, capitalising on the smallest error.
Pollard, defending 13 off the last over, began by conceding just three singles. With 10 required off three, Smith manufactured an astonishing hit; getting on the front foot to a short-of-good-length slower ball and launching it, baseball-style, over long-on. The next ball was full and at his feet, and he whipped it effortlessly over deep midwicket.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3rd 3rd match - Gujarat Lions v Kolkata Knight Riders
Gujarat Lions 183/4 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 184/0 (14.5/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 10 wickets (with 31 balls remaining)
Kolkata Knight Riders took down a target of 184 without losing a single wicket - a world record in T20 cricket - and the man that did the heavy lifting was Chris Lynn.
Promoted to open the batting for only the third time in 87 T20 matches, he equalled the franchise's second-fastest fifty - off 19 balls - put on the IPL's highest opening partnership - 184* - with Gautam Gambhir and finally secured victory with 5.1 overs to spare.
The result - as emphatic as it was - highlighted Gujarat Lions' weak bowling attack and the mistake they made by choosing four opening batsmen as their overseas players.
Lynnsanity - 93 not out off 41 balls, eight sixes, six fours
Making Lynn bat as high as possible makes sense. He smacks fast bowling at an average of 43.10 and at a run-rate of 10.19 an over. At his most recent T20 tournament - the Big Bash - he hit a boundary every four balls.
Brendon McCullum, his captain at the Brisbane Heat, told the commentators that the idea of bowling a good length to Lynn was a non-starter. The very length that makes Praveen Kumar and Dhawal Kulkarni potent. As a result, Gujarat Lions' best bowlers were used for only three out of the first six overs.
Left-arm wristspinner Shivil Kaushik, in only his second season of the IPL, and Manpreet Gony, playing in the tournament for the first time since 2013, were asked to pick up the slack in the fielding restrictions. It led to a Knight Riders record as they made their highest score in the Powerplay - 73 runs.
Gambhir's rage - 76 not out off 48 balls, 12 fours
Gambhir actually outscored Lynn at the start, so much that he made his best score after six overs in the IPL. Of the 40 runs he made in this period, 16 came in a single over off Kaushik, whose unorthodox bowling action tends to affect his control.
Kaushik was perhaps introduced into the attack to mess with Lynn's timing, but Gambhir, being an excellent player of spin, took charge. The head-to-head on the night read 23 runs off 13 balls with five fours.
With both ends leaking runs, Lions were simply unsure of what to do. And that was all dandy for the Knight Riders captain, who racked up his 32nd IPL fifty, two short of David Warner's record.
Lions' bowling woes
Chasing teams had won four out of five IPL matches in Rajkot before Friday, but Lions would have fancied their chances, all the way up to the point where five of their six bowlers conceded economy rates of 10 and more. Kulkarni was smashed for 42 in 2.5 overs, Gony 32 in two, Kaushik 40 in four , Dwayne Smith 23 in one and Shadab Jakati 30 in three.
Two of their first-choice picks - Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja - are injured. Their eight overs were sorely missed. Considering the team management would have known that going into the game, it was a surprise that James Faulkner and Andrew Tye were ignored. Their ability to change the pace and bowl yorkers would have been useful in throwing off Lynn and Gambhir, who were basically pressing forward, lining the balls up, and golf-swinging them for six.
Whens Lions had it good
Fifty three runs in the final four overs. That's the high Lions were brought down from. Their batsmen had done well to not buckle under pressure through the middle overs. Not even when they made only 39 runs in six overs between the 10th and 16th.
Suresh Raina had never made a fifty in his first match of an IPL season. He corrected that with an innings that wasn't always perfect but pretty useful. If people wanted to point out his four mis-hits fell between fielders, two dropped catches and the missing of an easy run-out chance, he can point to the scoreboard and say he made 68 off 51 balls.
Dinesh Karthik was the other batting mastermind. He hit 11.28 runs per over - his second-highest in an innings of 25 balls or more. His 47 was the cameo Lions needed especially after their openers fell after helping put on 52 runs inside the Powerplay.
Brendon McCullum smashed Kuldeep Yadav for a six and four before hitting across the line and falling lbw. It was the 21st time he has fallen to left-arm spin in the IPL and now averages 17.80 against it. Jason Roy was undone by Piyush Chawla, which brought his tally against legspin in T20s to 48 runs off 47 balls and five dismissals.
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4th match - Kings XI Punjab v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 163/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 164/4 (19/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 6 wickets (with 6 balls remaining)
Rising Pune Supergiant have tried for eight matches and have yet to win an IPL match batting first. Glenn Maxwell, meanwhile, nailed 44 unbeaten runs off 20 balls and made sure his senior-team captaincy debut would forever be a happy memory.
Kings XI Punjab owed their six-wicket win to their bowlers though. They were so good that an outstanding fifth-wicket partnership between Ben Stokes and Manoj Tiwary - 61 runs off 37 balls with only two dots - ended up in vain.
The Kings XI strangle
Eight out of the 20 overs they bowled yielded five runs or less. It began with Sandeep Sharma bowling Mayank Agarwal, who fell in the Powerplay for the 28th time in 39 IPL innings.
That forced Ajinkya Rahane and Steven Smith into rebuild mode - Rising Pune had been 7 for 1 after three overs - on a two-paced pitch where the new ball seemed to skid and bounce and the old one stopped on the batsman. Smith, the current captain, was dismissed with a strike-rate below 100 to one that jumped up at him. MS Dhoni, the former captain, was dismissed with a strike-rate below 50, to one that came off the pitch slower than he expected.
The Rising Pune saviours, almost
In an innings 32 deliveries long, Stokes let only four become dots. Power-hitters can sometimes get caught up in just hitting the ball hard, but Stokes understood the risk of Rising Pune losing him too with a majority of the overs still left. He played the percentages well, feeding his knock with 22 singles and picked the left-arm spinners to hit. Stokes bashed 32 runs off 18 balls off Axar Patel and Swapnil Singh.
In an innings 23 deliveries long, Tiwary let only two become dots. His strike-rate of 173.91 was his best under condition of more than 15 balls faced. There were gorgeous inside-out shots over cover and point, highlighting a still base, and a straight six in the 19th over, when Stokes had fallen, highlighting his ability for the crunch moments.
Tahir against the world
The fact that Imran Tahir has great accuracy, and a googly not too many people pick, is apparent from the fact he has bowled batsmen, or pinned them lbw, to get 43 of his 176 T20 wickets. He was Rising Pune's biggest threat with the ball and he showed it for three overs, picking up two wickets and conceding only 14 runs. Saha's stumps were broken and pinch-hitter Axar Patel was caught and bowled.
Tahir's final over, saved for the end, was smashed for 14 runs as Maxwell capitalised sent a couple of short balls soaring over the rope. Maxwell had begun the charge to victory in the previous over off Stokes. The equation had been 48 off 30 balls when the England allrounder came on. A short delivery was belted wide of the sweeper cover with great power and a full delivery was launched over mid-off for six, establishing Maxwell's game awareness.
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5th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Delhi Daredevils
RCB 157/8 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 142/9 (20/20 ov)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 15 runs
One bull, two bears
Royal Challengers opened with their best batsmen in the XI - Chris Gayle and Shane Watson. Both looked fluent, choosing timing over their preferred modus operandi of brute force. It worked well until Gayle mis-timed a full toss from Chris Morris to mid-off. Mandeep Singh chopped on. Shane Watson was stumped for just the third time in the IPL. Shahbaz Nadeem delivered 4-0-13-1, his most economical four-over figures in the IPL. It was Royal Challengers' first bear market.
Then came Jadhav: full of form, confidence and belief. All of it was discernible with his timing and shot selection despite Royal Challengers' shaky footing. He brought out the inside-out lofted drives and the off-balance flicks through midwicket. Jadhav's natural flair was uninhibited. He struck five fours and five sixes in his 37-ball 69. Suddenly a score of close to 180 seemed possible.
Clichéd as it may be, wickets turned the game again. Zaheer Khan had Stuart Binny caught at midwicket and then flummoxed Jadhav with a slower ball. In between, he contributed to debutant Vishnu Vinod's run-out. Seventeen of Chris Morris' 24 deliveries were dot balls as he returned figures of 3 for 21. The last four overs yielded just 23, and Royal Challengers finished with an under-par 157.
Another impressive debut
Having impressed with his pace in the Big Bash League for Adelaide Strikers, Billy Stanlake was bought by Royal Challengers for his base price INR 30 lakh, in the second round of the auction. Stanlake used possibly the quickest surface in the competition to zip through Daredevils' top order with accuracy and sufficient lateral movement. He went through Karun Nair's defense with a length delivery that moved away and then harried Sanju Samson for pace with a short delivery, picking up two wickets to keep a packed crowd squealing.
Hit and miss
Pant smashed his first ball of the season for a massive six over midwicket. Even as his innings wore on, his timing didn't fail him. Daredevils' middle and lower order crumbled around him, but he kept his composure to take his team within 21 with two overs remaining. Bowling the penultimate over, Watson's plan was clear: beat or get under the bat outside off. He varied his lengths and pace to concede just two runs, including four dot balls to Mishra.
With 18 to defend off the final over, the game was still not done. Watson opted for the left-arm spin of Negi to Pant. "Pant had not seen him all night. Iqbal Abdulla had bowled three overs to him," Watson explained at the post-match presentation. Negi's dart hit leg stump off the first ball, and Watson was vindicated.
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6th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Gujarat Lions
Sunrisers Hyderabad dominated all aspects of a T20 game - batting, bowling, fielding and winning a toss - to consign Gujarat Lions to their second rout of the season. Sunrisers cruised to their second comfortable victory, with nine wickets in hand and 27 balls to spare. Lions stuck to the same combination as the first game - four overseas batsmen and five Indian bowlers - and lacked balance and penetration again. With the bat, they could muster just 135, their second-lowest first-innings total. With the ball, they've taken just one wicket in two games.
Sunrisers, on the other hand, were clutch in planning and execution. Rashid Khan flummoxed the Lions batsmen with his variations to become the highest wicket-taker of this season's IPL. Then chasing 137, David Warner struck an unbeaten 45-ball 76, going past 1000 IPL runs at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium and 7000 overall runs in T20 cricket.
The IPL's most significant trend
Sunrisers captain Warner was clear at the toss. He knew the surface would play slower in the afternoon and his spinners would be useful against Lions' packed overseas stars. After putting Lions in to bat - the fifth occasion in six games a team has chosen to chase this season - Warner started with left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma. The pitch played pretty much as expected: slow, low, and timing spinners wasn't easy. Sunrisers' spinners - Rashid and Bipul - returned combined figures of 8-0-43-3 leaving the Lions to play catch-up thereafter.
Legspin winning T20s
Picking Rashid's variations from his stock ball has been one of the harder tasks in Associate cricket. That is why he is regularly employed towards the end overs in T20Is for Afghanistan. In just two games, Rashid has shown discerning legspin isn't simple for the best either.
Batsmen often look for a cross-batted option against spin they aren't able to read. That seemed the case when Brendon McCullum chose to sweep in Rashid's first over. He missed the googly and was struck in front of the wicket. Aaron Finch and Suresh Raina were deceived too: Finch off a googly and Raina off a regulation legbreak. Both batsmen missed the ball by a considerable distance, an indicator that they failed to pick Rashid. It was the first time a bowler took three lbws in an IPL game.
Two of the best legspinners in the world currently, Rashid and Imran Tahir, both attack the stumps - a legbreak to a left-hander and a googly to a right-hander - to new batsmen. It has worked, and not just in the IPL.
Not timing a T20 chase
Sometimes, a higher total to chase frees up a batting team. Pacing an innings while chasing a relatively small total can also be fraught with danger because of the unpredictability of the end overs. Warner, rightly, didn't change his normal approach to Sunrisers' 136 target.
With two left-handers opening, Suresh Raina bowled the first over. He had bowled only 30 balls in the Powerplay and conceded 32 runs prior to this game. His first delivery was flat and straight, skidding on with the arm. Warner gave himself room and cut to point off middle stump. While that was a risky stroke, it showed Raina his best delivery could be taken for runs.
That risk paid off in the next over, when Raina was forced to change his length. Warner used his feet against Raina's flight to hit a straight six, and then used the depth of the crease to pull for six off a shorter delivery. He had raced away to 32 off 17 balls in the Powerplay, and Sunrisers were 59 for 1. By then, the game was effectively won.
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7th match - Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders 178/7 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 180/6 (19.5/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 4 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
On a high-scoring, field-first ground, and fighting considerable dew, Kolkata Knight Riders nearly won with an under-par 176 but failed to defend 59 in the last 23 balls. In the cauldron, with the home crowd burning their ears and a wet ground underfoot, the visiting Knight Riders just froze in the field after taking out almost all the big guns from Mumbai Indians.
Almost. Because at 119 for 5, Mumbai sent out Hardik Pandya, whose cameo met Nitish Rana's hitherto solid innings to stage a heist. Rana went from 29 off 23 to 50 off 28, and Hardik hit the winning runs in his 11-ball 29. The night belonged to the brothers after Krunal Pandya dragged Knight Riders back with his left-arm spin of 4-0-24-3. Two of these wickets read c Pandya b Pandya.
Looking London, going Tokyo with K Pandya
Chris Lynn came into this match on the back of an explosive 93, but he goes at only 6.16 against left-arm spin. It was expected, then, that Krunal would bowl early in the innings. Knight Riders had already run away to 44 in four by the time he came on, and Lynn was not on strike first ball. Doesn't matter, because Krunal took two bonus wickets of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa in that over.
Sometimes a wide is better than going for a boundary
The other thing about Lynn was his wagon wheel in his 93. He scored 52 off those runs in 17 hits to leg, and not one behind square. So Mumbai bowled to him with a long-on and a cow corner, short and into the body, denying him the swing of the arms. The quicks even bowled two wides to him down the leg side. In the end, against Jasprit Bumrah, Lynn went to hit square, to miss that man at cow corner, and moved too far across to be lbw with Knight Riders at 67 for 3 in the eighth over, with a middle-overs slowdown to follow.
Pandey to the rescue
Manish Pandey, who before this match had scored 53 off 53 Harbhajan Singh deliveries, was part of that slowdown when Harbhajan and Krunal turned the screws. Pandey, though, can shift gears dramatically. His overall strike rate in IPL is 111 over the first 30 balls of an innings, and 173 off the next 30. Here he went from 35 off 30 to 81 off 47, taking Mitchell McClenaghan apart in a 23-run final over.
Confusion at the top
Perhaps Mumbai don't trust Parthiv Patel to bat anywhere other than against the new ball. Perhaps they want a big batsman in the middle. Perhaps they are not giving it enough thought, but their top four remains a muddle. Knight Riders bowled superbly against Jos Buttler, Parthiv, Rana (promoted ahead of Rohit Sharma) and Rohit to reduce them to 74 for 3 in 10. There was swing for Trent Boult, pace from Ankit Rajpoot, and guile from the two spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine.
Pollard gone, game over?
This was now becoming Kieron Pollard v Knight Riders. Pollard even blocked out a whole over from Kuldeep to turn 73 off 41 into 71 off 36. Soon it went past two runs a ball and nudged 2.5 a delivery as Pollard struggled against fellow Trinidadian Narine. Pollard was now ripe for the taking, and Chris Woakes did so with a wide bouncer. This was the 17th over, the wheels were about to come off.
Own goal after own goal
The ground was pretty wet by now. The pitch was still flat. The boundaries were still small. Mumbai still needed just one man to get on a roll. It all began with a fielding error. Rana set off for a desperate single, the throw from mid-off came in, and Woakes didn't have the ball in his hands when he removed the bails. Rana should have been out for 28 off 22. And then both of them got on a roll.
With Gambhir off the field, Suryakumar Yadav bucked the trend of bowling the best bowler in the 19th, and kept 18th and 20th for Boult. Nineteen came off the 18th over with Boult missing the yorker twice. It is arguable if they should have been bowling yorkers with the wet ball, but at Wankhede, length is not the answer either. Youngster Rajpoot kept going for the yorker in the 19th, conceding two sixes but also taking out Rana with one.
With 11 required off the last over, Boult went full for the first two balls. Two leg-byes and a single should have been the result but the ball slipped under stand-in captain Suryakumar's hands at long-on. Now with Hardik on strike instead of Harbhajan, Boult went for the bouncers. A dot ball and a wicket should have been the result, but substitute Rishi Dhawan slipped under a sitter. What should have been a single became a boundary, what should have been an easy catch became two runs, and Knight Riders weren't left with anyone else to blame.
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8th match - Kings XI Punjab v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 148/4KXIP 150/2
KXIP win by 8 wickets
AB de Villiers, returning from a back injury and replacing Chris Gayle, made a jaw-dropping 89 off 46 balls, but the rest of Royal Challengers Bangalore was so woeful that Kings XI Punjab won with 33 balls to spare.
De Villiers arrived in the second over but by the end of the 15th, he had faced only 28 balls and scored 31 runs. Mandeep Singh and Stuart Binny had taken most of the strike and scored at less than a run a ball. In the last five overs, though, de Villiers faced 18 deliveries and scored 58 off them. He helped RCB double their 15-over score of 71 and was the sole reason they got 148.
A measure of how poor the rest of the RCB batsmen were, though, was how easily a collective effort from Kings XI overhauled the target. Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla and Glenn Maxwell timed the ball sublimely under lights and took the RCB seamers for more than ten runs an over. Kings XI's eight-wicket win was their second in two games, while RCB suffered their second defeat in three.
RCB strangled in the Powerplay
In their previous match against Rising Pune Supergiant at the same venue on Saturday, Kings XI bowled 14 dots in the Powerplay. Against RCB, Sandeep Sharma alone bowled 14. In all Kings XI sent down 22 dots, limiting RCB to 23 for 3; only four times in the past had RCB made a lower Powerplay score.
Before this match, Axar Patel had dismissed Shane Watson every time they had faced off in the IPL. So it made sense for Axar to take the new ball against Watson and he maintained his perfect record when Watson dragged an arm ball back onto the stumps. Sandeep sent down a volley of swinging deliveries but it was the short ball that coaxed a top edge from Vishnu Vinod.
De Villiers repairs damage
De Villiers rusty? You've got to be kidding. He deftly guided his first ball to the point boundary. He then watched his team-mates starve him of the strike, and fall into the hole Kings XI had dug for them. The pitch was quicker than the one used for the match against Rising Pune. Varun Aaron, picked in place of left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, Axar, and Marcus Stoinis tucked RCB up, and ensured they did not score a boundary for 38 balls in the middle overs.
De Villiers then switched into super-batsman mode: carving near-yorkers for fours and launching length balls on to the roof - or over the roof - of the stadium. He even struck a six over cover despite being off balance and having to reach far away from his body. He hit eight sixes and a four in the last five overs of the innings.
Nailing the chase
Vohra likes pace on the ball. Before this match, he scored at 8.39 an over against pace in the IPL, and 6.78 against spin. He kick-started the chase with three fours in four balls off Watson. Amla also prospered, hitting on the up, as Kings XI shaved 50 off the target in five overs. Tymal Mills came into the attack next over and pinned Vohra lbw with a slower legcutter, but Amla progressed to a typically serene fifty. At the other end, Maxwell produced more unorthodox shots - ramps and golf-swings - and a chastening loss was inevitable for RCB.
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9th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils 205 for 4 beat Rising Pune Supergiant 108 by 97 runs
A maiden T20 hundred from Sanju Samson and a blistering unbeaten 38, off just nine balls, from Chris Morris, led Delhi Daredevils to their first 200-plus total since April 2012. It was more than enough to give them their first win of the season, as Rising Pune Supergiants - who were without Steven Smith, their regular captain and best batsman - crumbled in the face of a steadily mounting asking rate, folding for 108 in 16.1 overs.
The efforts of Samson and Morris - helped by some not particularly clever death bowling from Ashok Dinda, Adam Zampa and Ben Stokes - brought Daredevils 76 runs off their last four overs. It was the third-best last-four tally in the IPL, behind two Royal Challengers Bangalore blitzes, and it undid the control Rising Pune's bowlers - Imran Tahir in particular - had exerted through the middle overs, and ensured they would be chasing 206 rather than, say, 184.
An innings of three thirds
Samson walked in after Daredevils lost Aditya Tare in the second over and began with a flurry of boundaries against Rising Pune's quicks, piercing the field with a series of drives and punches through point and cover. Capitalising on the width given by Deepak Chahar and Dinda, Samson scored 31 off his first 14 balls, hitting six fours in that time. With Sam Billings similarly positive at the other end, Daredevils scored 62 for 1 in the Powerplay - their best effort since scoring 64 against Deccan Chargers in May 2012.
The spreading of the field and the introduction of slower bowlers - Tahir, Zampa and Rajat Bhatia - slowed Samson down. He didn't manage a single boundary as he went from 31 off 14 to 54 off 45, with Rishabh Pant - who smacked 31 off 22 - assuming the dominant role in a third-wicket partnership worth 53.
Then came the third phase of Samson's innings, which began with a straight six off Zampa. From that ball on, Samson made 48 off 17 - the bulk of them in a 19-run 18th over from Dinda - and reached his century with another six off Zampa before being bowled by his quicker ball in the 19th over. Samson's 63-ball 102 was the 43rd IPL hundred, and the sixth slowest.
The Morris massacre
Daredevils were 166 for 4, with ten balls left in their innings, when Morris entered the picture. Of those ten balls, Corey Anderson would only face one, wisely taking a single off it - wisely, because Morris was in utterly unreal form, dispatching seven of the nine balls he faced to or over the boundary, all off the middle of his bat. Zampa went for 22 in the 19th over, and Stokes for 23 in the 20th. There were three massive sixes in Morris' innings, but his best shot went for four - an off-stump yorker from Stokes, squeezed past backward point with a cleverly manipulated bat-face.
A non-rising Pune chase
Rising Pune's bowlers had sent down a number of freebies to get Daredevils' innings going. Daredevils' bowlers did not return the favour. There were only four boundaries in Rising Pune's Powerplay overs, and three wickets. Two fell to Zaheer Khan's slower ball, and one - the debutant Rahul Tripathi - to a fast and accurate bouncer from Morris.
With the required rate nearing 12 an over, Faf du Plessis and Stokes fell in the next two overs, trying to manufacture shots. From 54 for 5, there would be no way back for Rising Pune.
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10th match - Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Mumbai Indians 159 for 6 beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 158 for 8 by four wickets
Harbhajan Singh and Jasprit Bumrah bowled accurate and miserly spells on a typically high-scoring ground to condemn Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first defeat in six matches. Harbhajan did not find much turn, but maintained a constricting line, while Bumrah showcased his variations to limit Sunrisers to a modest 158 for 8.
Sunrisers, having Mustafizur Rahman and Rashid Khan in their ranks, might have still felt they were in with a chance, but the lack of grip and turn off a dew-slicked pitch doused it. That Mustafizur conceded 34 runs in 2.4 overs summed up the impact of the dew. Parthiv Patel had made early headway in the chase with a slap-happy 39 off 24 balls. By the time he fell, Mumbai Indians needed 74 off 60 balls. Nitish Rana then worked his way through the middle overs with Krunal Pandya, but it was Harbhajan who fittingly sewed up the win. The chasing team has now won each of the last six IPL games at the Wankhede Stadium.
The strangle I
Harbhajan and Lasith Malinga got the ball to skid into Shikhar Dhawan and cramped him for room. The only real loose ball to Dhawan in the Powerplay was a waist-high full toss, which he punched straight to cover point. He eked out only seven runs at strike rate of 46.66 - his second lowest in the first six overs in the IPL, when he has played at least 10 balls.
Dhawan and Warner break free
Mitchell McClenaghan, introduced after the Powerplay, let Dhawan off the hook with a brace of length balls. Dhawan opened up his hips and powerfully swatted one over the midwicket boundary. He then manufactured his own length by jumping down the track, taking a half-volley and belting it to the cover boundary.
Warner had looked fidgety against the new ball as well, but found fluency against the old one with four boundaries off five balls in the middle overs.
The strangle II
At 81 for 0 in 10.1 overs, Sunrisers might have set their sights on a rousing finish, but they were in for a rude shock: they lost 7 for 72, including four in the last three overs. It was Harbhajan who set the collapse in motion, dismissing Warner for 49 and Deepak Hooda for nine in successive overs. He finished with 2 for 23 and ceded the stage to Bumrah who throttled Sunrisers further with his yorkers and slower dippers. Bumrah capped the innings with better figures of 3 for 24 but much of the strangle was down to Harbhajan's accuracy.
Parthiv and Rana go bang
In stark contrast to Sunrisers, Mumbai Indians held nothing back in the Powerplay. Despite the early loss of Jos Buttler and Rohit Sharma, Parthiv scythed full balls through the covers and pulled shorter ones over midwicket. His blows at the top perhaps freed up Rana, who began with an shovelled six off Mustafizur over fine leg. Rana also smartly saw off Rashid, who conceded just 19 despite the dew. The match was all but over when Rashid was done in the 15th; Krunal made sure of things with a flurry of boundaries over the next couple of overs.
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11th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab
KXIP 170/9
KKR 171/2
KKR win by 8 wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders improved on this season's chasing trend, coasting to an eight-wicket win against Kings XI Punjab with 21 balls to spare in their first home game. It was the eighth win by a chasing side in 11 games this season. Chasing 171, Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine, promoted to open the batting, struck 76 in the Powerplay to effectively kill the game. Gambhir made an unbeaten 72, his 33rd IPL fifty, equalling David Warner's tally in the tournament. Knight Riders have not lost an IPL game at the Eden Gardens while chasing since 2012.
Kings XI had initially made a bright start with a 53-run opening stand between Hashim Amla and Manan Vohra, their second successive fifty-plus stand. However, Kings XI lost a middle-overs tussle between their own attacking approach and Knight Riders' slow bowlers, losing wickets and momentum. Knight Riders curbed the scoring rate, and Umesh Yadav took three wickets in the 18th over - finishing with 4 for 33 on his return - to limit Kings XI to 170, a sub-par score on a quick outfield and a true pitch.
Do what your opposition doesn't want
Amla and Vohra, rely on their timing more than power even in T20s. On a surface with plenty of pace and bounce, Knight Riders used seam, playing into the hands of the Kings XI openers. They struck nine boundaries between them and Kings XI raced away to 45 for 0 in the first four overs, forcing Gambhir to look at his slow-bowling options.
He turned to the spin of Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla. The difference in tact was evident when the openers were made to hit through the line, instead of using an angled bat. Both spinners struck in their first spells and stalled Kings XI's momentum.
The art of setting a target
The challenge of batting first on small grounds is deciding how much to set the chasing team. How hard does their top order go? How many resources would they want in the end overs? In either case, utilising the last five overs efficiently is imperative.
Kings XI lost three wickets in 27 balls in the middle overs, falling from 66 for 1 to 98 for 4. While that may not appear to be a slump, it ensured that wickets in the end overs would leave Kings XI well short. Gambhir finished Narine relatively early, by the 16th over. Before 2015, he had bowled 42% of his overs in the last five overs; but since then, he has bowled 23% in that period.
In the 2016 IPL, the average score in the last five overs was 45.55. Kings XI, with the pressure of avoiding a collapse, scored just 36 runs in that phase. Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron faced the last two overs. No batsman scored 30 or more.
Using the Powerplay
It was a surprise when Melbourne Renegades chose to open with Narine in the last Big Bash League. A left-handed Marcus Harris was their designated opener. So it wasn't because they wanted a left hand-right hand combination. Instead of a batsman building an innings, they perhaps felt maximising run-making in the Powerplay was what the format needed. In the Pakistan Super League, Narine hit 11 sixes, the joint fifth-most in the tournament.
It was a surprise even when Knight Riders opened with Narine in their chase, but it wasn't flawed thinking. At worst, he would get out having not consumed too many balls.
But his promotion came off. He faced 18 deliveries and his intent was to block none of them. He ended up hitting four fours and three sixes to finish with 37. He added 76 runs with Gambhir in 34 balls, helping Knight Riders make their highest Powerplay score.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians
RCB 142/5
MI 145/6
MI win by 4 wickets
A drier-than-usual Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch produced a low-scoring contest that included a 59-ball spell without a boundary and a Powerplay hat-trick by a legspinner. That legspinner, Samuel Badree, took 4 for 9 on his Royal Challengers Bangalore debut, and at the end of his four-over quota, Mumbai Indians, chasing 143, were 33 for 5 in eight overs.
Badree, though, was to end up on the losing side. The match-winner was another Trinidadian, Kieron Pollard, who scored a brilliantly calculated 70 off 47 balls and added 93 for the sixth wicket with Krunal Pandya to consign RCB to their third defeat in four games.
Kohli and Gayle make ponderous start
A shoulder injury had kept Virat Kohli out of action for nearly a month, but showed no signs of rust when he hit a six and two fours off Tim Southee in the third over of RCB's innings. Perhaps the most important ball of that over, however, was a dot - the last ball, to Gayle. Southee bowled it cross-seam, Gayle left it alone, and the ball kept low and bounced a second time before reaching the keeper.
Both captains had mentioned at the toss - Mumbai won it and chose to bowl - that the pitch seemed drier than usual, and Mumbai's bowlers quickly cottoned on. Harbhajan Singh bowled in the Powerplay to specifically target Gayle - before this match, he had conceded 65 off 65 to the Jamaican in the IPL, while dismissing him three times - and the seamers bowled cutters into the pitch, and found the two-paced pitch to their liking.
Aside from that Southee over, only the really bad ball went to the boundary, with Kohli and Gayle content to push the rest around for ones and twos, and RCB were 66 for 1 at the 10-over mark. Gayle fell in the 10th over for 22 off 27 balls.
Krunal snuffs out RCB's spark
RCBs were beginning to build some momentum, taking 19 off Jasprit Bumrah in the 14th over, in the course of which Kohli had reached his fifty with a six over long-off. AB de Villiers was at the crease too, and had been dropped on 7 by Jos Buttler at deep midwicket.
The unlucky bowler was Krunal Pandya, who had come on as soon as de Villiers came in, probably because he had dismissed him in both their previous meetings. The drop didn't end up costing too much - de Villiers, looking to hit him inside-out in the 17th over, failed to get elevation and Rohit Sharma caught him with a dive to his left.
In the previous over, Kohli had slapped McClenaghan straight to deep point. If RCB's' slow build-up was supposed to lead to fireworks in the slog overs, they probably didn't account for having new batsmen at the crease on a difficult pitch to start hitting immediately. As it happened, they only managed 32 for 4 in the last five overs.
Badree runs through Mumbai's top order
Given the dryness of the surface, RCB had left out the fast bower Billy Stanlake and included Badree as one of two legspinners. By now, driving on the up seemed fraught with risk on this pitch. Jos Buttler departed in the second over, flicking Stuart Binny in the air. Parthiv Patel followed in the next over, scooping Badree to short cover.
In the next two balls, 7 for 2 became 7 for 4. McClenaghan, ostensibly promoted to use his left-handedness to go after Badree, slogged a full-toss straight to long-on, and Rohit, for the second time in two matches, was deceived by a googly.
Badree bowled out by the eighth over, and ended his spell with another wicket: Nitish Rana caught at backward point, failing to keep a cut down. At this point, Mumbai needed 110 off 72 balls, with half their side gone.
Pollard, Krunal turn it around
But Mumbai would no longer have Badree to worry about. After the match, Pollard revealed that he and Krunal had targeted the other spinners, looking for at least one boundary off each of their overs to keep the asking rate in check. They managed to do this right through their partnership, while working the strike over regularly.
Five off five balls became 11 off the 10th over when Krunal muscled a wide quicker ball from Yuzvendra Chahal over the long-off boundary. Four off five balls became 10 off the 14th over when Pollard made room and lofted Pawan Negi over extra-cover. Pollard clobbered Negi for sixes off the last two balls of his next over, the 16th, and Mumbai suddenly only needed 33 from 24.
With only one over left from Tymal Mills, the rest of the last four would have to be bowled by the spinners and S Aravind. Pollard fell in the 18th over, to Chahal, but by then Mumbai only needed 17 off 15. Hardik Pandya arrived at the crease to help his brother ease them over the line.
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13th match - Gujarat Lions v Rising Pune Supergiant
Gujarat Lions 172 for 3 beat Rising Pune Supergiant 171 for 8 by seven wickets
Gujarat Lions had picked up only one wicket in two matches this season. But Andrew Tye took five times as many - including a hat-trick, the second of the day - to record the best figures by an IPL debutant. His 5 for 17 was then followed by a typically brutal display of batting from the top order to ensure a perfect record against Rising Pune Supergiant after three matches so far.
Good length = bad length
In the space of this past week, Lions have put on their two worst performances in the Poweplay. They leaked 73 runs in the season opener against Kolkata Knight Riders last Friday and now they gave up 64 to Rising Pune Supergiant. Their bowling attack largely consists of medium-pacers who, unless there is some sideways movement, can be lined up. All seven fours in the first six overs came off length balls. Two of the three sixes came off length balls. Praveen Kumar was carted for 25 runs in the fifth over. It had been 10 years since he had been that expensive in the IPL.
The change up
Pune had just recorded their fastest fifty of the tournament - in 27 balls. They had to be slowed down and so Lions turned to the bowler with the best slower ball. A batsman can read the offcutter when the bowler's wrist breaks. Ditto the legcutter. The back-of-the-hand slower ball is difficult largely because of the way it misbehaves off the pitch. But the knuckle ball is slightly different for much of its potency lies in making sure the batsman doesn't pick it.
As a batsman, 22 yards in front, it is hard to read the change in Tye's grip and he doesn't give anything away in his run up. He took four of his five wickets with that knuckle ball, including the one that sealed his second hat-trick of 2017.
Tye's introduction brought Lions back from the brink. They allowed only five of the 48 deliveries that followed the Powerplay to get to the boundary and in the 14th over the returning Ravindra Jadeja dismissed MS Dhoni for the second time in the IPL. The wicketkeeper-batsman fell for 5 off eight balls, his third successive innings at a strike-rate below 100.
From 120 for 5, even a solid partnership of 47 runs in 29 balls between Manoj Tiwary and Ankit Sharma - one of six changes to the XI - could only take Pune to 171.
The top-order threat
Lions' specialist openers made 762 runs in 2016 - that's 30% of the team's total runs. Stopping them had to be Pune's best chance to defend 171. But, on a slow pitch, they fed Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith with fast bowling. It proved a costly mistake. Both of them were set by the time Imran Tahir came on to bowl and the legspinnner was smashed for 15 runs in his first over. He would be hit for 10 boundaries in his spell - the most he has conceded in all the matches he has played in the IPL and for South Africa.
With the main threat decimated, all Lions had to do was trust in their batting depth. They had pushed Aaron Finch down the order because among their four overseas openers he handles spin best - averaging 27.73 and striking at 129. He and Raina, the first man to play 150 IPL games, saw this one through to the finish.
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14th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Kolkata Knight Riders 172 for 6 beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 155 for 6 by 17 runs
In an error-strewn match, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav bowled equally immaculate spells, but it was Kolkata Knight Riders who came away with their third win of the season and moved to the top of the points table.
Robin Uthappa nicked his first ball to the keeper, but umpire Anil Dandekar did not spot it. Uthappa continued to lead a charmed life and struck 68 off 39 balls, which formed the crux of KKR's 172 for 6. They could have got more had Bhuvneshwar not nailed his lengths. For the 11th time in an IPL match, Bhuvneshwar went for a run-a-ball or less from his four overs, all bowled in the Powerplay or the last five overs. He finished with 3 for 20, but it was not enough for Sunrisers.
David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan sauntered to 45 for 0 in the Powerplay, but Kuldeep's dismissal of Warner derailed the chase. They lost 6 for 83, and eventually their second successive match.
Brought down to earth
On Thursday, Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir ran up 76 in in 34 balls, taking KKR to their best Powerplay score. They were also helped by some lacklustre bowling from Kings XI's seamers, who kept feeding Narine with hip-high balls, which he comfortably swatted away, taking 23 off his 37 runs through the leg side. At the other end, they kept offering Gambhir width.
Narine hardly moves his feet, which means the perfect ball to him is a yorker. Kings XI did not bowl a single yorker to him, but Bhuvneshwar bowled one in his second over and scythed through Narine's defence. Gambhir again went after anything that was remotely full and outside off. Then, in Rashid Khan's first over, he was bowled, attempting to cut a non-turning legbreak, and KKR were kept to their first sub-50 score in the Powerplay this season.
Uthappa, Pandey cash in
Uthappa thickly edged his first ball to the keeper but got away. Dhawan then missed a direct hit when Uthappa was on 15. Uthappa went on to bring up a fifty off 27 balls. It wasn't wild slogging. He read Rashid's googlies and lined up the short balls that sat up on a surface that was drier than the one used for the Kings XI game. Uthappa took Rashid for 21 runs in 12 balls, the most any batsman has scored off him in this IPL.
Pandey could have been dismissed for 8 had Naman Ojha not missed a stumping chance off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma. Pandey was on 26 off 26 balls, including two fours, at one point, but hit three boundaries off his next five balls.
Staying alive at the death
In the previous season, Bhuvneshwar had picked up 13 wickets in 162 balls in the death overs - the joint highest with Shane Watson. After bowling two overs in the Powerplay, he returned to the attack in the 18th over and nabbed Pandey with a slower offcutter. In his next over, Bhuvneshwar cleaned up Colin Grandhomme with an inswinging yorker.
Kuldeep turns it around
Warner and Dhawan punished width, and hit a collective eight fours in the Powerplay. The introduction of Kuldeep, however, applied the brakes on the chase.
Kuldeep had harried Sunrisers last season, collecting 3 for 35 in the Eliminator. So, it wasn't really surprising that he was picked ahead of Piyush Chawla for this game. Warner, however, was surprised by Kuldeep's dip and turn. He managed only 7 off 13 balls against Kuldeep before skying a catch to long-off. Chris Woakes backed that up by removing Moises Henriques in the next over.
When Yuvraj Singh fell, Sunrisers needed 61 off 31 balls. It was too tall a task, and KKR secured their fifth win in as many matches against Sunrisers at Eden Gardens.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15th 15th match - Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab
Delhi Daredevils 188/6
Kings XI Punjab 137/9
Delhi Daredevils won by 51 runs
No side had chased down 189 to win an IPL game at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Having conceded 28 more than the average first-innings score at this venue, Kings XI Punjab needed their batsmen to pull off a heist. Instead, they sunk to 64 for 5 in the 11th over, with Glenn Maxwell, Eoin Morgan and Hashim Amla all dismissed. From there on, it was a no-contest and Delhi Daredevils won their first home game of the season by 51 runs.
Shahbaz Nadeem, the left-arm spinner, did the early damage by removing Manan Vohra and Wriddhiman Saha. Amit Mishra used the Kotla surface well, and got rid of Maxwell for the fourth time in five innings. The final nail was fittingly hammered by Corey Anderson, who trapped David Miller lbw, to go along with a robust cameo. Axar Patel pocketed his highest IPL score, but it was merely academic.
Kings XI 'Indians' control first half
Delhi Daredevils have preferred to invest in their young Indian batsmen to take charge upfront. Kings XI Punjab have done the same with the bowlers. This was therefore a contest within a contest. While Karun Nair was snuffed down the leg side for a duck to continue his wretched run of form across formats since scoring a match-winning triple ton in Tests against England in December, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant wasted starts. With Daredevils reduced to 120 for 5 in the 16th over, the late lift was left to Chris Morris and Corey Anderson. Up until then, Kings XI had won the bout of Indian players, with all of Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel and KC Cariappa, brought in for his first game in place of Ishant Sharma, among the wickets. But half the job wasn't good enough.
Delhi's overseas players deliver box-office stuff
The platform was set by Sam Billings, whose robust on-side play - pulling, sweeping and flicking fluently against the new ball - helped post 49 in the first six before a slump. Billings slipped into accumulation mode against spin but fell in the quest to heave the ball across the line in the 13th over to leave Delhi on 103 for 4. Anderson, who missed the previous season after going unsold, along with Chris Morris and Pat Cummins provided the muscle in the end overs. Anderson's cameo particularly, an unbeaten 22-ball 39 derailed Kings XI as he swung the ball into the arc behind square to hit three fours and three sixes. On a surface which Zaheer Khan thought was "on the drier side" Delhi had half the job done.
Aaron gamble fails
Varun Aaron had an IPL economy of 8.79 across 39 matches prior to this game. Despite two average outings, he was persisted. His erratic lengths that veered more towards the shorter side provided release to Daredevils' batsmen looking to swing the ball towards the shorter leg-side boundary from one end. He conceded three successive boundaries to Billings in his first over, all on the leg side - two off the pull and one through a flick behind square. Then Iyer hit him for two fours in three deliveries off the over that followed Nair's dismissal. It meant Kings XI couldn't wrest momentum despite getting wickets. He conceded 45 off his four overs, with two wickets being scant consolation. Eventually Kings XI paid the price for conceding 68 off the last five overs.
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16th match - Mumbai Indians v Gujarat Lions
Gujarat Lions 176/4 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 177/4 (19.3/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 6 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)
The chase-friendly image of Wankhede Stadium has survived yet another test. On a slow pitch, Gujarat Lions rode on a mature 64 off 44 from Brendon McCullum and a blinder from Dinesh Karthik to get 176, which McCullum reckoned was 15 above par given the conditions. However, Nitish Rana - highest run-getter in the tournament now - and Kieron Pollard made light work of the target, making it 19 wins for teams batting second in the last 21 matches at Wankhede. Mumbai Indians solidified their lead at the top of the table with four wins in five matches.
Lions did seem to be putting Mumbai into early strife when Rana top-edged Basil Thampi in the second over. However, Jason Roy, replacing Aaron Finch, whose kit didn't make it with the rest of the luggage, dropped the catch, which could have reduced Mumbai to 11 for 2. By the time Rana finally fell, for 53 off 36, Mumbai were well on their way, at 85 for 2 in the 10th over. Pollard, carrying on from his match-winning batting in the previous match, and Rohit Sharma, slowly rediscovering form, saw the hosts through with three balls to spare
McClenaghan and Malinga start Mumbai off
Mitchell McClenaghan hasn't had the best of tournaments, but from the previous match, he seems to have rediscovered his touch. He began with the wicket Dwayne Smith in the first over, and ended up with figures of 2 for 24 in four overs. It was a pitch he loved, giving him purchase if he banged the ball into the pitch. Malinga returned his worst IPL figures, but that took some excellent hitting from McCullum. They bowled two overs each in the Powerplay, which cost Mumbai just 36.
Harbhajan and Krunal go wide
One of the few offspinners doing well in T20 cricket, Harbhajan Singh - 1 for 22 in four overs - extended his dominance over Suresh Raina, and in partnership he and Krunal Pandya stifled Gujarat in the middle overs. The scoreboard will show Harbhajan was slog-swept for two boundaries by McCullum, but they were both hits that went at a catchable height with a deep midwicket in place. McCullum couldn't hit those for usual sixes because the spinners bowled excellent wide lines to both the batsmen, and controlled the amount of turn on the ball.
Raina finally fell to a wide ball from Harbhajan for just 28 off 29. This was the fifth time he had got out to Harbhajan in the IPL, the most against any bowler. Gujarat were now 81 for 1 in the 11th over. A full straight ball from Malinga soon got McCullum when the latter has just begun to look good for a century. Gujarat 99 for in the 14th over.
Mumbai win cat-and-mouse
The fall of Raina brought out Ishan Kishan, and the demise of McCullum send in Karthik. In the dugout sat the big-hitting Roy. Now, on paper Krunal bowled only three overs, but he and Rohit Sharma's canny captaincy had much to do with the absence of Roy for 89% of Gujarat's innings. In T20 cricket in 2016, Roy scored just 14 off 21 balls from left-arm spin and got out twice. Now seeing that Gujarat were not sending out Roy, Rohit held back that over from Krunal, which he eventually didn't even bowl. As a result, though, Roy faced only seven balls, off which he got 14, and Kishan instead faced 14 balls for just 11 runs. Krunal contributed more than just 3-0-18-0.
Gujarat end on a high
Karthik, striking at 145.45 this season, took the slow pitch out of the equation with clean hitting, excellent placement and desperate running in his unbeaten 48 off 26. Two of Karthik's four quickest innings have come this season. This one resulted in 77 off 38 for Gujarat since he came out to bat.
Rana runs away
Benefitting from that drop, Rana displayed his season form again, taking the orange cap from Gautam Gambhir, who had an altercation with the Delhi coach after Rana had been dropped. Rana hit both off the front foot and back, both into the leg side and off, picked the slower balls and used the pace on the quicker ones. With Jos Buttler he added 85 in nine overs, leaving Mumbai with 92 off 64 balls.
Pollard ends it
When Rohit chose to field, he said he was expecting dew to play a part in the last 10 overs of the match. While Buttler fell to a slower short ball after yet another decent start and while Rohit - relieved no doubt that Gujarat didn't have a legspinner, it was Pollard who took the slowness out of the equation, hitting three sixes in his 23-ball 39. Thampi, who had been denied a maiden IPL wicket by that Roy drop, produced a fantastic 18th over of six yorkers for six singles to leave 17 required off two overs. Pollard now took a risk, and was caught at deep midwicket, but Rohit was composed in finishing off with 4, 2 and 2 with eight required in the last over.
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17th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 161/8
RCB 134/9
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 27 runs
Rising Pune Supergiant's middle order froze on sluggish Chinnaswamy surface, losing five wickets for three runs, but their bowlers bailed them out of trouble in emphatic fashion. Their combined effort set a new record for the lowest total defended by a visiting team at this venue in the IPL - 161 - as Royal Challengers Bangalore crumbled to 134 for 9 on a pitch they thought was a belter. But it really wasn't.
Pune understood the surface had become quite slow midway through the first innings. Ben Stokes, who took 3 for 18, said they took that into consideration, concentrated on their changes of pace, and hit a good length which was the hardest to hit. All of that contributed to Pune winning their first IPL game after batting first.
Help yourself
The ball came onto the bat nicely in the early exchanges, and Pune sprinted to 50 for 0 in five overs. Rahul Tripathi regularly hit over the top, while Ajinkya Rahane used the pace and worked the ball square or behind square on both sides of the wicket. For the first time this season, Pune did not lose a wicket in the Powerplay.
Dhoni, Smith don't help themselves
While Rahane and Tripathi enjoyed themselves, Steven Smith and MS Dhoni couldn't. They faced a total of 49 deliveries out of which 22 were dots. The only notable moment of their partnership was Dhoni's six that hit the roof of the stadium. And when it was broken, Pune went from 127 for 2 to 130 for 7.
Smith, struggling to both rotate strike and hit the boundaries, slogged across the line and was bowled. Dhoni fell in much the same way and now he has the lowest strike-rate (87.14) among all batsmen who have faced a minimum of 70 balls this IPL.
Then Adam Milne, playing his first T20 in over a year, took two wickets in two balls and finished with 2 for 27.
Tiwary cleans up the mess
That Pune mustered 161 was largely down to Tiwary's sparkling cameo. He smashed six boundaries in the last two overs, hitting through the line over the off side as opposed to across the line into the leg side. He scored 27 off Pune's last 30 runs and gave the team something to bowl at. Tiwary's strike-rate of 245.45 was his best in an IPL innings of 10 or more balls.
Pune rise again
Shardul Thakur struck in his first over, having Mandeep Singh caught behind for a duck. He found Virat Kohli's edge as well but Tiwary shelled a regulation catch at slip but the RCB captain could not capitalise and was bounced out by Ben Stokes.
Stokes played a key role in AB de Villiers' downfall as well. He along with Dan Christian bowled 15 balls at de Villiers for only six runs, denying the batsman any room to hit through the off side. Perhaps realising he had to get his runs elsewhere, de Villiers tried to target Tahir and was stumped for 29 off 30 balls.
Taking the pace off
Christian, Stokes, Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat all bowled an assortment of slower balls, but the key was their lengths. They tried not to pitch the ball up too much and instead hit the deck as often as they could to exploit natural variation - some balls were misbehaving by keeping low.
Pune also did well by not giving the batsmen any room to work with. And when RCB got desperate for runs, and began swinging wildly, the wickets came. Five out of nine RCB batsmen were bowled going for the slog.
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18th match - Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders
Delhi Daredevils 168/7 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 169/6 (19.5/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 4 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
Kolkata Knight Riders displayed the batting depth that has made them one of the most consistent sides in the IPL, pulling off the highest successful IPL chase for a side losing three wickets in the first three overs. Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey rescued them from 21 for 3 with the first century fourth-wicket partnership in the IPL for a team three down for under 25.
The end didn't come without hiccups, though: after Yusuf fell for 59 off 39, leaving Knight Riders 38 to get off 31, Daredevils scrambled hard and brought it down to eight required off three balls, which Pandey managed with one ball to go. That this came on a pitch markedly better for hitting the new ball, and against arguably the best bowling unit of this IPL so far, made it even more special.
Daredevils, the slowest side in the middle overs - seven to 15 - were once again left to rue that slowdown. A blinder from Rishabh Pant - 38 off 16 - gave them a finishing kick, but that only took them to a fighting total.
The Samson slowdown
Sanju Samson is the only man with a century this IPL. Even in that innings, he went through a curious pattern: a flying start of 35 off 19, then only 13 off the next 19, and then the final kick. Once again, the moment spin came on, Samson went from 27 off 12 to just 12 off the next 13 balls. The problem with such slowdowns is, you put yourself under pressure to make up later in the innings, and not always do you get that chance. Here he edged Umesh Yadav, and 36 for 0 in three overs had now become 63 for 2 in 7.5 overs.
The Nair slowdown
Ever since his Test triple-century against England in December, Nair is yet to put together an innings of 30 in any format of official cricket. More than the lack of runs, though, it was his sub-100 strike rate that hurt Daredevils. Even though Shreyas Iyer batted fluently at the other end, the runs just didn't come fast enough for the hosts. Iyer was run out trying to manufacture a second and keep the strike, and Nair just had to hit out and expose his stumps for a 27-ball 21. Daredevils 110 for 4 in 15, having scored just 57 in the last nine, lower than their usual middle-overs rate of 7.22 an over.
The knock
Pant is not just knocking at the door for the Champions Trophy selection. He is thumping at it with a tree trunk. In one of the rare bowling errors from Knight Riders, Umesh Yadav bowled a whole over - 17th - of regulation pace to Pant. The challenger to MS Dhoni's slot in India's limited-overs sides then peppered all boundaries for 6, 4, 6, 6, 4 to consign Umesh to his worst IPL over.
Sunil Narine and Nathan Coulter-Nile, though, followed up with exceptional overs. Narine, who bowled two overs inside the Powerplay for just eight runs, took out Angelo Mathews in the 18th to end up with figures of 4-0-20-1. In the 19th, Coulter-Nile did the opposite of Umesh - bowling slow and away from the batsmen as opposed to fast and within their reach - and took out Pant, and missed out on Chris Morris twice with catches going down. Damage control, though, had been done.
Opening gambit
With most runs expected off the new ball, the first six overs were going to be electric. This was a contest between the fastest batting unit inside Powerplay and the bowling side with the best economy and average inside Powerplays. With the canny Zaheer Khan running his fingers over the seam of the new ball, Knight Riders lost a wicket each in the first three, including that of surprise opener Colin de Grandhomme.
The partnership
It was all Yusuf and Pandey now. Yusuf bolted first, taking on Morris and Pat Cummins, who provided him regulation pace. Then the two targeted Amit Mishra, picked as the only spinner ahead of Shahbaz Nadeem, who has gone at 4.9 an over this IPL. They kept finding the boundary, never letting the asking rate go beyond nine.
The closing gambit
Yusuf, though, fell with the job unfinished. With 34 required to score in the last five, Daredevils managed overs of six, six, six and seven. This was Cummins and Morris with lessons learnt from their earlier mistakes, bowling slower ones repeatedly, one of them getting Suryakumar Yadav caught at mid-off. The last ball of the 19th over was bowled at regulation pace, but it was a yorker, which meant Pandey was off strike at the start of the last over.
Now Zaheer took the gamble. Eight to defend in the last over is not a lot, and with Chris Woakes on strike, Zaheer went to Mishra. Mishra responded beautifully with a flighted wrong'un and legbreak first up. The legbreak got Woakes stumped. Now there was big tension in the dugout. Narine walked out and calmly took a single. It was now down to Pandey to see through what he had started.
Having bowled three flighted deliveries so far, Mishra now fired one in at the sight of a specialist batsman. Pandey was expecting it. He went deep in his crease, and drilled it over long-on. Perhaps Mishra would have been better off keeping it slow because it had become really hard to generate power into shots by now. He didn't, and Pandey was there to cash in.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab
Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 154 (19.4/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 5 runs
Manan Vohra defied a pitch of inconsistent pace and bounce and a situation stacked against his team to produce one of the IPL's great backs-to-the-walls innings. His 95 off 50 balls revived a floundering chase, taking Kings XI Punjab to within 15 runs of victory, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar would ensure he wouldn't be able to finish the match, taking two wickets in the 19th over to finish with 5 for 19.
In the end, neither of them would be involved in what became the nerviest finish of the season. Eleven off six balls usually favours the chasing side, but seldom is a chasing side nine down at that stage. Siddarth Kaul conceded four off the first two legal balls, slipping in two wides, but pulled himself together to send down the perfect yorker with six needed off two. Ishant Sharma couldn't put bat to it, and Sunrisers just about held on to their undefeated home record this season.
Difficult pitch, quiet Powerplay
A pitch full of cracks turned out slower than is usually the case in Hyderabad, with some balls skidding through and others stopping with tennis-ball bounce. Kings XI's seamers looked to exploit this by bowling at the stumps and pitching just short of a good length.
Denied the drive-able ball, the batsmen couldn't play square with too much confidence either - given the line and the tendency of the ball to keep low. Sunrisers only scored 29 in the Powerplay, hitting just one four and losing the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, caught behind off the glove looking to pull Mohit Sharma.
Warner adapts and prospers
Spin came on for the first time in the seventh over, and David Warner immediately picked up his first boundary with a reverse-sweep off KC Cariappa. In his next over, he switch-hit him for six. By the end of Sunrisers' innings, all but two of Warner's nine boundaries would come behind the wicket.
Wickets kept falling at the other end - Axar Patel dismissed Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh off successive balls in the 10th over - but Warner, with a bit of help from Naman Ojha, ensured Sunrisers reached a competitive total. Having scored only 6 off his first 16 balls - all in the Powerplay - Warner went at a strike rate of 168.42 thereafter to finish unbeaten on 70 off 54.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Act 1
Interviewed between innings, VVS Laxman, the Sunrisers mentor, felt 159 was a match-winning total given the conditions and his team's bowling resources. As it happened, it wasn't the pitch that gave Sunrisers an early wicket but Bhuvneshwar's swing and full length, trapping Hashim Amla lbw first ball. Glenn Maxwell promoted himself to No. 3 for the first time this season, and Bhuvneshwar dismissed him as well. This time it was the slower ball, coupled with a change of field - he brought third man into the circle, pushed mid-off back, and Maxwell took him on, unwisely.
Those skiddy Afghan spinners
For the first time this season, Sunrisers were playing both Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan. They bowled expensive first overs - Vohra and Eoin Morgan took 29 off the fifth and sixth overs of the chase - and Warner had to pull both out of the attack. After a quiet over each from Moises Henriques and Kaul, he brought them back.
Nabi struck immediately, bowling Morgan with one that skidded on, and skid would give Rashid two wickets in the next over - bye bye, David Miller and Wriddhiman Saha. Kings XI were 62 for 5 after 10 overs, and an offbreak from Nabi at the start of the next over could have easily had them 62 for 6. Vohra, though, was saved by the umpire Anil Dandekar, who saw or heard an inside edge when there was none. At that stage, he was batting on 32. In the last ball of the same over, Nabi dropped the simplest of return catches off Axar Patel.
Vohra unrolls his own pitch
Even in the early part of his innings, Vohra had timed the ball better than anyone from either side. What he was also doing, better than most batsmen this season, was picking Rashid's googly out of the hand. Having brought up his fifty in the previous over, the 15th, Vohra went after Rashid again, pulling and lofting him for 4, 0, 6, 6, 4. Suddenly, Kings XI only needed 35 from 24 balls.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Act II
Kings XI, however, had already lost six wickets, and they lost a seventh when Mohit Sharma sliced Bhuvneshwar straight to deep point in the 17th over. Two balls later, Vohra timed a back-foot punch so sweetly that he hit it to the same fielder on the full, only for Shikhar Dhawan to drop it. A big six off Kaul in the next over brought the equation down to 16 off the last two, but Bhuvneshwar wasn't done yet.
KC Cariappa, for reasons unknown, decided to slog rather than give Vohra the strike, and Bhuvneshwar went through him with a yorker. Another yorker - or near-yorker - followed when Vohra got back the strike. It struck Vohra on the ankle, on the full, right in front, as he walked across to flick, and Bhuvneshwar had bowled the most important ball of the match.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20th match - Gujarat Lions v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 213/2 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 192/7 (20/20 ov)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 21 runs
Chris Gayle hadn't made a half-century in 17 T20 innings. His strike rate among openers who had faced a minimum of 50 deliveries prior to this game was the slowest. On Tuesday, a spot opened up after AB de Villiers' late pull-out because of an injury. It meant IPL's most successful opening partnership of Virat Kohli and Gayle were reunited again. With the side desperately needing fresh energy to revive a stalled campaign, Gayle unleashed mayhem - striking 77 off 38 balls - as Royal Challengers posted 213 for 2, the season's highest total, on a slow Rajkot deck.
Then Brendon McCullum came up with an astonishing display of six-hitting in a 44-ball 72 that should have been enough to give Lions victory on most nights. But conceding 35 off the last two overs with the ball - a majority of those plundered by Kedar Jadhav in his unbeaten 16-ball 38 - proved to be the difference as Royal Challengers won by 21 runs and arrested a three-match losing streak to lift themselves off the bottom of the points table.
RCB start steadily
As early as the fifth over, midwicket was in business at least twice, trying to dive forward to try and catch a mistimed flick. On both occasions, the ball skewed off the top part of Kohli's bat. These were early indications that the ball was gripping, which Dhawal Kulkarni, Basil Thampi and Andrew Tye exploited well early on. Lions conceded just 36 in the first five overs, with Gayle and Kohli far from set.
Gayle storm unleashed
The template was set: bowl slower through the air and get the batsmen to force the pace. Royal Challengers had two left-handers in the top six. Gayle is a slow starter against spin and on a slow surface where shot-making wasn't as easy as he later made it out to be, he had to content with Ravindra Jadeja as early as the sixth over.
Jadeja started off by conceding just nine, but deviated from the template in his next over by bowling full, fast and straight. It was the fodder Gayle needed to swing through cleanly: he muscled two fours and two sixes in a 21-run over. One of those sixes could've been out had Brendon McCullum's hat not been in contact with the rope as he flung himself across to take a catch at wide long-off. Gayle raced to a 23-ball 50 courtesy three fours and five monstrous sixes to turn a steady start into a spectacular one.
Kohli, the accumulator
Kohli's timing seemed off initially. This was no surface to punch through the line, so he tried to charge down the pitch and was beaten in trying to hit out. But the three successive boundaries he hit off Dhawal Kulkarni in the third over - to full deliveries - got him going.
Having watched Gayle return to form, Kohli took over after Thampi ended a 122-run opening stand in the 13th over. Signs of recovery from a shoulder injury were evident as he swiveled and pulled without discomfort to bring up a half-century. It helped that Travis Head, replacing Samuel Badree, didn't take long to settle in and finished with a 16-ball 30 not out. Kohli eventually fell to a slower delivery for 64, attempting a heave on the leg side.
Jadhav thrives in finishers' role
Kedar Jadhav showed how much his T20 game has improved since the 2016 season, where he played just four games. His anticipation, particularly to Tye's slower deliveries and Jadeja's darts, were particularly impressive. He hit two sixes and four fours in the last two overs, in which Royal Challengers smashed 35. The final over that went for 17 resulted in Jadeja finishing with 4-0-57-0, his most-expensive T20 figures.
Negi's flight, McCullum's fury
Royal Challengers started with spin and had Dwayne Smith and Suresh Raina out early inside four overs. Left with no choice but to play just one way, McCullum found his hitting range against in Pawan Negi's second over. He raced to a 30-ball 50, but the pressure brought on by dot balls resulted in the wickets of Aaron Finch and Dinesh Karthik in the space of eight deliveries to set Lions back. Negi continued to trust his weapon - flight - and deceived Finch as Jadhav effected a smart stumping. He followed that up by conceding just one in his next over - to leave Lions needing 107 off eight overs. Under the circumstances, Negi's figures of 4-0-21-1 were gold.
Chahal's guile seals it
With McCullum repeatedly favouring the leg side, Chahal threw the ball up outside off and induced a slog sweep that was pouched at deep square leg in his last over. The timing of that wicket - with Lions needing 77 off 32 balls - was significant given Shane Watson and Adam Milne's five overs had cost 63. With Negi bowled out, Kohli had to turn to one of them or S Aravind in the end-overs. McCullum's wicket, however, took the fizz out of the chase. By making 39 off just 16 balls, Ishan Kishan made his case to be promoted, perhaps even as opener in place of Dwayne Smith, once Dwayne Bravo returns from injury.
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21st match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Daredevils
Sunrisers Hyderabad 191/4
Delhi Daredevils 176/5
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 15 runs
Kane Williamson, playing his first match of the season, made an imperious 89 off 51 balls and propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to their fourth win in four home matches.
Williamson was named New Zealand's T20 international player of the year last month and yet he could not break into Sunrisers' XI until their sixth game. This was probably because his record in the IPL doesn't match up to his usual standards. Before today, Williamson had only one six in eight innings. On Wednesday, he hit five times as many on a used pitch to lead Sunrisers to 191 for 4.
Delhi Daredevils put up a good fight, led by Shreyas Iyer 's riveting 50 off 31 balls with five fours and two sixes. But even he could do little against an equation that eventually read 24 off the last over. Siddharth Kaul was asked to finish the match off but he was smacked for six second ball. The seamer recovered by bowling two dots and getting rid of Angelo Mathews to seal a 15-run win.
Dealing with a two-paced pitch
On a track where some balls stopped on the batsmen while others skidded on, run-scoring was not easy. David Warner was dismissed for his first single-digit score in 19 T20 innings as a bouncer from Chris Morris came on slower than he expected. Jayant Yadav's accurate non-turning offbreaks gave Sunrisers no breathing space at the other end. They managed only 39 for 1 in the first six overs.
The enforcer
Williamson, coming in place of Mohammad Nabi, became handy for Sunrisers. After getting set, he smashed back-to-back sixes off Mathews and began changing the pace of the game. Suddenly, Sunrisers had hustled 52 in five overs between the seventh and the 11th.
Williamson raised his second IPL fifty off 33 balls and surged into top gear. He took legspinner Amit Mishra for 21 runs off nine balls. He exploited any gap the Daredevils left unprotected. In the ninth over, seeing Zaheer Khan posting his boundary riders on the off side and leaving fine leg up, he walked across his stumps and scooped the ball away.
The anchor
Shikhar Dhawan, having hit the first ball of the match for four, was happy in Williamson's slipstream. Together they put on Sunrisers 10th century partnership - and the first not involving Warner. Only after the stand was broken did he try something fancy. A full delivery from Mathews in the 18th over was almost helicoptered over the midwicket boundary. Just as he looked set to bat through the innings though, Morris dismissed him for 70 off 50 balls. It was Dhawan's third-highest score for Sunrisers in the IPL.
Samson, Nair set Delhi up
Mohammad Siraj, playing his first IPL match, got lucky when Sam Billings chipped a leg-stump half-volley straight to short midwicket. Sanju Samson and Karun Nair, however, showed him no such mercy. Samson picked up a length ball and flicked it with the angle over the long-on boundary, while Nair drove a wide half-volley through the covers. He then reached his first 30-plus score in 15 innings across all formats, since the triple-century in Chennai, when he launched Moises Henriques over long-off for a six. By then, Daredevils were 80 for 1 in nine overs.
The slowdown
Sunrisers then prised out two wickets from nowhere. Vijay Shankar, the substitute fielder, speared a flat throw from long-on to run Nair out for 33. Rishabh Pant then wasted his promotion to No. 4, hoicking a Yuvraj Singh full ball from outside off to long-on. Only 18 runs came off the next three overs as the asking rate ballooned past 12. Samson attempted to prick the balloon, but only skewed a slower ball from Siraj to cover.
Iyer's late rearguard
Daredevils' hope rested in Iyer now and he fanned them with two sixes off legspinner Rashid Khan. Angelo Mathews, sent ahead of the in-form Morris, was able to keep a decent tempo as well as the two batsmen hit at least one boundary per over in the last five.
Sunrisers might have been worried when Kaul conceded 13 off the 18th over and Iyer carved a reverse-swinging yorker from Bhuvneshwar for a four. But Kaul bounced back in the last over to hand Daredevils their third defeat.
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22nd match - Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
Kings XI Punjab 198/4 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 199/2 (15.3/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 8 wickets (with 27 balls remaining)
In the best batting conditions of the IPL, Mumbai Indians coasted to their highest successful IPL chase to reclaim their spot atop the points table. A target of 199 should have been more daunting but such was their dominance that by the 15th over of the innings, the required rate was 1.6. All of that meant Hashim Amla's maiden T20 hundred, 60-ball 104 stocked with elegance and grace, was in vain. It was also the highest successful chase this season.
Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana struck authoritative fifties in Mumbai's chase after Parthiv Patel's 18-ball 37. Buttler found form with a brutish display of power hitting, hammering seven fours and five sixes. Rana saw no need to keep the ball along the ground, striking seven sixes in his unbeaten 62, taking his top spot back at the top of this season's run-making charts.
T20 batting, a pleasant sight again
Occasionally, T20s are stripped of some of the simple joys of cricket, such as timing or technically-equipped batsmen building an innings. Kings XI have not lacked either. Manan Vohra's replacement, Shaun Marsh, and Amla are arguably the most pleasant opening pair in this IPL. They immediately showed why.
Marsh's delectable cuts, drives and pulls were matched by Amla's beautiful wrists and timing. They raced to 46 before Marsh played his worst stroke - a flick he tried to muscle, instead of relying on his timing.
Saha's sacrifice
Wriddhiman Saha had laboured to 11 off 14 balls, struggling for fluency. Although his strike rate was lofty, Amla was set on anchoring the innings. Kings XI's run rate was approaching seven. With plenty of batting resources to come and the chance of a middle-overs collapse relatively low, Saha decided to attack. It didn't come off - he was bowled off Krunal Pandya, but he allowed more able hitters to use a strong platform. Glenn Maxwell did, thwacking an 18-ball 40, making full use of the second half of the innings.
Malinga v Amla
Lasith Malinga is Mumbai's slog-overs specialist. Amla is Kings XI's most equipped batsman to handle Malinga's variations. Both teams needed their gun overseas players to break the game open. Malinga, though, missed his length too often; his slower balls landed on a full length and skidded onto the bat. Amla wasn't funky, he stuck to his strengths.
When Malinga bowled at the stumps, Amla hit straight and met the ball at different angles to pick different gaps. When the line was wayward, Amla could use the cross bat without risk. Malinga went for 58 - his most expensive IPL returns. Amla alone took him for 51 of those, the second-most against a bowler in the IPL.
Using the best conditions
The reason M Chinnaswamy Stadium was a favourable chasing ground last season wasn't just the small boundary dimensions, but also the nature of the surface - even pace and bounce without much turn. Batsmen can hit through the line, and mis-hits take the ball over the boundary. The Holkar Cricket Stadium is the closest resemblance to those characteristics this season.
Despite Kings XI putting up 198, all Mumbai needed was a strong start to keep the asking rate in check. Their openers - Buttler and Parthiv - took it a step further, plundering 82 in the Powerplay. There were 14 boundaries and just six balls not scored off, the second-lowest in IPL history.
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23rd match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Gujarat Lions
Kolkata Knight Riders 187/5 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 188/6 (18.2/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions won by 4 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Suresh Raina displayed all the elements that have made him a T20 stalwart - strong bottom hand, powerful wrists, tactful strike-rotation, fierce ball-striking and handy offspin - to eke out a four-wicket win that breathed life into Gujarat Lions' campaign. Their second win in six games temporarily lifted them off the bottom of the table. But this was no walk in the park as the scorecard suggests.
Walking in at No. 3, he watched Brendon McCullum, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith and Ishan Kishan fall. The Yadavs - Kuldeep and Umesh - had the batsmen tied in knots with flight and reverse swing respectively. At 115 for 5, Lions were far from ahead in a chase of 189. But Raina held his shape, backed himself to bring out the big hits on demand and single-handedly razed down the target. He fell with Lions needing eight, but Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner completed the formalities with 10 balls to spare.
Narine gamble pays off
Sunil Narine proved his promotion up the order was a calculated gamble that paid off. Swinging through the line to length deliveries from Praveen Kumar and Faulkner, he smashed seven boundaries in 12 deliveries. Then in the third, Basil Thampi came in for similar treatment off length deliveries as Kolkata Knight Riders raced to 44 without loss in three overs. It needed Raina's introduction that took the pace off to break the stand as Narine toe-ended a slog to wide mid-on. By making 42 off 17 deliveries - his highest T20 score and most runs made by a batsman in boundaries at the IPL - he'd left a platform for the in-form Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey to build on.
Uthappa-Gambhir consolidate
Mixing brute force - particularly on the pull - and fineness to ride the bounce and bring his deft touches to the fore against spin, Uthappa ensured the momentum given by Narine was sustained beyond the halfway mark. He was ably assisted by Gambhir as the pair turned focus on strike rotation.
Their game awareness against the slower bowlers - their 11 singles in 12 deliveries off Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Smith - stood out. But the moment Jadeja erred by bowling flat, Gambhir swung through to hit his first six this season. It was the lack of pace that eventually got Gambhir, who top-edged a pull to Raina at midwicket. At 114 for 2 in the 12th over, Lions were staring at 200 plus. Uthappa's half-century made it tougher for Lions, but they found a way through. Thampi's toe-crushers
Against Uthappa and a batsman in the form of his life, like Manish Pandey has been in, and striking at close to 150, Lions needed a mighty effort to restrict Knight Riders to fewer than 200. By conceding just four boundaries in five overs after Gambhir's dismissal, Lions had done well to pull things back. Knight Riders were still handily placed at 149 for 2 halfway through the 17th over. Faulkner had bowled out, and it was more than likely one of Praveen or Thampi had to complete their quota. Raina went with the bowler who has pace.
The first two deliveries were smashed for 10, but Thampi held his own and speared in a yorker from wide of the crease. He nailed Uthappa in front of middle, but wasn't given by umpire Nitin Menon. He came back in to bowl three more yorkers, the last one angling into Pandey's toes as he backed away to swing. It shaved past leg stump. Having been unlucky in three tries, he finally had luck smiling on him as he rattled all three stumps of Pandey in the next over with an inswinging yorker. He finished with 4-0-44-1, but his ability to bowl yorkers at will stood out.
Finch-McCullum charge puts Lions ahead
McCullum had been dismissed 20 times by a left-arm spinner, the most for an IPL batsman. Knight Riders perhaps picked Shakib Al Hasan precisely for this and opened with him. But McCullum turbocharged to a 17-ball 33, while Finch swung his way to 31 as Lions raced to 61 for 1, ahead by 21 ahead on the Duckworth-Lewis method when a steady downpour halted play. When the match resumed, Knight Riders didn't just have to contend with the in-form McCullum but also a greasy outfield, but had two big strikes in successive overs. McCullum flayed a length ball to deep cover in the sixth, while Dinesh Karthik was deceived by a Chris Woakes delivery that gripped to take the leading edge to Gambhir at cover.
Yadavs pull things back
Kuldeep Yadav is a brave spinner. Not even the threat of two muscular batsmen looking to give him the charge deters him from tossing up the ball. He relies on dip and revs on the ball, and tied Ishan Kishan into knots with a string of dot balls. Ten deliveries had fetched four. Raina was fluent, but by blocking one end and escalating the asking rate, the onus was on Kishan to see it through. Instead he tried to play a slog sweep and holed out to deep square leg . Then off the next, Umesh Yadav, held back until the 13th over, got a full delivery to tail back and sneak through Dwayne Smith's defense. At 115 for 5, Lions needed a lower-order coup.
Raina in top gear
Raina has captained Kuldeep at Uttar Pradesh. But that the 20-year old found a way to nearly fox his captain was noteworthy. But luck was on Raina's side as he played for the turn to a delivery that skidded back in to get a thick inside edge that shaved past leg stump. Up on 45 then, he went on to add 39 more to effectively close out the chase. Jadeja's unbeaten 19 lent the finishing touches.
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24th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 176/3
Rising Pune Supergiant 179/4
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 6 wickets (with 0 balls remaining)
The finisher is not finished yet. MS Dhoni struck a 34-ball 61 to help clean up some of the mess he himself created as Rising Pune Supergiant chased down 177 with a last-ball boundary. Dhoni's slow start of 26 off 23 balls had converted an equation of 90 off 55 into 47 off 18, but he took out the best bowler of the tournament, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in an almighty assault of 35 runs off his last 11 balls to seal the win.
Before Saturday, Sunrisers Hyderabad had lost only two of the 12 matches in which they made 175 or more. On Saturday, though, they huffed and puffed on a flat pitch, without the services of Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rahman, but it wasn't enough. The fielding didn't help - they dropped Rahul Tripathi on 17, who then made 59, Manoj Tiwary too was given a life in a tense final. That Sunrisers had something to bowl at was thanks to Moises Henriques' 28-ball 55. This loss was as much because of their fielding as their batting before Henriques.
Dhawan-Warner go-slow
Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner are the two slowest openers of this season. They are also the slowest partnership, and as a result, their side has been the second-slowest in Powerplays. While Dhawan's strike rate of 118 is more in keeping with his career stats, Warner struggled uncharacteristically as Sunrisers crawled to 55 for 1 in 8.1 overs, with Dhawan top-edging the first ball Imran Tahir bowled.
Kane Williamson took risks to try to correct the rate, and was lbw to Dan Christian after walking too far across. Christian's miserly spell continued, going for just 20 in four overs, as Sunrisers, the best side in the middle overs this year, managed only 68 runs between the sixth and the 15th to be reduced to 113 for 2.
Moises mayhem
Even as Warner failed to convert a slow start, Henriques unleashed his array of strokes, mostly over midwicket or through point. He scored 34 runs off the last 14 balls he faced as Rising Pune lived up to their reputation of being the worst side at the death, conceding 63 off the last 30 balls, which is worse than their tournament average so far.
Bipul and Rashid v Tripathi and Smith
Bipul Sharma replaced the unwell Yuvraj Singh in the Sunrisers XI. He had bowled only 21 overs in his last 10 matches for them, but in Pune he took the new ball and shackled the openers. He bowled nothing in their swinging arc, and gave them no pace to work with. Ajinkya Rahane fell prey to him, but Tripathi managed to find a way around him, hitting the quicks away, especially Mohammed Siraj, off whose bowling he was dropped, and Siddarth Kaul. Against spin he scored 17 off 18, and against pace he managed 42 off 23.
At the other end, Smith too struggled with the lack of pace from Bipul, but finally in the 10th over, Bipul's last, he delayed his bat swing and slogged him for back-to-back sixes. That rearranged the left-arm spinner's figures to 4-0-30-1 and brought the asking rate down to 9.4.
Just before that, Rashid Khan did something not many can claim to have done: he bowled a wrong'un that Smith didn't pick and beat the batsman comprehensively. Now perhaps in the 11th over Smith picked it, or perhaps he read it off the hand, but he went back to cut, and inside-edged the googly onto his pad and then onto the stumps. Smith was livid with himself as he walked off. Out walked Dhoni, his strike rate under 100 this season, and ahead of Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary and Christian.
Ever since Dhoni's last-ball win for Pune against Kings XI Punjab last year, no chasing side had won a match off the last ball in the IPL. Surely Dhoni didn't want to take this to the last ball but he can't help himself, can he? At the presentation, he said he wanted to see Rashid off without further damage because the ground was small and the asking rate could be managed. But as well as he prodded and nudged, Rashid struck with his electric fielding to run Tripathi out off his own bowling.
Rashid was done, with 17 runs off his four overs, and the required rate was above 12 for the last six overs, but Dhoni still struggled to find his range. Siraj, bowling the 16th over, tied him and Stokes down with yorkers, and even beat Dhoni for pace. Dhoni 21 off 19, and 56 required off four overs.
On came Bhuvneshwar, for overs 17 and 19, and removed Stokes with the first ball he bowled, and the equation went up to 47 off 18. Dhoni now picked on the rookie Siraj, dropping a slower ball over long-on and upper-cutting a slower bouncer over point. With 30 required off two, Dhoni still needed to take another bowler down, and he couldn't have left it for the last over.
Bhuvneshwar, Dhoni's favourite bowler when he was India captain, had not conceded 10 runs in any of his death overs this IPL. But Dhoni got stuck into his protégé as Bhuvneshwar kept missing his line or length by inches. A border-line wide first up, followed by a squirt for a four to leg, then a lofted drive over point, and finally the helicopter shot that sent everyone into frenzy.
There were now only 10 runs to defend and youngster Kaul was given the last over. He should have had Manoj Tiwary, who had done his job so far, caught first ball. What looked like a six had got caught up in the wind, but the fielder Rashid couldn't control it inside the midwicket boundary. Kaul followed it up with four really good deliveries to bring it to two required off the last over. He continued what he had been doing - yorkers from round the wicket - but missed his length, and Dhoni drove him through extra cover for four.
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25th match - Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils
Mumbai Indians 142/8
Delhi Daredevils 128/7
Mumbai Indians won by 14 runs
Batting first for the first time in six matches, Mumbai Indians never really got going on a bouncy Wankhede Stadium pitch that also provided grip for spin and cutters, and only managed a total of 142. It turned out, however, to be more than enough to give them their sixth win in seven matches and strengthen their position on top of the IPL table.
A couple of early wickets put an inexperienced Daredevils batting line-up under pressure, and the top half fell away in no time. They lost five wickets inside the Powerplay and another in the seventh over to slip to 24 for 6. A seventh-wicket stand of 91 between Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris ensured Daredevils stayed in contention, but some smart end-overs bowling from Jasprit Bumrah ensured the target remained a fair way out of their reach.
With Daredevils needing 46 from 24 balls, Bumrah conceded only four runs from the 17th over, and, after Morris had clattered a big six off the last ball of Mitchell McClenaghan's 18th to bring it down to 30 off 12, came back to concede only five off the 19th while taking out Rabada with a yorker.
It left Hardik Pandya 24 to defend off the last over - he landed his wide yorkers there or thereabouts, and Morris and Pat Cummins could only manage 10.
Daredevils chip away after Buttler blitz
Jos Buttler's 28 off 18 balls wasn't the biggest innings and was definitely not the prettiest - his first two boundaries, off Morris, both came off the top edge - but it ensured Mumbai had some momentum through the Powerplay. They lost two wickets in those six overs - Rabada, making his IPL debut, yorked Parthiv Patel, and the fleet-footed Sanju Samson ran out Buttler - but also scored 48.
Daredevils had picked perhaps their strongest attack - with Rabada joining Morris, Cummins, Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra - and the tactic continued to pay off. Mumbai were five down by the end of the 13th over, with Mishra's googly accounting for Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya. There was plenty of turn on offer, and Kieron Pollard, in particular was struggling against him - at the end of the 13th, he was batting on 4 off 13 balls.
Mumbai patchy in slog overs
Pollard clubbed three fours in the next two overs, and Mumbai were 102 for 5 after 15.
Before this match, Daredevils boasted the best economy rate in the last five overs (7.71), and Mumbai the best batting run rate (12.26). Mumbai would score 40 in their last five in this game. Cummins, Morris and Rabada varied their pace well, and either bowled short of a good length and into the body, or pitched it right up. Hardik Pandya hit two sixes, off what were probably the only two balls that were really in his hitting zone in his 23-ball innings. In an effort to keep Hardik on strike with only the lower order for company in the last two overs, Mumbai suffered two run-outs too.
McClenaghan revels as Daredevils stumble
Daredevils had fit Rabada, Morris, Cummins and Corey Anderson into their side, which meant no place for Sam Billings at the top of the order. Sanju Samson, Aditya Tare, Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer made up Daredevils' top four - plenty of talent but not a whole lot of experience at the top level.
An attempt at a chancy single led to Tare's dismissal off the fourth ball of Daredevils' innings, and when Samson drove McClenaghan uppishly and straight to mid-off in the next over, uncertainty gripped their batting. Iyer, shuffling this way and that, seemed a little off with his timing and McClenaghan dismissed him in his next over off a tickle down the leg side. A bit of skid into Anderson and McClenaghan had three in two overs.
Karun Nair, struggling for form all through the season, played out a nervy maiden off the next over, failing to get to grips with Mitchell Johnson's pace variations. Then Mumbai struck two more times - Rishabh Pant poked uncertainly at Bumrah and edged to slip, and Nair, feet going nowhere, chopped Hardik on.
Morris, Rabada save face
Rabada had been promoted to No. 7, above Morris, and he showed both technique and an ability to hit cleanly down the ground while dominating the early part of the seventh-wicket partnership. Once they spent a few overs at the crease, the smallness of the target became apparent again. With five overs remaining, Daredevils needed 52. You would usually favour the batting team in those circumstances, but not a batting team that had lost so many early wickets.
McClenaghan and Bumrah, moreover, had two more overs to get through each. McClenaghan mixed slower short balls with quick short balls, and Bumrah, generally aiming fuller, varied his pace just as well. Rabada's limitations as a T20 hitter quickly became apparent, and there wasn't much Morris could do either. Daredevils only managed 27 off McClenaghan and Bumrah's 24 end-overs deliveries.
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26th match - Gujarat Lions v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 188/7 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 162/7 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 26 runs
Kings XI Punjab won the critical moments of a T20, with both bat and ball, to record only the 11th instance of a team successfully defending a total in 26 matches this IPL. They got to 188 with Hashim Amla following up a century in his previous game with a 40-ball 65 that was also filled with sparkling strokeplay. Then Axar Patel smashed 34 off 17 balls in the death, complemented that by picking up two crucial wickets and eventually made sure Kings XI had their first win after batting first in this IPL.
Dinesh Karthik struck a gritty, unbeaten 58 but it was in vain as the Kings XI bowlers had solid plans and executed them as well as they could have hoped. KC Cariappa concentrated on bowling wicket to wicket and spinning the ball away from both left and right-handers. Mohit Sharma's back-of-the-hand slower balls found purchase on a pitch that got slower as the match progressed. And together they picked up three wickets in eight overs, giving away only 49 runs.
An approach to keep going
In their last match against Mumbai Indians, Kings XI scored 198 and lost with 27 balls to spare. Early signs in Rajkot indicated the pitch was just as good for batting and the boundaries were also pulled in.
Amla laid down anchor, but was still scoring at a strike-rate in excess of 150. Shaun Marsh was brash in his approach, looking to find the boundary with almost every ball. Kings XI's desire for a massive total was evident in their high-risk batting in the middle overs. Glenn Maxwell chose to sweep and reverse sweep Ravindra Jadeja - he was lbw after missing a reverse lap - soon after Amla's wicket.
A proper cameo
Axar has shown impressive hitting ability in this IPL already. So, it wasn't a surprise when he was promoted ahead of Wriddhiman Saha in the closing overs. Sticking to his strengths, he was particularly productive in the arc between long-off and midwicket. He smashed Dwayne Smith for two sixes and a four in the penultimate over to turn his 18 off 13 balls into 34 off 17.
No benefit of doubt in soft signals
The soft signal from an on-field umpire is a crucial call because the third umpire cannot overrule that decision until he has clear and conclusive evidence against it.
When Aaron Finch drove Mohit Sharma low to cover, Marcus Stoinis felt he had taken the catch but wasn't entirely sure. If there was any doubt, the soft signal should have been not out, but umpire Anil Chaudhary seemed confident it had carried, despite the fielder's hesitation. Replays, like they usually are for such decisions, were inconclusive, which meant the third umpire had no grounds to overturn the decision.
Chipping catches and lackadaisical lbws
Chases in excess of 180 are hard enough without losing early wickets and Lions lost some playing pretty sloppily. Brendon McCullum was lbw to a full toss from Sandeep Sharma. Then, Suresh Raina pulled Axar to deep midwicket. He didn't go through with his stroke nor did he keep it down. Dwayne Smith, too, mis-timed a lofted drive to long-off.
The chances of success for the strokes Raina and Smith played were considerably low. They didn't try to place the ball either side of the fielder, disallowing themselves a fail-safe if their shots were mis-timed. Lions' best resources were wastefully spent and there was no coming back.
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27th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Kolkata Knight Riders 131 (19.3/20 ov)
RCB 49 (9.4/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 82 runs
One hundred and thirty-two runs. That's all Royal Challengers Bangalore needed. A little over 13 runs per wicket, only 6.6 runs an over, with Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their side. Against quality pace bowling led by the astute Gautam Gambhir, the most glittering batting line-up in Twenty20 cricket sensationally collapsed to 49 all out, the lowest score in the IPL and the 10th-lowest in all Twenty20 cricket. Not one man reached double figutes. This was only the 10th time in the IPL that a total of 131 or under was defended successfully.
At the halfway mark, Kolkata Knight Riders felt they were about 50 short of the par score, especially after the start Sunil Narine had given them: a 17-ball 34 in the fastest team fifty this IPL. They had collapsed 65 for 1 to be bowled out only for the third time when batting first in IPL. That fall couldn't hold a candle to Royal Challengers, though, who batted with their edges, starting with a golden duck for captain Virat Kohli.
Nathan Coulter-Nile began the slide with the wickets of Kohli, AB de Villiers and Kedar Jadhav in his first three overs, and then Chris Woakes and Colin de Grandhomme feasted on the carcass, taking three wickets each. With Umesh Yadav taking the other wicket, this was the fifth time all 10 wickets had fallen to pace in the IPL.
Trini Posse
At the toss, Kohli said he expected the pitch to be a little tacky, and thus helpful to seam, after rain last night and a delayed start because of more rain. However, he opened with his trusted legspinner Samuel Badree, who has for long been one of the best T20 new-ball bowlers. Fellow Trinidadian, Narine, played him like a man who knows him inside out. Immediately he played him like a slow seam bowler angling the ball away from him as opposed to bring it back in. 4, 4, 6, 4 in the first over, and Knight Riders had their most productive first over since 2013. Narine continuing punishing Sreenath Aravind, who had a decent Powerplay economy rate of 7.32, in the third over.
Mills, Binny strike
The Narine onslaught forced Kohli to bowl half of Tymal Mills' quota in the first four overs. It also meant Kohli had to hold back his two other big bowlers, legspinners Badree and Yuzvendra Chahal. Mills responded, though, hitting Gambhir's thumb on the way to Jadhav in the fourth over. A slower short ball in the fifth over accounted for Narine,
Legspinners come back
In the last match at Eden Gardens, Knight Riders posted 187, and lost with 10 balls to spare. They must have been under extra pressure now to get a total that was Gayle-Kohli-de-Villiers-proof, which is perhaps why they kept going after the legspinners. Badree and especially Chahal loved it. Robin Uthappa fell playing Badree across the line, Yusuf Pathan was stumped down the leg side off Chahal, de Grandhomme skipped out and edged Chahal to slip, and Manish Pandey flicked a Chahal full toss to midwicket. The real show, though, was yet to begin.
Pace like fire
Going into the chase, Royal Challengers might have thought of getting a big net run rate bonus here. Small ground, quick outfield, a paltry total to chase, with explosive batsmen in the shed, this was fertile ground for a quick finish and big momentum.
Gambhir, on the other hand, walked out like a desperate nothing-to-lose Tony Montana from Scarface. He had his helmet on, and he asked Royal Challengers to say hello to his little friend: raw pace and upright seam. A pumped-up Coulter-Nile began with a massive no-ball, but he hit Gayle on the shoulder on the free hit. And when Kohli faced first up, Gambhir had a second slip in place, which is where the edge to the outswinger went.
At the other end, Umesh was cut straight to point by Mandeep Singh, who had moved ahead of de Villiers in the order. The strategy for de Villiers this season has been to give him no room, doing which Knight Riders conceded two early boundaries, but a sharp bouncer from Coulter-Nile drew the fatal top edge on the hook from well outside off.
Towards the end of the fourth over, Gambhir was seen gesturing towards fine leg. He wanted one more from Coulter-Nile, who came back and accounted for Jadhav with the first ball of his third over. Gambhir also knew that Gayle was not enjoying the pace, and he kept peppering him with the pace of Umesh.
Gambhir then overlooked Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav, who many might have thought were the key now, with the score 39 for 4 after six overs and with Gayle on seven off 15. He went to Woakes, who was not going to pitch anything in Gayle's half, even if it meant bowling a wide. That wide out of the way, perhaps Gayle felt there would be no more short balls in the over, but Woakes still bounced him, handcuffing his attempt at a big shot, and having him caught at cover. The rest was just a procession.
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28th match - Mumbai Indians v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 160/6 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 157/8 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 3 runs
A spell of clever pace and length variations from Ben Stokes, which included a wicket-maiden and a tight, match-turning 19th over, helped Rising Pune Supergiant halt Mumbai Indians' six-match winning streak and complete the double against their cross-expressway rivals.
On a slower-than-usual Wankhede Stadium pitch, Rising Pune fell away after a promising start to post a middling total of 160, but managed to defend it against the season's best chasing side. Before today, Mumbai had batted second five times and won on each occasion.
This time, they fell four short of their target, after Rohit Sharma brought them within striking distance with his first half-century of the season. By conceding only seven off the 19th over, Stokes left Mumbai needing 17 off the last over.
Rohit swung Jaydev Unadkat for six second ball, but the left-arm seamer stuck to his guns of bowling slower balls wide of off stump. Rohit left one, hoping it would be called wide, but he had jumped a long way across, premeditatedly, and umpire S Ravi declined to do so. Having argued his point between deliveries, Rohit got back on strike and holed out, miscuing another slower one.
With Mumbai needing 11 off two, Unadkat only conceded one off the fifth ball - Mitchell McClenaghan run-out at the non-striker's end trying to steal a second - rendering a last-ball six from Harbhajan Singh largely meaningless.
Tripathi, Rahane make bright start
Given Mumbai's chasing record, Rohit Sharma had no hesitation in bowling first. The pitch seemed fairly typical early on, with the ball coming on nicely, and boundaries flowed frequently through and over the Powerplay fields. Rahul Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane moved Rising Pune to 48 for 0 by the end of the Powerplay, and eventually added 76 in 9.2 overs, falling just two short of their team's best-ever opening stand.
Karn, Harbhajan begin Mumbai comeback
An unspecified injury - Rohit did not elaborate on its nature at the toss - had ruled Krunal Pandya out, and in his place Mumbai played an almost like-for-like replacement, the legspinning allrounder Karn Sharma. Karn's first two overs - both bowled in the Powerplay - went for 17, but in his third over he got a googly to rear up at Rahane, who offered up a simple return catch. In his next over, Tripathi holed out.
Harbhajan Singh, meanwhile, had bowled three overs at the other end without conceding a boundary. In his fourth, he gave Mumbai their most yearned-for breakthrough. Steven Smith, failing to spot a drop in pace from the offspinner, played all around him and became his 200th T20 victim.
Mumbai's fast bowlers used the slower one just as well; like Smith, Stokes and MS Dhoni were also bowled playing across the line. Apart from a 13-ball 22 from Manoj Tiwary, there was no middle- or lower-order spark from Pune, and they eventually only managed 60 in their last eight overs.
Stokes gets Buttler
Just like Pune's openers, Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel enjoyed batting against the hard, new ball. Five fours in the space of eight balls lifted Mumbai to 27 for 0 after three overs.
Stokes came on to bowl the fifth over and took only two balls to deliver the breakthrough. Buttler was looking to make room to slap over the bowler's head or over mid-off; Stokes sent down the slower ball, forcing him to drag it further into the on side than he would have wanted, straight to the man at long-on.
Mumbai's left-hander strategy backfires
With Nitish Rana joining fellow left-hander Parthiv, Pune replaced Stokes with the offspin of Washington Sundar, who had delivered one tight over and one expensive over in the Powerplay. He responded by conceding only six runs in the seventh over. Smith kept him in the attack even after Rana fell to a Daniel Christian slower ball. Washington kept denying Parthiv room, and bowled him with his last ball as he tried to cut him off the stumps. The score now read 60 for 3 in nine overs
By bowling Washington out so early, Pune had been able to delay the introduction of Imran Tahir, and time it to coincide with the arrival of Rohit, who has had issues with wristspin through the season. As a counter-measure, Mumbai promoted Karn, another left-hander - he hit one six off Tahir before Stokes returned in the 13th over and bowled him with - surprise, surprise - the slower ball.
Stokes tilts the seesaw
At this point, Mumbai needed 75 off 47 balls. Rohit kept them in touch with the asking rate, clubbing and slog-sweeping Tahir for four and six in the 14th over, and picked up a boundary each off Stokes and Shardul Thakur in the 15th and 16th. Tahir's dismissal of Kieron Pollard, caught at long-off, left Mumbai needing 39 from 23.
It was doable with Rohit at the crease, particularly when he had Hardik Pandya for company. Before today, Mumbai's run rate in the last five overs while chasing - 12.11 - was the best in the league, and Hardik, in that phase, had scored 46 off 21 without once being dismissed. Rohit brought up his fifty in the 18th over, and Hardik spanked Unadkat for successive fours immediately afterwards, leaving Mumbai needing 24 off the last two overs.
Stokes, though, still had an over left to bowl. This one would be full of yorkers, with a couple of slower offcutters thrown in for variety. Neither Rohit nor Hardik was able to get underneath his deliveries, and only seven came off the over.
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29th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Match abandoned without a ball bowled
On the heels of collapsing for the lowest total in IPL history, Royal Challengers Bangalore had to endure a washout at home, putting their hopes of making the playoffs in jeopardy.
They have only two wins from eight matches so far and might have to win each of their next six games to be among the top four on the points table. Should they pull off such a streak, they will have 17 points. Only four times in the IPL's past nine years have teams got through to the final four with less than 16 points.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, are already at third place, might well have enjoyed having an extra night off during a tournament so hectic. The weather soured approximately an hour and a half before the toss and though it was only a drizzle for the most part, it was persistent. The umpires finally called the game off at 11 pm, which meant David Warner's men continue searching for their first win away from home in 2017.
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30th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Kolkata Knight Riders
Rising Pune Supergiant 182/5 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 184/3 (18.1/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)
A turbo-charged innings from Robin Uthappa and a relatively more sedate one from Gautam Gambhir helped Kolkata Knight Riders overhaul 182 with 11 balls to spare and reclaim the top spot in the league. Their 158-run partnership - the second highest for KKR in the IPL - ruthlessly exposed the limitations of a Rising Pune attack that was without Ben Stokes, who was nursing a niggle.
In Stokes' absence, there was a case for Rising Pune to pick either New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson or Australian legspinner Adam Zampa. Instead, they opted for South African batsman Faf du Plessis, who did not even get to bat.
Five of Rising Pune's six bowlers went for over eight runs an over - and three went for over 10. Pune's fielding was as slipshod as their bowling. Uthappa, who was dropped on 12, moved to his highest IPL score of 87 off 47 balls at a strike-rate of 185.10. Gambhir, who was dropped on 32, went on to make 62. By the time they were dismissed in successive overs, the game was all but over. It was IPL debutant Darren Bravo who applied the finishing touches with a cover-driven four.
Tripathi thrives in the Powerplay
The first over of the match, which had four plays-and-misses and an outside edge that burst through Uthappa's gloves, turned out to be a false dawn for KKR. Rahul Tripathi was scoreless when Uthappa dropped that difficult chance. Yusuf Pathan then shelled a simpler catch to reprieve Tripathi in the seventh over. By then the opener had given Rising Pune their second successive fifty-run opening stand.
He darted around the crease and manufactured swinging room to hit a variety of drives, including an inside-out four over covers off Sunil Narine. In all, Tripathi took two of KKR's key bowlers - Narine and Umesh Yadav - for 28 runs off 13 balls. His early assault allowed Ajinkya Rahane to play himself in at the other end.
Dhoni doesn't start slowly
Before this match, Dhoni had scored just 27 runs off 54 balls from Narine in T20s - 3 off 13 balls in his previous game against KKR. But when Dhoni arrived on Wednesday night, Narine had only one over left. Gambhir held him back, and Dhoni pounced on Piyush Chawla, hitting him for back-to-back boundaries. Dhoni then pulled Kuldeep Yadav for a six and took Pune to 140 for 2 in 16 overs. Gambhir turned to Narine for the next over, but Dhoni saw him off.
The rousing finish
Kuldeep brought KKR back by removing both Dhoni and Manoj Tiwary, who was sent ahead of du Plessis, with googlies. KKR, however, were without their previous match-winner Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was rested for this clash. Chris Woakes and Umesh served up a volley of length balls, and Smith and Dan Christian clattered 30 off the last two overs to lift Pune to 182 for 5.
The partnership that won it
KKR lost Narine, who opened again, in the third over of the chase when Dhoni collected a throw from Shardul Thakur and dexterously flicked it onto the stumps. Imran Tahir induced a swirling top edge from Uthappa in his first over, but Jaydev Unadkat dropped it, falling backwards at deep midwicket. Uthappa soon got stuck into rookie offspinner Washington Sundar, gloriously lofting him for back-to-back sixes down the ground. Tahir wasn't spared either - he was driven down the ground for a six. At the other end, Gambhir simply nurdled the ball into the gaps and let Uthappa do his thing.
Uthappa soon unfurled dabs and sweeps, and secured runs in the other V - behind square. With every boundary, KKR highlighted the lack of depth in the Pune attack. The weakness in fielding was also exposed when Sundar put down Gambhir at short fine leg. Having watched his frontline bowlers regularly disappear to the boundary, Smith turned to Tripathi's medium-pace. He fared just as poorly, conceding 12 off his only over. In the first six overs KKR made 45 for 1. In their next six, they bashed 78 for 0. Game over.
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31st match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Gujarat Lions
RCB 134 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 135/3 (13.5/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions won by 7 wickets (with 37 balls remaining)
Royal Challengers Bangalore paid the price for another batting meltdown to face an early elimination from IPL 2017. On a Chinnaswamy surface that played much better than other three games previously this season, RCB underachieved by being bowled out for 134, and then let the despondency slip into their bowling.
Aaron Finch feasted on an attack without the injured Tymal Mills, to race to a bruising 22-ball half-century to raze down the target with 37 balls to spare and lift Gujarat Lions off the bottom of the points table. But the star was once again Andrew Tye, who unleashed a barrage of variations - including his patented knuckle ball - to finish with three wickets that set up Lions' third win in eight matches.
Tye ties RCB's top-order in knots
Lions unleashed two young fast bowlers - Nathu Singh and Basil Thampi - on a surface where they got the ball to climb onto the batsmen. Four nights after slumping to 49 all out, the lowest score in IPL history, RCB started cautiously. The first four overs had fetched just two boundaries, one of which was Virat Kohli's strong bottom-hand whip for six. But the frustration to score freely resulted in him picking out short fine leg in the fourth over.
With an early wicket in the bag, Tye, who had taken two or more wickets in three of the four matches this season (no other Lions bowlers had taken more than one before this game) was brought in and he struck first ball with a cross-seam delivery that nibbled away to take Chris Gayle's outside edge. Off his next delivery, he got a length ball to climb on Travis Head, who nicked to Suresh Raina at slip. Kedar Jadhav extinguished the possibility of a second hat-trick for Tye, but Lions had done the early damage, with RCB tottering at 23 for 3 after five.
Jadhav's lift, Mandeep's brain-freeze
Jadhav offset the damage by hitting Basil Thampi for three successive boundaries in the sixth over. He started off with a pull in front of square and followed that up with a flick and an upper cut. Then in the next over, Ravindra Jadeja fired them in and got shoveled inside-out over cover. Having raced to 21 off 12 deliveries, Jadhav was in the mood. He welcomed debutant legspinner Ankit Soni by biffing him across the line over deep midwicket. His enterprise overshadowed AB de Villiers' presence. A fight back was on the cards, but trying to be a little overambitious - exposing all three stumps to cutely dab Jadeja behind square - cost him.
Losing wickets in clumps was the order for RCB. Five balls after Jadhav fell, a total breakdown in communication resulted in de Villiers' run-out. Mandeep Singh ran past his senior partner after initially stopping midway on his partner's call to leave him stranded. De Villiers' 11 deliveries fetched him five. At 60 for 5 at the halfway mark, RCB needed a miracle from their lower order. Negi provided that with some lusty blows but fell for a 19-ball 32 in his quest to muscle Soni for a third-successive six. A 23-run ninth-wicket stand between S Aravind and Aniket Choudhary managed to lift them to 134.
Badree's early strikes raise RCB hopes
Ishan Kishan's promotion to open with Brendon McCullum could've meant only one thing: of taking the attack to RCB. Kishan did just that, hitting Badree for three boundaries before being pinned in front by a skidder. Then, Kohli's decision to give Badree a third-straight over paid off when McCullum holed out to long-on, trying to take the fielder on. With Lions at 23 for 2, RCB were in with a shout.
Finch sucker-punches RCB
The game was on the edge, but Finch decided attack was the best way to drive the game forward. He muscled Badree for two sixes in his first three deliveries and punished Aravind for two fours in the over that followed to offset any pressure there was on Lions. Yuzvendra Chahal and Aniket Choudhary came in for similar treatment as Finch used his free swing to pepper the short side boundaries and race to a 22-ball half-century, the fastest for a Lions batsman. At the halfway mark, Lions were 95 for 2. Suresh Raina, far from his fluent self, should've been caught at deep midwicket but Chahal reprieved him by overstepping. But by then the game was all but lost by RCB.
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32nd match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils 160/6 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 161/3 (16.2/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets (with 22 balls remaining)
How long is 20 overs? Ask Delhi Daredevils' batsmen, who once again found time to wander aimlessly in the middle overs and then stumble at the end. In a repeat of their first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Daredevils got off to a flier - 53 in the Powerplay in both matches - but lived up to their well-earned reputation of being the slowest in middle overs and couldn't manage a finishing kick to boot. The most prolific pair this IPL - Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir - then made light of the 161-run target.
In what was the first signs of this being Groundhog Day, the captains walked out for a toss that was purely academic. Daredevils wanted to defend because they don't want their inexperienced batting active in decisive moments, Knight Riders wanted to chase because they last lost chasing at Eden Gardens in 2012. Sanju Samson then continued his schizophrenic IPL: bomb the quicks, go comatose against spin, and then find yourself under pressure and either kick on or fail. Failure is likelier if you keep putting yourself under that pressure, and it didn't help that Chris Morris, Rishabh Pant and Corey Anderson couldn't do much either.
Narine pulls them back
Samson once again displayed his outrageous talent of clean striking and raced away to 25 off nine balls. Then came Sunil Narine with a record of 56 balls against Samson, Karun Nair and Anderson for just 49 runs and three wickets. On cue he produced his first Powerplay wicket this season: Karun Nair, out sweeping. Daredevils 48 for 1 in the fifth over.
Slow bowlers, slower batting
Samson has scored just 81 runs off 76 balls of spin this season. Against pace he has looted 203 off 119. It was a mild surprise Narine was not introduced sooner. Brakes came on immediately with either Narine or Kuldeep Yadav manning one end in the middle overs. The result was a partnership between Shreyas Iyer and Samson that reached 50 in 7.3 overs. Forty-six legal deliveries went without a hit to the fence. Every such delivery meant one fewer for the big hitters to face.
When Samson scored his hundred this season, he went through a similar pattern: a flying start of 35 off 19, then only 13 off the next 19, and then the final kick. Against Knight Riders in Delhi, he did the same, going from 27 off 12 to just 13 off the next 13 balls. Here, too, he put himself under pressure of going big in the end. Like in Delhi, he failed to kick on here, scoring just 35 off the last 29 balls he faced, despite two late sixes.
Iyer's innings was more damaging. He found himself in a desperate situation after scoring 18 off the first 21 balls he faced. They both tried to go hard the moment Colin de Grandhomme was introduced in the 13th over, but Daredevils needed something big from them or from Morris, Pant and Anderson to salvage the situation.
Pace stifles Daredevils
Umesh Yadav got Samson lbw with one that swung back in. Needing quick runs Samson was caught playing a low-percentage flick to square leg. The came back Nathan Coulter-Nile to eliminate the big threat of Pant with a straight near-yorker. Iyer again took high risk in the same over and perished. Corey Anderson was dropped twice, but Morris ran him out. Chris Woakes and Coulter-Nile then finished off for Knight Riders with just one boundary coming in the last four overs. Coulter-Nile has taken two or more wickets in each of the four matches he has played.
The leave
When Daredevils scored an underwhelming 168 in their last match against Knight Riders, the quality in their bowling made Gambhir's side sweat over the chase. Daredevils are one of the sides that can be backed to do something with small defences. Even though Zaheer Khan walked off with what looked like a pulled hamstring in his second over, Daredevils got off to a heartening start. Kagiso Rabada burst through Narine's defence, and soon had Uthappa top-edging. The ball fell near the square leg umpire with ample time for at least three fielders to converge. Samson and Mishra came the closest. Neither of them called. Neither of them went for it. Had the catch been taken, Knight Riders would have been reduced to 37 for 2 in the sixth over, with Gambhir still going at a strike rate of 100.
The endgame
A long one at that. Gambhir, still one of the best players of spin in India, welcomed Mishra with two boundaries in his first over. Uthappa tore into Morris at the other end. In eight overs, Knight Riders had knocked off half the runs. If Daredevils had seven boundary-less overs after the quick start, there were only two middle overs in the Knight Riders innings that didn't feature a boundary. When Gambhir pulled an innocuous short ball from Anderson for a four in the 13th over, the asking rate dropped under a run a ball. The game was over long ago.
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33rd match - Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 207/3 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 181/9 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 26 runs
Sunrisers Hyderabad showed intent from the outset to get ahead of Kings XI Punjab via quickfire fifties from their top-three batsmen, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Kane Williamson. Thereon, Sunrisers never looked like squandering the decisive advantage they gained within the first quarter of the game, putting on the joint second-highest total of the season and following it up with another relatively comfortable defense.
Shaun Marsh put on a display of timing in a belligerent 50-ball 84 to keep Kings XI in the hunt for the majority of the chase despite an increasing required rate. However, Kings XI's insufficient resources towards the end meant they fell 26 runs short. Sunrisers' win pushed them to third on the points table.
Getting ahead of the game
Ishant Sharma, one of two fast-bowling inclusions for Kings XI, bowled an accurate first over and generated appreciable lateral movement. Anureet Singh, the other, started with three leg-side deliveries. Dhawan flicked two boundaries of them. Ishant's line was wayward in his next over, and Dhawan picked him off for plenty of free runs. Dhawan helped himself to 20 of his first 23 runs into the leg side. Warner laid into the left-arm spin of Axar Patel, and Sunrisers plundered 60 in the Powerplay, their best this season.
The field spread but the Sunrisers openers' intent didn't change: Warner and Dhawan hit five boundaries in the first five overs of the innings and five more between overs 6 and 10. Warner was bowled for 51, looking to swat Glenn Maxwell in the 10th over. By that time, Sunrisers had scored 107.
T20s not all about power
Williamson isn't the most powerful of ball-strikers, especially while hitting straight. What he lacks in power, he makes up in touch. After Warner's dismissal, Williamson took his time, accruing nine runs in nine balls. As soon as he felt a need to attack, he picked his areas and executed flawlessly.
When the spinners dropped short, Williamson pulled. When the seamers were wide, he cut. He also improvised to hit behind square on either side as fatigue crept in. He faced the same number of deliveries as Warner, but scored three runs more without a muscular stroke.
Falling behind legspin
Before the game against Kings XI, Rashid Khan had conceded just 48 runs off 45 balls against overseas batsmen this season. Kings XI required 141 runs off 13 overs when Warner introduced Rashid. Shaun Marsh and Eoin Morgan weren't particularly comfortable against Rashid's legspin. So they decided to chip away as opposed to putting Rashid off his length.
While Marsh and Morgan, aware that Kings XI's lower order was thin on batting, prodded about, the asking rate soared over 12. Rashid conceded just 16 off his four overs and had Eoin Morgan caught in the deep. It wasn't the worst tactic from Kings XI, but the target proved to be too much to 'play out' a bowler.
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34th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Rising Pune Supergiant 157/3 (20/20 ov)
RCB 96/9 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 61 runs
Utterly wasteful batting left Royal Challengers Bangalore closer to the brink than ever before in IPL 2017. They needed 158 to win the first of five games Virat Kohli said they had to win to make the play-offs. They did not need a scoreline that read 53 for 5 in the 10th over which then turned into a chastening, morale-killing 61-run defeat.
Rising Pune Supergiant were not complaining. They finally got to defend a total at home and safeguard their position at fourth place the points table.
So what now for RCB? They can, mathematically, still make the final four, but can a team that fell to 49 all out, a team that will lose AB de Villiers in the coming weeks, a team that tops the charts in run-outs (7), single-digit scores (40) and scoring slowly in the Powerplay (6.64) stop the rot in time?
The hitter
Rahul Tripathi has shouldered considerable responsibility in his first IPL season. He is expected to take advantage of fielding restrictions in the Powerplay, which by itself is not an unreasonable demand. But the 26-year old has also had to make up for his partner's struggles. Ajinkya Rahane's strike-rate of 123 is the lowest among openers with 100 or more runs in this IPL and today he fell early as well, sweeping a full toss to short fine leg.
RCB might have thought that gave them the advantage. After all, Tripathi did not even play the 2017 domestic T20 tournament. But on a grander stage, against tougher bowlers, he has now smashed six straight 30-plus scores - an unmatched tally - and specifically in the first six overs, he has 198 runs - another unmatched tally - hitting a boundary every 3.71 balls.
A see-saw innings
Pune collected 43 runs in the Powerplay, but only 26 in the next five overs, hitting only one four. This was because they had to deal with a dry pitch and a set of RCB players swearing by their slower balls. Another thing that worked for Kohli was his use of Pawan Negi. The left-arm spinner has bowled 120 balls this season - 103 of them have been to right-handers. They have also contributed to seven of his eight wickets, Tripathi the latest to succumb for 37 off 28 balls. Negi finished with 1 for 18, equalling his most economical spell of four overs in IPL history.
The splutter
It seems par for the course for Pune to potter along between the seventh and 14th overs: since they came into being in 2016, their run-rate of 7.55 in this phase has been the slowest among all teams. Only this year, it might actually be their plan, considering Manoj Tiwary's form, MS Dhoni's reputation, and the Ben Stokes investment. Against RCB, they had the first two on call but not the third. So Steven Smith smacked Samuel Badree for 6, 4, 4 in the 12th over and Pune had suddenly found 29 runs in two overs.
RCB did well to pull things back, taking pace off the ball against Tiwary, and tucking Dhoni up by bowling into his body. In the slog overs, when batsmen are solely thinking boundaries, those were sound plans. The last of the sound plans.
RCBusted
It began with de Villiers crunching a backfoot drive straight to short cover's hands. Score, 32 for 2. Then Kedar Jadhav was run-out, as he and Kohli looked for an overthrow when the ball was a few little feet away from the bowler. Score, 44 for 3. Sachin Baby chipped a catch to short midwicket. Score, 47 for 4. Stuart Binny top-edged a hook and was caught at long leg. Score, 48 for 5. Trent Woodhill, the batting coach, was sitting in the dugout, watching in pure horror.
Lockie Ferguson, who conceded 44 runs in his only other IPL game, came away with 4-1-7-2 today, with 18 dots, the highest for the season. Now that suggests he was terrifying, but he wasn't. Then did Smith funk it up with his fields? No. The pitch wasn't playing tricks either. There was no evidence to suggest every RCB batsman barring Kohli would only manage single-digits.
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35th match - Gujarat Lions v Mumbai Indians
Gujarat Lions 153/9 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 153 (20/20 ov)
Match tied
One-over eliminator - Mumbai Indians - 11/2 - all out (0.5 overs)
One-over eliminator - Gujarat Lions - 6/0 (1 over)
Mumbai Indians win the super over
In what became a street fight on a dry surface, Gujarat Lions produced some gun run-outs to force a tie, but in the tiebreaker, the top gun, Jasprit Bumrah bowled a sensational Super Over to defend 11 runs and give Mumbai Indians joint lead at the top of the table along with Kolkata Knight Riders. For most parts, perhaps because of a slow pitch, this match was more about who wanted to lose it more badly, but in the final moments both sides raises their games to deliver a Twenty20 spectacle.
In the absence of the injured Andrew Tye, James Faulkner deflated Mumbai's rollicking chase of 154 with his cutters to bring it down to 15 required off two overs. Basil Thampi then produced two wickets in the 19th over to make it 12 required off six balls with three wickets in hand. Only man keeping his head for Mumbai until now was Krunal Pandya, who was on 19 off 16 after having registered his best bowling figures earlier in the match.
To the last ball of the 19th over, Mitchell McClenaghan played a ramp with fine leg back. He was always going to sacrifice his wicket to bring Krunal on strike for the first ball of the last over, but this ball fell precariously short of the charging Irfan Pathan. Playing for his sixth IPL team, once again as a second thought as has been the case in the last three seasons, Irfan's first over had been butchered for 16 by Parthiv Patel, who scored 70 off 44.
Irfan kept charging at the ball, which fell well short and spun away from him. Not only did he stick out his hand in the other direction to prevent the boundary, he also ran McClenaghan out with a direct hit from fine leg. Riding on that momentum, Irfan came in to bowl his second over, and started off with a half-volley first ball. Krunal, who had done all the hard work, smoked it for a straight six.
With the game now looking sorted, with four required off four, Bumrah tapped one towards point and set off for what is a bit of a regulation single nowadays in the final overs. Ravindra Jadeja, though, had other ideas. He charged in, swooped on the ball, and knocked down the stumps at the bowler's end. Krunal, though, had regained strike, and punched the next slower ball through the vacant third man region for a couple. He did the pragmatic thing by taking the single available on the fifth ball to tie the scores.
Now Irfan bowled to Lasith Malinga. They were going to run no matter what. A fielder stood by the stumps at the bowler's end as Irfan ran in. He bowled full, hit Malinga's pad, Krunal hared through, and Jadeja at point got the ball on the full. Instead of going at Malinag's end, he went to the striker's, and beat the dive of Krunal by a frame, hitting the only stump visible to him. Lions' fielding had forced a tie after they had dropped two catches.
Lions' fate was now in Faulkner's hands. Tye, used for the first time in the sixth over, by which time Mumbai had run away to a flying start, injured himself in the field and had to be stretchered off. He could bowl just one over. Faulkner had kept Lions alive in regulation time with the run-out of Jos Buttler, and wickets of Rohit Sharma and Parthiv in the 14th over. He now had to bowl to Buttler, Kieron Pollard and Rohit Sharma.
Pollard announced to Faulkner that his birthday was approaching its end with a four and a six; 11 after three balls looked ominous. Faulkner, though, came back with wickets off the next two balls to enjoy his birthday some more. Ishan Kishan, who had scored 48 to set up Lions' innings, took a pressure catch as the big skier from Buttler swirled and the keeper hovered in his vicinity too. Mumbai hadn't even faced their quote of six balls in the Super Over.
By the time Bumrah began his over, the date had changed. Faulkner, though, was not going to play any more role in the game. It was down to Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum. Bumrah had had a bittersweet match. He had taken the wickets of Raina and Faulkner, but he had also bowled two no-balls. Now there was no room for more mistakes. Were Mumbai now thinking of those no-balls? Or the dolly dropped in the final over, which could have bowled Lions out for eight fewer than they ended up with?
Bumrah ran in and bowled the perfect yorker, except that he had delivered his third no-ball of the night. Finch, the man on strike, expected another yorker, and felt that the way to beat Bumrah off his rhythm was to look for the ramp on the free hit. Bumrah bowled the perfect dipping yorker again, and conceded just one leg-bye.
Now with 10 required off five, McCullum took strike. He too moved around in the crease to upset Bumrah's rhythm. He possibly succeeded. Bumrah went wide outside off, but McCullum held his ground, and the dipping slower ball was ruled a wide. Nine off five now.
Bumrah released, it looked like the fast yorker, McCullum shaped up to get under it, but midway it seemed like a balloon that had been deflated. Surely not another slower ball? It was, and it was a perfect slower ball, dipping late, squeezing under McCullum's bat. Another slower ball arrived next ball and dipped under McCullum's bat. Only some ordinary keeping from Parthiv - a reminder that the night had been about a lot of ordinary cricket - allowed them a bye.
Lions now needed eight off three balls. Bumrah went back to a yorker to Finch, who looked to make room, swung inside the line, and was lucky to not be bowled. Bumrah had by now delivered six balls without letting two of the biggest hitters in the world get bat on ball. The death of the yorker might be overstated after all.
Finally Bumrah erred, but Finch could only taker a single off the full toss, leaving McCullum seven to win off the last ball. Even if he had hit a six, Mumbai would have won by the virtue of having hit one more boundary than their opponents in regulation time and Super Over put together.
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36th match - Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils 67 (17.1/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 68/0 (7.5/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 10 wickets (with 73 balls remaining)
Sixty-seven all out. That is worst total in the first innings of an IPL match and the unqualified worst for the Delhi Daredevils in 10 years of franchise cricket. The bottom-placed team in 2017 burrowed further underground as Sandeep Sharma exploited a slow Mohali pitch to deliver a career-best 4 for 20.
The Kings XI Punjab openers gunned down their target in 7.5 overs with Martin Guptill making 50 runs all by himself.
The Powerplay specialist
Glenn Maxwell's confidence to bowl first rested on his understanding that overnight rain could have juiced up the playing surface. He totally forgot he had the best Powerplay bowler this season.
No one has bested Sandeep Sharma's tally of balls (114) and dots (62) bowled, or even wickets taken (6) in the first six overs of an innings. But his success on Sunday was down to an understanding that hitting the deck and keeping it straight would be enough to confound the batsmen.
Vertical bat shots are difficult on a slow pitch. Sandeep, fully aware of that, kept tempting the Daredevils to go for them. Sanju Samson was caught off a flick for 5 off 14 balls - his slowest IPL innings in India (min of 10 balls faced) - and Shreyas Iyer drove one back into the bowler's hand.
The lay up
Coming in with the opposition at 29 for 4 with no fielding restrictions is paradise for a spinner. Axar Patel made it even better with a wicket first ball, removing Karun Nair, who was captaining for the first time in T20 cricket. Maxwell, then, brought himself into the attack, eager to deny a choking team the oxygen they needed, also known as pace on the ball. Together they bowled eight overs for only 34 runs and the Kings XI captain even recorded his most economical four-over spell - 1 for 12.
The finish
Daredevils crawled to 37 for 6 in 10 overs and were bowled out in 17.1, hitting a mere five boundaries. Kings XI rocketed past that score, with more hits to the fence, when the chase was only 27 balls old.
Guptill was listed to bat in the middle over, but the team management did well to push him out to open. He collected his 32nd T20 fifty, Kings XI's net run-rate went from -0.44 to +0.23 and so the second-shortest IPL match in history with only 150 balls bowled came to an end.
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37th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
Sunrisers Hyderabad 209/3 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 161/7 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 48 runs
Against the third-best best attack of this IPL, David Warner scored a sensational 126 off 59 balls as Sunrisers Hyderabad served notice to the two table-toppers with a dominating win. Kolkata Knight Riders, Warner's victims on the night, and Mumbai Indians still remained at the top of the table with 14 points, but Sunrisers were now breathing down their necks, just one point behind.
Some of the best batsmen in the world watched and tweeted in awe as Warner took the Knight Riders attack through the shredders. It didn't make as much noise as Chris Gayle's 175, but at one stage Warner threatened a double hundred. This was the fifth-fastest IPL century, but the amount of strike Warner took made the big difference. He reached his century in the 11th over, having faced 43 balls by then already. His share of strike reduced in the following deliveries - 16 out of 32 - and he eventually perished playing yet another big shot.
Despite an underwhelming - relatively speaking - second half, Sunrisers managed their highest total and the highest by any team against Knight Riders. And they have only ever failed to defend scores of over 175 on three occasions. Given the depth in their bowling, there was no addition being made to the list on this night, not in Hyderabad where they have now five straight matches.
Warner steps out
There was something about Warner from the moment he walked out. To the first ball of the innings, he charged down the track and tried to hit Nathan Coulter-Nile out of the ground. This was a bowler whom Knight Riders used as a strike weapon: in four matches, he had taken 11 wickets, with at least two in every match. Warner wanted to eliminate his threat. He managed only six off that over, but got stuck into Umesh Yadav and Chris Woakes, taking Sunrisers to 35 in three overs.
That forced Gautam Gambhir to call upon Yusuf Pathan for only the third time this IPL - he had previously started overs against Suresh Raina and Aaron Finch, and Warner and Shikhar Dhawan - with reasonable success. This time, though, Warner hit him for four, four and six. Sunrisers 52 for 0 in four overs.
Knight Riders were not holding back. Now came Sunil Narine. Immediately Warner went down on a knee and switch-hit the first ball for a six over point. Knight Riders had tried every thing, but Warner was unstoppable. Sunrisers 67 for 0 after five.
The luck
Warner faced 59 balls and hit 18 boundaries. That is one boundary every third ball. And you have to attempt them more often to have this boundary-per-ball rate. It's quite feasible Warner attempted to hit a boundary every second ball, and if you do that you need some luck to last 59 balls. It arrived when Warner skied a pull off an Umesh slower ball in the second over. Woakes misjudged it, back-pedalling instead of turning around and running. Had he done so, he might have made that catch and possibly sent Warner back for 13.
The next time Warner was dropped, by Woakes again, he was moving from 86 to 92, having peppered all boundaries with all kinds of shots.
The late control
Knight Riders did well to pull Sunrisers back from 123 for 0 in 10 overs. Dhawan struggled for fluency, scoring 29 off 30, but the duo must have done something right because Warner had faced 46 balls by then, a ratio that had been much higher earlier. Umesh made a good comeback with pace variations, Woakes finally got Warner out, but the classy Kane Williamson's 25-ball 40 still made sure Sunrisers crossed 200.
Uthappa on the burning deck
Okay, burning deck is a little too dramatic, especially when it did rain for 45 minutes in the middle of the chase, but once Knight Riders lost Narine and Gambhir early they were always up against it. Robin Uthappa, though, had other ideas, hitting four sixes and four fours in the 28 balls that he faced, and that after having to stabilise the innings a little. The highlight was playing Rashid Khan like an offspinner and slogging him for two enormous sixes.
However, once local boy Mohammed Siraj got Uthappa with a slower ball in the 13th over, for a 28-ball 53, the 101 required in 45 balls was always going to be too much against the second-best attack in the competition.
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38th match - Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 162/8 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 165/5 (19.5/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 5 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
Rohit Sharma masterminded the regulation chase that became tight to give Mumbai Indians the lead in the standings, and put beyond doubt their qualification for the playoffs. It pushed the star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore out of the tournament.
On a pitch that was drier than the usual Wankhede belters, Mumbai Indians batsmen kept getting out after getting in. Two big ones - Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana - fell to Pawan Negi, who firstly gave Royal Challengers something to bowl at with his 23-ball 35 and then followed up with figures of 4-0-17-2. That left Mumbai needing 65 off the last seven, with Kieron Pollard out and Krunal Pandya - who took the wicket of AB de Villiers once again - injured, but Rohit signalled a return to form with a cool chase whose feature was calculated blows. He ended up with 56 off 37 without taking any big risks as Mumbai won with one ball to spare.
One slower ball picked, another not picked
Royal Challengers changed their opening combination again with Mandeep Singh coming in ahead of Travis Head. This was one of the six they had tried in 11 matches. Mumbai were missing their ace defensive bowler, Harbhajan Singh, and his replacement Karn Sharma was one whom Virat Kohli fancies the most. They also had Mitchell McClenaghan who had good numbers against Kohli, but again the big bowler Jasprit Bumrah had struggled against his India captain.
Mumbai took the risk of bowling Karn in the fourth over, and that produced Mandeep's wicket, with a slog settling with the only man in the deep on the leg side. In the next over, Kohli showed ominous signs when he picked the near unpickable Bumrah slower ball and dropped him over cow corner for six. At the start of the next over, though, Kohli failed to pick the McClenaghan offcutter, and chipped an easy catch to midwicket. Royal Challengers 40 for 2 in the sixth over. McClenaghan to Kohli in IPL: 28 balls, 20 runs, four wickets.
De Villiers v Krunal, part 4
De Villiers is arguably the most dangerous batsman in the world. Krunal has not even played international cricket. He made his first-class debut last year. Yet, in Twenty20 cricket, Krunal had got de Villiers out every time he batted against his team. In this match, though, de Villiers looked a million dollars from the time he cut the third and fourth balls he faced for four and six. In Krunals' first over, de Villiers got a four and six more. The first one was a short ball, which Krunal doesn't want, but the second was a slog-sweep against the turn, which Krunal has been making de Villiers do. In Krunal's last over, de Villiers again pulled out the sweep for another massive six, reaching 43 off 26. The next ball, though, drifted a little bit more, and drew the edge from another attempted six.
Interestingly, in the innings break, de Villiers said he could see Rohit was looking to squeeze in a few overs of spin and didn't want to let him do that. Did Royal Challengers over-aim here? Shane Watson's wicket followed soon, and made it 108 for 5 in the 14th over.
Negi fights with the bat
Negi, though, made sure the familiar tale of Royal Challengers surrender didn't repeat itself. He took toll of Lasith malinga and Bumrah after picking their slower balls and taking three sixes in the 18th and 19th over. The McClenaghan slower ball, though, got him in the last over, and controlled the late damage. What looked like 150 had rocked up to 170 but had settled at 162 now.
Negi fights with the ball
Despite the first-ball loss of Parthiv Patel, Buttler and Rana ran away to a quick start against the pace, taking Mumbai to 55 for 1 by the end of the Powerplay. Watson and Negi pulled them back, with Watson bowling tight seventh and ninth over and Negi taking the set batsmen out in the eighth and 10th. Pollard fell soon, taking two risks in one Yuzvendra Chahal over, making it 98 for 4 at the end of 13 overs.
Leave it to Rohit
Krunal, who had injured himself in the field, came out, presumably to counter spinners who were taking it away from right-hand batsmen, but found it too painful to carry on and walked back off. Mumbai did seem concerned about spin because they replaced him with another left-hand batsman, Karn Sharma. The one man not worried, though, was Rohit, who knew the asking rate was not enormous and waited for the occasional mistake from the bowlers.
A square drive and an extra-cover drive in the 15th over followed by a punch in the 17th kept the asking rate in check, but with 30 required in the last three, Rohit might have thought of the match against Rising Pune Supergiant that he couldn't finish off. He still remained cool, though, even with Aniket Choudhury bowling an exception 18th over with just five off the first five. Then a slower ball slipped wide, and the quicker ball was smacked for six by Hardik Pandya.
Mumbai needed one more such blow to seal this, and Rohit struck that blow with a sweep off Sreenath Aravind in the 19th over, placing the slower ball into the vacant square-leg region. Watson bowled a tight final over, but it was always going to tough defending just six.
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39th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Gujarat Lions
Gujarat Lions 161 (19.5/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant 167/5 (19.5/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 5 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
A maiden T20 hundred from Ben Stokes moved Rising Pune Supergiant to their sixth win of the season in a seesawing contest against Gujarat Lions. Battling cramp, frequent wicket losses at the other end, and the demands of a testing asking rate, Stokes steered Rising Pune home with a ball to spare.
Sent in to bat, Lions ran away to 55 for no loss inside the Powerplay, but lost their way thereafter to get bowled out for 160. Supergiants' chase inverted the pattern: the flurry of wickets came in the beginning, leaving them 42 for 4 at one point, before Stokes, with a bit of help from MS Dhoni and Daniel Christian, took the game away from Lions once again.
Tahir stalls Lions after bright opening stand
Having been sent in to bat, Lions got off to an excellent start, Brendon McCullum and Ishan Kishan finding the gaps and putting away the short ball clinically to race to 55 in just 5.5 overs. Then Kishan, having already hit Imran Tahir for two fours in the sixth over, sliced the last ball of the Powerplay into the hands of short third man.
What followed was a puzzling slump. With Dwayne Smith coming in for the injured Andrew Tye, Lions had batting depth all the way down to James Faulkner at No. 8. But this was to be one of their bad days.
Suresh Raina fell to a harebrained run-out before Tahir struck with successive balls - Aaron Finch sending back a return catch off the leading edge and Dwayne Smith playing all around a googly - to leave Lions 94 for 4 after 10 overs. McCullum fell soon after. Then, from 109 for 5, came a brief revival, with Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja adding 26 in 19 balls, before another slide. Struggling to put away the slower ball, Lions did not score a boundary between the fourth ball of the 14th over and the fifth ball of the 19th. Eventually, they were bowled out with one ball still left to play.
Sangwan, Thampi shock Pune top order
Within nine balls of the Rising Pune innings, a middling target became a daunting one. Pace was the catalyst in this transformation. Pradeep Sangwan, playing his first game of the season, produced a classic inswinger from left-arm over to trap Ajinkya Rahane lbw (with some help from Marais Erasmus, who did not notice that the ball had pitched outside leg stump) and bounced out Steven Smith. Then Basil Thampi made Manoj Tiwary pay for being stuck on the crease.
Stokes looked in ominous form right from the time he punched his fifth ball for four past the stumps at the other end, and raced away to 25 off 17 to keep the required rate in check. But a mix-up sent back Rahul Tripathi in the sixth over, and Rising Pune were back in deep trouble.
Spinners tie down Dhoni
Before this match, Dhoni had scored 111 off 79 balls against pace this season, and only 62 off 64 balls against spin. His struggles against spin continued here. Against Ankit Soni and Ravindra Jadeja, who began bowling in tandem as soon as he walked in, he scored 8 off 14 balls, facing nine dots.
Soni's legspin caused Stokes a few problems too - he didn't seem to pick the slider out of the front of the hand, angled across him, and on a few occasions ended up playing down the wrong line. But successive sixes over long-on off Jadeja and a sliced four past point off Dwayne Smith kept Pune in touch with their asking rate, just about. After 14 overs, they needed exactly two a ball - 72 from 36.
Hobbling Stokes seals the deal
Despite being tied down by them, Dhoni did not take any chances against the spinners, and couldn't afford to take too many, given Pune's situation at that stage. He had to target the quicks, and he pulled the first ball he faced from James Faulkner, in the 15th over, beyond the square leg boundary. Stokes clattered Dwayne Smith for six and four in the next over, and Rising Pune were left needing 44 off the last four.
They still didn't have too much batting left in the hut, though, and when Dhoni holed out to long-off, first ball of the next over, the balance seemed to swing Lions' way, particularly with Stokes struggling with cramps.
Daniel Christian showed just the calmness a new batsman might need in that situation; he chopped Faulkner away past point when he got a loose ball, but otherwise kept bringing Stokes on strike - there would be no dots in his eight-ball innings.
Stokes' hitting down the ground, crucially, wasn't hampered by his cramps. With Rising Pune needing 25 off 12, he hit Thampi for two sixes - one just clearing a leaping Brendon McCullum at long-on, one just clearing a leaping Aaron Finch at long-off - before collapsing at the non-striker's end after taking a single off the last ball. A bit of assistance from the physio, and he was back on his feet.
By then, Pune only needed eight off the last over, and a flat-bat clatter through the covers off the first ball of the last over halved their ask and moved him from 98 for 102. It eventually came down to one off two balls, and with the field brought in, Christian mowed Faulkner into the stands behind the square leg boundary.
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40th match - Delhi Daredevils v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 185/3 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 189/4 (19.1/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils won by 6 wickets (with 5 balls remaining)
Delhi Daredevils bounced back from the ignominy of falling to their lowest total in IPL history by dominating their chase in a six-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Delhi's stand-in captain, Karun Nair, had put Sunrisers in on the trust that the wicket would stay true throughout the course of the game. The visitors responded by putting up 66 in the Powerplay with the loss of David Warner for 30. Daredevils did well to pull things back in the middle overs, removing Shikhar Dhawan (28) and Kane Williamson (24) in quick succession after strangling them through effective spin bowling, but regular lapses in the field allowed Sunrisers a way back in. Yuvraj Singh (70* off 44), in particular, made use of a dropped catch and dominated an unbroken 93-run stand for the fourth wicket with Moises Henriques that lifted Sunrisers to 185 for 3.
Daredevils began briskly, with Sanju Samson's 19-ball 24 and Karun Nair's 20-ball 39 setting the pace early on. The momentum was picked up by the rest of the top-order, who produced a chain of quick cameos before allrounders Corey Anderson (41* off 24) and Chris Morris (15* off 7) put on an unbroken 41 off 19 balls to take them past the target with five balls to spare.
Jayant Yadav and the opening stand
Against a top four including three left-hand batsmen, Daredevils have picked Jayant compulsively. In fact, the offspinner's only game of the season before tonight was the away fixture against Sunrisers on April 19. He had opened the bowling in that game.
He did it tonight as well, and, on first glance, seemed to have caught Warner lbw off the first ball. The left-hander, who had struck a thunderous 126 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, went for the sweep first ball against an overpitched delivery drifting into him. HawkEye showed his survival was only marginal.
That was the only sign of their offspin punt working against the openers. Warner and Dhawan played him out respectfully - apart from a Warner switch-hit swept over the backward point boundary.
Against Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris, they were more fluid, taking the pacers for a combined five fours and a six before Warner welcomed Mohammed Shami with a boundary at the start of the sixth over. That whip over midwicket brought up the fifth opening stand of fifty or more for Sunrisers this season. It was to end the very next ball, however, with Shami sliding a steaming yorker under Warner's drive to take his off stump.
Kotla slows down
Sunrisers were 66 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay. Kane Williamson, the beneficiary of an overthrow boundary in the previous over, played four dot ball balls in the next against Morris, two of which were slower deliveries. It was a precursor to the home team's plan for the middle overs. Jayant and Amit Mishra bowled four overs in tandem, which set the tone for Daredevils' most fruitful phase in the field. Mishra depended heavily on his new-found offbreak against the left-handers, but it was his googly that met the top edge on Dhawan's attempted sweep. His stock ball turned appreciably too.
Jayant had cramped Williamson to the extent that the Sunrisers No. 3, aside from a six off a quicker delivery, had only managed three singles off seven deliveries against him. When Shami came back in the 12th over, his dot-ball ratio had climbed to 50%. That induced a skied hook straight to deep square leg. The six overs after the Powerplay had fetched Sunrisers only 27 runs for the loss of two wickets.
Yuvraj cashes in
There were at least four instances of Daredevils giving away extra runs in the field. The bizzare one involved Rishabh Pant, who tried to flick the ball back to the bowler from inside the square. It slipped out of his grasp and ended up going wide of midwicket for a single. The painful one came at - and out of - the hands of Samson. It was at deep square leg.
Yuvraj, coming into the game with 24 runs in his last four innings, lofted a Chris Morris bouncer to Samson. The youngster, who had been involved in that infamous mix-up with Mishra against KKR last week, wasn't under any such pressure this time - the nearest fielder was a number of yards to his left. It was the kind that is usually described as 'straight down the throat' of whoever takes it. As it turned out, this went straight to the floor.
However different those two missed chances were, the outcome was in the same vein. It was Robin Uthappa who piled on the misery that day, and it was Yuvraj tonight. Yuvraj, on 29 off 26 at that point, made 41 off his next 15. His unbeaten 70 propelled Sunrisers to 185 for 3.
Bhuvi returns the favour, Nair finds his mojo
Another man who hasn't found runs recently is Karun Nair. The Daredevils' stand-in skipper opened the innings today and utilised the boundary access allowed by fielding restrictions to hit himself into form. Like Yuvraj, Nair too was helped along by ordinary fielding. While on 20, he toe-ended a scoop to Bhuvneshwar Kumar at short fine. He was late in getting his hands up and only parried it to give himself a chase. Nair made 15 off his next four balls, primarily through shots on the up or ramps behind the wicket while the ball still came on.
His knock took Daredevils to 62 in the Powerplay after they lost Samson. Shortly after, he offered another catch to Bhuvneshwar. This was a full-blooded drive that went flat to him at long-off; he held on this time, but the momentum had been conceded.
Finish it with power
Daredevils had two spinners to tie Sunrisers down on a slow track; Sunrisers had dropped their second spinner, Bipul Sharma, in favour of Deepak Hooda who didn't end up batting. This proved to be the difference in the middle overs as Daredevils' young top order capitalised on Moises Henriques' medium-pace, taking the allrounder for 36 off his 2.1 overs. The promotion of Rishabh Pant to No. 3 also played its part, with Warner reluctant to expose his only other spin option, Yuvraj, against him. It didn't end up making much of a difference. Yuvraj, coming in immediately after Pant had been cleaned up by Mohammed Siraj's yorker, went for 16 in his only over. It allowed Daredevils the luxury of playing Rashid Khan out at a run a ball without losing a wicket to him. It was only his second wicketless game - the previous one was also against Daredevils.
One might have expected to see Angelo Mathews - brought into to bolster the middle-order - come in at No. 5, or even No. 6 as Daredevils lost wicket within a comfortable distance of the target. In the end, Corey Anderson and Morris filled up those slots, a clear signal that Daredevils didn't just want to win, but wanted to do it comprehensively.
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41st match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Rising Pune Supergiant
Kolkata Knight Riders 155/8 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant 158/6 (19.2/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 4 wickets (with 4 balls remaining)
Rahul Tripathi ran up a 52-ball 93 to power Rising Pune Supergiant to their sixth win in seven games and move to third spot in the league. Despite wickets falling at the other end, Tripathi produced a full-blooded onslaught - hitting 78 runs in boundaries - and ensured Rising Pune had only a little to do towards the end.
The chase of 156 got a bit harder with the loss of Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni, and then Tripathi himself with six needed. But Daniel Christian's flat six over deep midwicket off Colin de Grandhomme sealed victory with four balls to spare, consigning Kolkata Knight Riders to only their second defeat in six home games this season.
The result was set up by Rising Pune's bowlers, led by Jaydev Unadkat's 2 for 28, who took pace off the ball on a two-paced surface to keep Knight Riders to 155 for 8. Struggling at 55 for 4 in the tenth over, the hosts needed a counter-attacking partnership from Colin de Grandhomme and Manish Pandey to breathe life into the innings, before Suryakumar Yadav gave them a late lift with an unbeaten 16-ball 30.
Variable bounce, a stifled start
Sunil Narine had pinched quick runs at the top of the order in previous games, but he was up against Jaydev Unadkat, who had gone at just 7.8 an over in the Powerplay this season.
Unadkat got the ball to nip around both ways and Narine struggled to connect with the first five balls. When he finally made contact, it was to an offcutter that didn't come on. Narine missed his timing and skewed a return catch; Rising Pune had begun with a maiden for the first time in the IPL.
Shortly after, Sheldon Jackson stepped on his stumps after moving too far back against offspinner Washington Sundar. But Gautam Gambhir dealt with the variable pace and lack of room by shifting around his crease to make space for shots. Back-to-back fours off Ben Stokes and a four and six off Sundar gave Gambhir 20 runs off six balls, but he holed out to deep midwicket in the pursuit for more. Knight Riders were 41 for 3 - their second-worst Powerplay score this season.
De Grandhomme and Pandey fight back
Colin de Grandhomme had two ducks and a 1 in three out of four innings this IPL. If there ever was a time that KKR needed him to find form, this was it - 59 for 4 after 10 overs. And he did, along with Manish Pandey. Pandey hit three successive fours in the 11th over from Shardul Thakur, and de Grandhomme matched that tally with consecutive sixes in the next from Imran Tahir. Knight Riders scored 44 runs between overs 11 and 14.
Dot and out
Pandey's dismissal to a slower ball from Daniel Christian barely slowed de Grandhomme down. So fluent was he that until Unadkat came on to bowl the 17th over, not one of the 17 balls de Grandhomme had faced had been a dot. Unadkat then sent down an offcutter to beat de Grandhomme, who played too early. The next ball was a slower one as well and de Grandhomme closed the face of his bat to pop a leading edge to backward point.
Unadkat's changes in pace had fetched him figures of 3-1-7-2; only four balls had been scored off. However, a sure-footed Suryakumar Yadav lay in wait during the 19th over. Three successive slower balls were swatted for 14 runs, before Nathan Coulter-Nile completed the assault with a mow over cow corner. The 21-run over gave KKR the late surge they were looking for.
Fastest fifty, fastest start
While Rising Pune's bowlers had taken pace off the ball, KKR's hit the pitch hard. Umesh Yadav had Ajinkya Rahane caught behind with one that nipped in, and Chris Woakes claimed Steven Smith's off stump with a similar ball. At the other end though, Tripathi had gathered steam.
He benefitted from pace on the ball and also from errors in length, moving forward to drive fuller balls as confidently as he moved back to pull the short ones. Coulter-Nile went for 19 runs in his second over, and Umesh and Woakes also suffered as Rising Pune stormed to their fastest fifty in the IPL, off 26 balls.
When Coulter-Nile came back to bowl three overs later, Tripathi took him for 15 more. At the end of the Powerplay, Rising Pune had 74 - 33 more than KKR had managed. Tripathi then scooped Narine fine to raise the fastest fifty by a Rising Pune batsman, off 23 balls; at that point, 50 of his 53 runs had come in boundaries.
Woakes got Manoj Tiwary to play on against one that ripped back in off the seam, but Tripathi continued to find the boundary to offset the losses. Kuldeep Yadav was bludgeoned for three successive sixes, each struck with a steady head, in the 13th over. That brought the required rate under four. Tripathi's seventh six - a slog sweep over square leg - took him into the nineties. He finally perished on 93 - the substitute Rovman Powell flinging himself to his right at midwicket to catch a stunner - but he left Rising Pune with only six to get off eight balls.
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42nd match - Delhi Daredevils v Gujarat Lions
Gujarat Lions 208/7 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 214/3 (17.3/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils won by 7 wickets (with 15 balls remaining)
Delhi Daredevils made easy work of chasing a target of 209 to end Gujarat Lions' prospects of making it to the qualifiers. The Daredevils hit 20 sixes, led by local boy Rishabh Pant who blazed his way to a 43-ball 97 and stitched together a destructive stand with opener Sanju Samson who struck seven sixes in making 61 off 31. The pair's 143 runs off 63 balls put the game beyond Lions with more than two overs to spare.
Earlier, impressive spells from Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins had overturned the momentum after Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik struck rapid fifties to restrict the Lions despite their making 158 in their first 14 overs.
Raina gets on Daredevils' list
The Daredevils have a new tradition: they'd dropped at least one catch in each of their last two games. Today, they dropped three. Each of the reprieved batsman - Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa - had gone on to score 70 or more and Raina followed suit tonight. He was on 2 when Shreyas Iyer spilled a dolly at first slip off Rabada's bowling. He was on 40 when Marlon Samuels couldn't hold on to a flick aimed straight at him at midwicket. Eventually, the latest beneficiary of the Daredevils Goodwill List finished with 77 off 43 balls.
Lesson learnt
At the other end, Karthik had not given Daredevils the slightest chance. He struck at a quicker rate than Raina as the pair counterpunched in response to being 10 for 2 by the second over to put on the Lions' highest partnership (133) in the IPL.
It was around this time, though, that Daredevils began learning an important lesson: when the batsman gives you a chance, convert it. Rabada caught Raina short at the non-strikers with a direct hit from backward point. Next over, Karthik fell to one of the catches of the season - Corey Anderson leaping backwards with an outstretched left hand at mid-off, before executing the perfect tumble to hold on. For good measure, Pant pouched a skier to dismiss Aaron Finch in the penultimate over.
A sixer here, a sixer there
After their successful chase in the last game, Nair revealed the plan had been to play like a young side - hit hard and have fun. And it was the youngest of them all who masterminded the chase. Pant's first scoring shot was a six on the up over cover. A shot like that was a sign that dew was making its presence felt, and of Pant's familiarity with his home pitch.
So when Raina decided that Pant's Delhi team-mate Pradeep Sangwan would bowl the next over, he was asking for trouble. Pant welcomed Sangwan with 16 off the first three balls and the Daredevils had breached 50 inside the fifth over. James Faulkner conceding five runs to end the Powerplay would be the last instance of the Lions being in the game. The next six overs went for 90 runs; each over contained at least one six, the 11th went for three.
When Samson - who hit seven sixes and no fours during his 31-ball 61 - was dismissed by Jadeja in the 14th over, Pant responded with a six and a four to bring the asking rate below run-a-ball. It was perhaps the perfect T20 innings. The only way it could have been better was if he had scored the three runs required to become IPL's youngest centurion.
When Pant was caught behind for 97, Raina, knowing he will not play an IPL playoff match for the first time in 10 years, still came up and hugged the young man. It seemed like the handing of a baton, the IPL's pre-eminent batsman heralding a new hero.
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43rd match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 138/7 (20/20 ov)
RCB 119 (19/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 19 runs
Setting a target or chasing one, Royal Challengers Bangalore have swung to the collapso beat through the season. Up against a relatively simple chase of 139, albeit on a slow surface, Royal Challengers slumped to 119, slipping to their fifth consecutive loss in completed games. Kings XI Punjab executed on all counts in the second innings - their seamers were accurate, the spinners were economical and the fielding wasn't conspicuous, all of which resulted in the lowest total defended at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in the IPL, drastically improving their chances of making the playoffs.
Axar Patel had another stellar day with bat and ball. He took 3 for 11, but his most important contribution came towards the closing stages of the first innings, with his cameo - 38 off 17 balls - pushing Kings XI to 138. Sandeep Sharma then took out Royal Challengers' best batsmen - Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers - in his opening spell to fatally weaken a brittle batting line-up.
Batsmen cheated by relaid pitch
In previous seasons, batsmen were allowed to do what they wanted at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. They had the backing of short boundaries if a shot was mis-timed and gradually developed a relationship of trust with a true, gorgeous surface.
This season, a relaid surface has not only belied that trust, but it has already begun an intimate affair with the bowlers. A slow pitch with variable bounce was evident from the outset, and Kings XI struggled to cope with an atypical IPL surface. The average Powerplay score, before this game, was 39.4 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in first innings' this season. Kings XI laboured to 35 and lost their openers - Hashim Amla and Martin Guptill - in the Powerplay. Royal Challengers claimed the early advantage and didn't let go.
Axar's finishing credentials
A wire-to-wire win - dominating from start to finish - is a rare entity in T20s, primarily because an over, or even a ball, can change the direction of momentum. Axar has added incredible clean-hitting ability to his repertoire this season: before this game, he had hammered 112 runs off 59 balls in the end overs this season at a strike rate of 189.67, clinically executing his role as finisher.
Against Royal Challengers, he simply planned well and executed - picking his areas and battering them. He ended with 38 off just 17 balls, including taking Shane Watson for 18 in the last over. Momentum, clichéd as it may be, was with Kings XI. Kohli, visibly displeased with the last over, knew it too.
Sandeep's biggest asset is not his speed - he is just about medium pace - but his accuracy and the ability to move the ball both ways. He is at his devastating best when he is able to find them both in perfect sync. He had one hooping away from Gayle to have him caught at point. Then, he got through Kohli's defence with an inswinger.
Aware that de Villiers was anticipating another inswinger, he bowled a couple of deliveries that moved away - one beat the bat, one took the edge. Sandeep, using his strengths, had opened up Royal Challengers' weakness.
Confidence affecting ability
Home or away, strong or not, Royal Challengers' batting has failed this season. Confidence is an abstract aspect that is almost always defined by results in sports. The confidence of success can positively influence tight games, but repeated failures can have a devastating effect mentally. Royal Challengers' middle order haven't found any answers - in intent, direction or approach - when their powerful top order has failed. Against a tight Kings XI attack, Royal Challengers' batsmen were found bereft of belief, not for the first time this season.
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44th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 148/8 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad 136/9 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 12 runs
Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat have been pivotal to Rising Pune Supergiant's surge up the IPL points table, and their efforts on a dry, up-and-down pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium led them to second with a 12-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was Sunrisers' first home defeat of the season.
Stokes energised a moribund Pune innings with 39 off 25 balls, and his innings, along with 31 off 21 from MS Dhoni, gave them a total of 148 and a fighting chance. Then, bowling cross-seam and extracting inconsistent bounce, Stokes took three key wickets - Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson and David Warner - to ensure Sunrisers never took control of the chase.
They were never entirely out of it either, though, and when Unadkat began the last over, they needed 13 runs with four wickets in hand. Incredibly, Unadkat bowled a maiden and took a hat-trick to end with figures of 5 for 30.
Won't concede boundaries, won't take catches
The first big moment of the game was a bit of quality fielding. Rahul Tripathi, flicking Ashish Nehra to the left of short fine-leg, set off immediately. Perhaps he didn't factor in Bipul Sharma's left-handedness. Bipul moved quickly to the ball, took aim, and hit direct at the striker's end with Tripathi not even close to regaining his ground.
It was the only bit of quality fielding in the Powerplay, though; Bipul dropped a sitter at the same position to let off Steven Smith, Siddarth Kaul did not move at mid-on when Ajinkya Rahane spooned a possible catch towards him, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, diving to his left at short fine leg, gave Smith a second life.
Maybe it was deliberate from Sunrisers, for apart from a Rahane six over long-on, off Moises Henriques, there were no boundaries in the first 10 overs. There was little attacking intent as well, with Rahane and Smith content to milk leg-side singles for most part. After 10 overs, Rising Pune were 51 for 2.
Stokes, Dhoni and the power difference
Smith ended up facing 39 balls without hitting a four or a six. At the post-match presentation, he noted the difficulty of timing the ball, and praised the contributions of his team's "stronger boys". Stokes was one of them - he hit three sixes in his 39 - and MS Dhoni the other.
Before this game, against the quicker bowlers, Dhoni had scored 75 off 35 balls when they had pitched it full or short, but only 43 off 52 balls off the in-between lengths. Initially, the Sunrisers seamers kept pitching it on a good length or just short of a good length, and Dhoni was batting on 10 off 14 balls at the 18-overs mark. Uncharacteristically, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who lost his length, feeding him two short balls and an overpitched wide ball in the 19th over, and Dhoni spanked them for 4, 6 and 6.
The cross-seam masterclass
When Stokes came into the attack, Sunrisers were 25 for 0 after two expensive overs from Unadkat, who kept providing width to Dhawan and Warner, and two quiet overs from Washington Sundar, who kept denying them width. Stokes struck with his first ball and his third, both legcutters. One, bowled cross-seam, hit the shiny side, skidded low, and bowled Dhawan. The other, hitting the seam, bounced extra and kissed Williamson's glove.
Giving himself room against Washington in the next over, Warner hit the offspinner for three fours, but Stokes made sure Sunrisers wouldn't claw things back too quickly, only conceding two off his second over.
Unadkat ends Sunrisers fightback
Taking Stokes' cue, Shardul Thakur and Daniel Christian mixed up slower balls with cross-seam deliveries, and in tandem with Imran Tahir kept Warner and Yuvraj Singh relatively quiet, with the odd boundary keeping the teams neck-and-neck. Stokes returned in the 13th over and derived extra bounce again; Warner failing to keep down a slash, picked out sweeper cover. When Tahir bowled Henriques with a googly, Sunrisers needed 53 from 36.
By the time Unadkat came back to bowl the 18th over, the equation read 32 off 18, with Yuvraj on 47. Both Yuvraj and Naman Ojha fell in that over, caught by sweeper cover, failing to generate enough power against Unadkat's slower ball.
Three twos in Stokes' final over left Sunrisers needing 13 off 6. They would end up getting 0 for 3 off those six balls, their lower order finding no way of dealing with Unadkat's slower ball. He kept pitching them at a length that was too short to hit down the ground and not short enough to pull. Bipul Sharma, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all holed out, one after another, getting far more elevation and far less distance than they desired, and what should have been a tense final over turned into a rout.
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45th match - Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians 212/3 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 66 (13.4/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 146 runs
Mumbai Indians made a mockery of Delhi Daredevils' superlative chase of 209 on Thursday, shooting them out for 66 after setting them 213 on the same ground. The 146-run win margin was the largest in IPL history.
They dismantled Daredevils with bowling changes that relied on the head-to-head records of their pacers against the top order, removing half their side inside the Powerplay just like they had in the previous encounter between the two teams. Spinners Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma did the clean-up job and put the match to bed with six wickets between them.
Earlier, Zaheer Khan had put them in after returning from a hamstring injury. A four-pronged pace attack couldn't contain either Lendl Simmons or the promoted Kieron Pollard. The West Indian pair supplied the respective touches at the start and end of the innings to lift Mumbai to 212 for 3.
Caribbean carnage, Part 1
Lendl Simmons has IPL numbers that should earn him the status of a legend. Before tonight, he had made ten 50+ scores in 22 matches. He'd also been involved in nine 50+ stands in 22 matches. Yet, it was only his first game of the season when he replaced Jos Buttler tonight.
His start was more reflective of his recent outings though - he had got scores of 1, 1, 4* and 1 in four T20Is against Pakistan just over a month ago. Zaheer Khan, returning after three matches on the sidelines, tied him down in particular during the first half of the Powerplay. But the shackles seemed to break the moment he pulled Kagiso Rabada for six in front of square. Daredevils peppered him with a mix of back-of-a-length deliveries and short ones, but it hardly bothered him. He got, both, on top of the bounce, and under it in good measure - only one of his nine boundaries came off a full-ish delivery.
During his 66, he took apart Delhi's famed fast-bowling attack and counterbalanced Parthiv Patel's sedate 25. Mumbai's 79 for the opening stand on a small ground was the perfect start.
Caribbean carnage, Part 2
They seemed to know it too. Kieron Pollard was pushed up to No. 3. For a brief period after he came in, Amit Mishra had put a stop to Mumbai's momentum. And for that brief period, Daredevils' decision to play a fourth seamer in place of Shahbaz Nadeem could justifiably be questioned.
Pollard hit that hypothesis out of the park, along with four of Mishra's deliveries. This included denting Zaheer's plan of bowling Mishra out at a stretch. His two sixes off Mishra's third over forced Zaheer to give him a change of ends. The two overs needed to make that switch went for 25, and when Mishra returned, Pollard hit him for two more sixes. That was the start of Mumbai's slog-overs push. Pollard saw it through with an unbeaten 63.
Daredevils come a full circle
A target of 213, mere days after achieving their highest successful chase, didn't trouble the Daredevils - for as long as they were in the dugout. Once they came onto the field they realised that the Mumbai bowling attack was well-manned and well-marshalled.
Mitchell McCleneghan had removed Sanju Samson three times in nine balls before today. After the first ball of the chase, the head-to-head was adjusted to four wickets in 10 balls.
Bumrah had removed Pant twice in six balls. He was brought in for the fourth over and got the batsman out for a duck.
Harbhajan had knocked Karun Nair over three times in 19 balls. So naturally he was brought on to bowl to his bunny and the battle ended with a catch to midwicket. These were all signs of a team being well-informed of their own strengths, the opposition's weaknesses, and exploiting them all perfectly.
Meanwhile, Daredevils had updated their lowest score twice in the space of six days, while also pulling off their best chase in the period.
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46th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders
RCB 158/6 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 159/4 (15.1/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 6 wickets (with 29 balls remaining)
Facing up against Kolkata Knight Riders can be a frightening prospect and Sunil Narine has contributed to that image immensely. But, even as his bowling was being worked out, he has found a new way to send shivers down the opposition's spine. He has, get this, fashioned himself into an opening batsman and has had such freakish success that he now holds the record for the fastest fifty in IPL history.
On the back of that breathtaking innings, KKR recorded the highest score in the Powerplay - 105 runs in 36 balls. The target of 157 never even stood a chance.
KKRyptonite
Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers recorded their lowest aggregate in a match two weeks ago. They matched it on Sunday. Knight Riders were the bowling team both times. At Eden Gardens, they exploited a pitch that offered pace, bounce and movement. In Bengaluru, they adapted to a slow and dry pitch.
Gayle fell for a golden duck in his 100th IPL match, undone by a back of a length delivery from Umesh Yadav that stopped on him. Kohli slogged across the line to a legcutter and was lbw a ball after he was dropped. De Villiers was bowled sweeping a knuckle ball from Narine. His average against spin this season has been 13.75.
The huffing and puffing
Considering the men with the most firepower were cooling off in the dressing room, Mandeep Singh and Travis Head were left to do three jobs at the same time. Remedy the slide at the top, lay a foundation through the middle and lead the charge at the end. One man hadn't scored a fifty since May 2015. The other had never scored one in the IPL. But they showed nuances far beyond those numbers in putting on 71 runs in 63 balls. Forty-nine of them came the hard way - by sprinting between the wickets, by doing what their more established colleagues needed to do, and failed.
Having defied the team that had claimed the most wickets between the seventh and 14th overs, this year, Head turned his attention to doing what he is best known for. Six-hitting. He has T20 centuries in the BBL. He is a crowd favourite at the Adelaide Oval. And his 75 off 47 balls enabled RCB to snag 43 runs in the last three overs.
RCBroken
Full tosses. Length balls. Wide balls. Knight Riders batsmen were supplied with a veritable buffet and Narine dined out in style. He began with a hat-trick of sixes - picking the googly from Samuel Badree twice and belting them both over long-off. The next one that went out of the park brought up his fifty, off only 15 balls. There were 19 boundaries in the Powerplay. That's a four or six every 1.89 deliveries. RCB, in their entire innings, managed only 17.
There were perhaps some mitigating factors the bowlers could hide behind. Twenty minutes of rain could conceivably have helped the pitch become better for strokeplay. But it certainly wasn't to blame for two of the biggest power hitters in the tournament being fed ball after ball after ball to leverage over the top with only two men allowed outside the circle.
Chris Lynn loves bowling of this variety. His captain at Brisbane Heat, Brendon McCullum, had warned bowlers not to let him unleash his "baseball-like swing". But nobody seems to be listening, which meant a batsman coming back from a shoulder injury got to smash five fours, four sixes and finish up with 50 off 22 balls.
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47th match - Kings XI Punjab v Gujarat Lions
Kings XI Punjab 189/3 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 192/4 (19.4/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions won by 6 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
Hashim Amla scored his second century of the tournament, only the third player to do so in an IPL season, but Kings XI Punjab's playoff chances were dented with their sixth loss in 11 matches. Staying fifth on the table, the gap between them and fourth-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad remained three points. Amla's first century - against Mumbai Indians - had also gone in vain when Kings XI could not defend 198, and on Sunday night, they failed to defend 189 against Gujarat Lions.
Not in contention for the playoffs, Lions were depleted without international recruits Andrew Tye, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo and Jason Roy (on national duty), and played only three against Kings XI - Dwayne Smith, Aaron Finch and James Faulkner. Smith's power-packed 74 off 39 balls gave their chase a rollicking start and threw Kings XI's plans off track: none of their first three bowlers - Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron - struck in their first spells. When Smith departed in the 12th over, they needed 70 off 52 balls, and even though Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik did not finish it off smoothly, Karthik stayed till the end to seal a nervy last-over win.
The openers' muscle
The top order of both sides came to the fore to score over 380 runs on a slowish Mohali pitch. When Kings XI were asked to bat, their innings was set up by a second-wicket century stand between Amla and Shaun Marsh. Amla was the more aggressive of the two, after he took off against Pradeep Sangwan in the third over with consecutive fours and relied on boundaries towards the end for the late surge his team needed. He used his supple wrists and crisp drives to mainly score in front of square, bringing up his half-century off 35 balls. His partnership of 125 with Marsh set the tone for a brisk finish, which included 66 runs off the last five overs.
Smith, Amla's counterpart, had not scored a fifty in 10 IPL innings and, before this game, had managed only 103 runs in nine innings this season, with single-digit scores in his last six innings. This time, he used his powerful arms to smash eight fours in the Powerplay, scoring 43 out of the team's 58. He targeted the region in the 'V' down the ground and was even more aggressive once the spinners, Axar Patel and Glenn Maxwell, came on. He had lost his partner Ishan Kishan at the halfway mark but had brought the equation down to 87 from 60 with his 28-ball half-century.
Left-handed second fiddles
In the first innings, Marsh had been middling strokes from his first ball but was unable to find gaps. His role, since Amla was scoring easily, was merely to stick around and rotate the strike. Marsh's cue to score briskly came when he faced two spinners - Ravindra Jadeja and Ankit Soni - as both brought the ball into him. He milked runs on the leg side, showcased his trademark cuts square of the pitch and scored a useful 58 off 43.
During the chase, Kishan had a similar role to play. Once Smith started using his flashy bat-swings to collect boundaries, Kishan made sure he took those singles, scored at more than run-a-ball and saw off the opening bowlers. A left-hander just like Marsh, he also took off once the spinners came on. Facing Maxwell in the eighth over, Kishan pulled and cut to collect 12 from the over with Smith's help. Kishan's 29 off 24 was not quite a match-winning knock but did the job the team needed with Smith firing.
Dropping those sitters
Whether you spot any other trend in this IPL or not, the spate of dropped catches is unmissable. The first catch that went down on Sunday was the toughest - Jadeja's leaping attempt from backward point with Amla on 12 - but the ones that followed made only one team look shabby: Kings XI.
The simplest of those proved the costliest. David Miller had enough time to circle the ground and still get under a Smith skier in the sixth over but he put it down with the batsman on 42. Two overs later, Smith smashed one down the ground towards Gurkeerat, who did well to dive forward but could not hold on. Smith was on 51. Lions were soon cruising with Raina and Karthik in a stable partnership, but the Lions captain offered Kings XI a chance too, in the 17th over. He miscued a drive to Gurkeerat's right at long-off and the fielder got his hands under the ball this time but out it popped again. "The bowlers and fielders let us down, we dropped three crucial catches," Maxwell bluntly stated later.
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48th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians 138/7 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad 140/3 (18.2/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 7 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on a counter-attacking second-wicket partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques to outplay Mumbai Indians and keep their playoff chances alive. Dhawan and Henriques walloped a stand of 91 that came off just 11 overs as Sunrisers razed a target of 139 with 10 balls to spare and maintained their stronghold at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium with their sixth win in seven matches at the ground.
The win was set up as their bowlers exploited a sluggish pitch to stifle Mumbai. That the visiting team was able to recover to 138 was down to their captain Rohit Sharma, who played an innings of class and poise to give his team a chance.
Sunrisers' position on the table remained unchanged, but they stayed afloat as the race to the playoffs got tighter. The win also brought the curtains down on Delhi Daredevils who do not stand to qualify for the final four anymore.
Switched on, switched off
Sunrisers oscillated between sharp and lax in the early exchanges. Their bowlers made good use of a slow surface where shot-making wasn't at its easiest. Bhuvneshwar Kumar set the tone with a tight first over. And with Mohammad Nabi following suit, it took 10 deliveries for Mumbai to crack. Lendl Simmons lost his middle stump, swinging wildly and missing a quicker, non-turning offbreak from Nabi. Mumbai were 4 for 1 after two overs.
Mohammed Siraj undid some of that good work next over, when Parthiv Patel and Nitish Rana capitalised on poor lines and lengths to punish him for 16. The surge, however, was short-lived. While Nabi got a few to stop and turn, the odd ball kept the pacers interested as well. Siddarth Kaul got a shorter one to hurry on to Rana, who lobbed a catch to mid-off trying to fetch a pull. Kaul's next ball wasn't too dissimilar. This time Parthiv played the line, but couldn't keep the slap down, picking out point where Vijay Shankar let it burst through. Fortunately for Sunrisers, they weren't left to rue the chance, as Kaul took pace off and Parthiv chipped a knuckle ball to long-on two overs later.
Rohit bats on a different plane
Before Monday, Rohit had faced 37 balls of legspin and scored just 35 while perishing four times. On Monday, off the first ball he faced from Rashid Khan, he deftly used the width to guide him through third man for four. Then, with Mumbai having limped to 59 for 3 at the halfway stage, Rohit broke the shackles by going against the spin of Rashid, launching him over long-on for six. Overall, he collected 16 runs off the 11 balls he faced from the legspinner.
Rohit then settled into a beautiful rhythm. That he rarely played across the line showed how well he had read the pace of the surface. His three fours off Moises Henriques in the 14th over further demonstrated his class. When Henriques took pace off, Rohit picked it early and pierced the cover region; when Henriques banged it in at pace, Rohit calmly opened the face to steer it into the gap.
Unlike Rohit, the rest of Mumbai's batsmen struggled against Rashid. Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard, especially, hardly picked him. Hardik, who had helped Rohit stitch together 60 for the fourth wicket, tried to slog his way out and skewed a top-edge to cover. But Rohit continued to pinch singles and find the boundary. By the time he fell, he had struck over 50% of his team's runs. Following his dismissal, Mumbai added just 12 more off 11 balls and lost two wickets.
Big loss, big hitting
With Sunrisers desperately in search of a win, Mitchell McClenaghan pinging the back pad of David Warner first ball of the second over, meant pressure on. But Mumbai conceded the early advantage through poor bowling. They hardly made an effort to take pace off the ball. To Mumbai's misfortune, the pitch did ease up in the second innings. It compounded the shorter lengths they tried out as Dhawan and Henriques relished the pace and picked their areas.
Dhawan's sixes over long-on off Karn Sharma - a muscular heave to a fuller one from outside the crease and a flat-batted shovel to a shorter one - showed how well he had sussed out the pace of the surface. Henriques, likewise, played well off either foot. Successive fours off Malinga in the 11th over - to a full toss and a shorter one - exposed the predictability of Mumbai's bowling.
When Henriques fell to a slower offcutter from Bumrah, shortly after Harbhajan had put down a return catch, Sunrisers were left with 41 to get off 47. And though Yuvraj Singh struggled with an injured finger, Dhawan closed out the game without undue risks.
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49th match - Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders
Kings XI Punjab 167/6 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 153/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 14 runs
A sensational display of end-overs bowling from Mohit Sharma and strangulation by legspin from Rahul Tewatia, playing his first game this season, helped apply the choke on Kolkata Knight Riders. By securing one of three wins they needed, Kings XI lived to fight another day.
In what was an engaging last five overs off which Knight Riders needed just 50, Mohit brought out all his slower variations - the knuckleball, back-of-the-hand slower deliveries and offcutters - and delivered them with precision to deny Chris Lynn, who wiped out half of Knight Riders' 168-run target off just 52 balls, and Manish Pandey. The pair's dismissal off successive deliveries off the 18th over helped close out a tight game, with the Sharmas - Mohit and Sandeep - defending 29 off the 12 deliveries to ensure three Playoff spots were still up for grabs.
Knight Riders' productive first six
Kings XI made four changes, two of those being forced. One of them - Hashim Amla - had just smashed a 60-ball 104, his second century of the season, in the previous game. Even so, the rest of the batsmen stuttered as they finished with just 189 when they should've posted 210. Now, without Amla, who along with David Miller was unavailable because of national duty, Kings XI needed a robust beginning from the openers. Manan Vohra, who had earlier in the tournament shunted up and down the order to accommodate both Shaun Marsh and Martin Guptill, sparkled briefly, but his dismissal brought about a restrained approach. The first six overs fetched just 41 for the loss of the openers. Knight Riders had begun well.
Maxwell, Saha keep the innings alive
On a surface where the ball was deviating just about enough to keep the medium-pacers interested, Chris Woakes and Colin de Grandhomme bowled six overs in tandem, conceding just 22 off the first four immediately after the Powerplay. Kings XI limped to 63 for 3 in the first half. They went 17 deliveries without a boundary after Shaun Marsh's dismissal in the ninth over, before Maxwell cut loose - hitting de Grandhomme for two successive sixes off legitimate deliveries to trigger a surge. Maxwell's picking of lengths was impressive as he played the pull effectively against the pacers. Wriddhiman Saha, on 10 off 17 at one stage, pinched crucial boundaries to move to a run-a-ball 26. At 115 for 3 with five to play, Kings XI needed big back five overs. But they were denied.
Kuldeep Yadav, returning in place of Piyush Chawla, was rewarded for his willingness to flight the ball as he had Maxwell caught at wide long-off in an attempt to hit him for a third successive six. In his next over, he had Saha stumped after being biffed across the line one ball earlier. A cameo from Rahul Tewatia lifted them to 167, not underwhelming but not match-winning either.
Narine tees off, Lynn consolidates
Two quiet men, who don't believe in intimidating opponents with words, let their blades talk. Sunil Narine's no-frills approach fetched him a four fours in a 10-ball 18. Chris Lynn, playing in only his second game after returning from a shoulder injury that kept him out for three weeks, didn't show signs of "not being a 100 percent" as he revealed during a flash interview during play. Time and again, he was tested against the short ball, only for the deep midwicket and wide long-on boundaries to be peppered with regularity.
The best shot of his knock - a flat-batted swat off Matt Henry which he fetched from outside off - showed how brutally effective he can be even if not at full tilt. Yet, this wasn't as brutal a knock as the one against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Yet, by bringing up a half-century off just 29 deliveries, Lynn ensured Gautam Gambhir's struggle against spin - he scratched around 17 deliveries for 8 before mistiming a slog to deep midwicket - didn't deeply disturb the asking rate.
Tewatia spins web
Two balls after sending back Gambhir, Rahul Tewatia, playing his first game this season, saw off Robin Uthappa, but to not give any credit to Axar Patel would be doing injustice to his efforts. Running around from wide long-off, he covered quick ground before putting in a dive to catch the dipping slog sweep inches from the ground at deep midwicket. Now, the choke was on. Axar followed it up by conceding just three in his next over. The spinners - Tewatia along with Axar Patel and Swapnil Singh - at that stage had combined figures of 2 for 29 off six overs. Knight Riders needed 86 off 54 balls.
Maxwell punt on Mohit pays off
By leaving two overs of Mohit in the last five, Maxwell gambled. With the form Lynn was in , it was a tough proposition. But the pressure applied by the spinners left Knight Riders with a steep task against a bowler, who justified the INR 6.5 crore investment, at a crunch moment with the game on the line to keep his side alive. That he bowled just three overs may have been a decision Kings XI could have rued, but on the night, it was his experience that prevailed.
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50th match - Gujarat Lions v Delhi Daredevils
Gujarat Lions 195/5 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 197/8 (19.4/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils won by 2 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
Before Wednesday, Gujarat Lions had only won one match while batting first in the IPL, in 12 attempts. The last time they had played Delhi Daredevils, they had failed to defend 208. Now, sent in to bat, they made 195, and ended up on the losing side yet again, their bowling falling apart at critical moments.
Daredevils' match-winner, yet again, came from their group of young, sometimes inconsistent, but undoubtedly gifted Indian batsmen. At the Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils had romped home with 15 balls to spare, after Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson added 143 in 63 balls.
Here, at Green Park, they had to pull off a different sort of big chase, where they kept losing wickets right through. Shreyas Iyer's 96 was a different sort of innings to Pant's 97. Daredevils were 121 for 6 at one point, with only the lower order left to give Iyer company.
Then, out of the blue, came some of this season's most exhilarating batting, as Iyer and Pat Cummins plundered 52 from three overs. Suddenly, Daredevils only needed 23 off 18 balls.
There would, of course, be some late tension. Cummins holed out when he may not have needed to hit in the air. Iyer fell in the last over, leaving Nos. 9 and 10 seven to get off four balls. Amit Mishra, though, kept his head, pulling off two ice-cool fours off successive balls to haul Delhi over the line with two balls to spare.
Finch, Karthik lift Lions out of early trouble
Green Park provided a flat batting pitch for its first game of the IPL season, and Lions, despite losing their top three inside the first seven overs, kept scoring at a healthy rate. A lot of this was down to the bowling; in this game, Daredevils' bowlers seemed to have caught the contagion of bowling too straight - and often too short - and leaked runs behind square on the leg side.
In all, they would concede 52 runs, and 10 boundaries (out of 26 overall), in that region. Mohammed Shami provided an early instance of this, bowling one ball full and leg-stumpish and another short and leg-stumpish to Ishan Kishan in the fourth over - with fine leg and square leg both inside the circle - giving away six and four.
Still, Lions had to fight from 56 for 3, and they did so via a 92-run stand, in 58 balls, between Aaron Finch and Dinesh Karthik. Both batsmen played some eye-catching shots, the highlights including a straight six by Karthik off Shami and some ruthless pulls from Finch, who finished with 69 off 39.
Run-outs imperil Daredevils chase
Sanju Samson hit two sumptuous fours through the covers before dragging a pull onto his stumps in the second over of the chase. Then Rishabh Pant, having sauntered absentmindedly out of his crease after surviving an lbw appeal from Pradeep Sangwan, was caught out by a direct hit from Suresh Raina at slip.
That left Daredevils 15 for 2. Iyer then put on the first of his two substantial stands, 57 off 34 balls, with Karun Nair. Right from the start, Iyer's placement stood out - he kept finding gaps in the infield, particularly through the off side, and particularly through or behind point. Then Nair, having just hit three successive fours off Dwayne Smith's slow-medium long-hops and reverse-lapped Ravindra Jadeja for another four, miscued a James Faulkner slower ball.
Then came two run-outs, both from direct hits powered by Jadeja's priceless left arm. First, Marlon Samuels was slow responding to Iyer's call for a single after a push towards point. Mistake. Then Corey Anderson wandered out of his crease after bunting Basil Thampi towards backward point. Another mistake. When Carlos Brathwaite fell to a short ball from Dhawal Kulkarni in the 14th over, Daredevils were sinking. They needed 75 from 37 balls at that point, with only four wickets in hand.
Iyer, Cummins blast off
Daredevils didn't have time for a slow-burning comeback. They duly hit four fours in the next over, two each by Iyer and Cummins, all of them hit along the ground, into off-side gaps. Then Iyer drove and flicked three successive fours off Kulkarni. The biggest over, though, was still to come. It would come - as it has more often than he'd like to admit - against Faulkner. Cummins, expecting and getting the slower, length ball first up, clouted him over long-on. Then Iyer lifted Faulkner over long-off before drilling a drive between the bowler and mid-off.To recap Daredevils smashed 17, 14 and 21 runs off the 15th, 16th and 17th overs.
Mishra the finisher
When Cummins picked out long-on in the 19th over, Daredevils needed 14 off 10 balls. When Iyer played all around a Basil Thampi yorker in the final over, they needed 7 off 4. In walked Mishra, a vastly improved long-format batsman, but not one counted among T20's most dangerous lower-order hitters.
Mishra knows the game inside-out, though, and probably guessed that Thampi would bowl a yorker first up. Down the track he went, surprising the bowler into a full-toss, which he flicked nonchalantly past midwicket. Then, with three to get off three balls, he walked across his stumps, with the knowledge that fine leg was stationed rather square. Thampi's slower ball may have surprised some batsmen, but not Mishra. He waited, kept his shape, waited some more, and unfurled a deft little scoop. The fielder chased hard, dived, got his body behind the ball, but couldn't help deflecting it into the rope.
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51st match - Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 230/3 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 223/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 7 runs
Kings XI Punjab just about defended 230 to stay in the hunt for the Playoffs courtesy Mohit Sharma's end-overs accuracy. A 453-run slugfest - the second-highest aggregate in IPL history - was decided in the final over.
Mohit recovered from a nightmarish first three overs in which he leaked 49 runs, and defended 15 in a dream last over to deny a rampaging Kieron Pollard.
The odds were stacked against Mohit. Mumbai were within touching distance of achieving the highest successful chase in the IPL with Pollard is prime striking form. Kings XI's fielding wilted under pressure with Glenn Maxwell, one of their best fielders, palming the ball over long-on to reprieve Karn Sharma on 5. Sandeep Sharma then conceded just seven off the penultimate over. Maxwell could have chosen one of Ishant or Mohit. He went with his tried-and-tested end-overs specialist, and he delivered.
The first ball was belted to long-on, and Pollard hared across for the second, but replays indicated that Pollard did not slide his bat inside the crease at the non-striker's end. It was called one short, but Pollard still had the strike. Mohit then unfurled the slower knuckle ball and watched it disappear into the boundary behind midwicket. It was down to nine off four balls. Mohit nailed three pinpoint yorkers and a dipping knuckle ball, which Pollard did not pick, to seal the deal.
The opening salvo
No Hashim Amla? No problem. Manan Vohra has been successful at the top for Kings XI this season, but the management took a punt by sending Wriddhiman Saha to open with Martin Guptill. Before today, Saha had opened in only six out of 163 T20s for 126 runs. He might not have all the shots, but has the smarts. Remember his hundred in the 2014 IPL final?
Saha used the pace of Mumbai to his advantage and picked his areas to hit four fours in his first seven balls. Guptill provided a fine counterpoint to Saha's finesse by forcing the ball through the line. This meant Kings XI zoomed to fifty in 3.4 overs - the second fastest this season behind Kolkata Knight Riders, who got there in 3.3 overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The middle-overs salvo
If Mumbai had thought Karn Sharma's dismissal of Guptill in the last over of the Powerplay would slow Kings XI down, they were wrong. Maxwell, promoted to No. 3, and Saha pillaged 50 off the next three overs. The highlights included Saha's dexterous paddle sweep off Mitchell McClenaghan for four and Maxwell's monstrous clubs over the leg-side boundary off Harbhajan Singh.
End-overs salvo diffused
Desperate for the wicket, Rohit turned to Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah. It was Bumrah who bowled Maxwell for 47 off 21 balls with a skiddy delivery. On a night when he colleagues leaked over 10 runs an over, Bumrah stood out with figures of 1 for 24 in his four overs. In all, Saha managed just 10 off 13 balls against Bumrah.
Saha, though, stepped out of his comfort zone and started carting the ball. A Malinga slower ball was launched over his head, a McClenaghan slower ball was swatted over midwicket. Shaun Marsh and Axar Patel, though, could not find the boundary as regularly. Kings XI, ultimately, scored only 40 off the last four.
Fighting fire with fire
Given the enormity of the task, Mumbai's openers showed intent from the first ball. Lendl Simmons, preferred again over Jos Buttler, led the charge smashing 44 of the 68 runs Mumbai hit in the first six overs. Kings XI's seamers fed his strengths by bowling too straight, and Simmons duly picked them off. He also played some fluent strokes on the off side by staying leg side of the ball. Soon after the Powerplay, he brought up his second fifty in three matches, off 27 balls.
At the other end, Parthiv Patel had found his groove with a brace of cover-driven fours off Matt Henry. Parthiv then got stuck into Mohit, spanking a hat-trick of fours. But when he attempted a fourth, Mohit bounced him out.
Turning the game
In the next over, Simmons swung hard at a full-toss that was destined to sail over the long-on boundary….until Martin Guptill took flight and pulled off an incredible one-handed catch. Rahul Tewatia then struck in his first over to remove Rohit Sharma and leave Mumbai at 119 for 3 by the 12th over. It was the sixth time this season that Rohit had perished to legspin. Mumbai only added two runs before Axar Patel had Nitish Rana holing out with a 102kph dart.
Sharma+Sharma >Pollard+Pandya
When Pollard and Hardik Pandya got together, Mumbai needed 110 off 44 balls. What followed in the next three overs was carnage: 52 runs. With 56 needed off 24 balls, Maxwell recalled Sandeep. The seamer found Hardik's outside edge with Saha flying to his right and claiming a low catch. Pollard, aided by Karn, kept peppering the 'V' with clean strikes.
After being taken for hat-trick by boundaries in the 18th by Karn - one of which was palmed over by Maxwell - Mohit hit back to bowl him with a slower offcutter. Sandeep then executed barrage of wide yorkers in the 19th before Mohit followed suit and applied the finishing touches.
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52nd match - Delhi Daredevils v Rising Pune Supergiant
Delhi Daredevils 168 for 8 beat Rising Pune Supergiant 161 for 7 by seven runs
Delhi Daredevils have, over the years, perfected the art of the bizarre, and usually that leads them to lose unloseable matches. On Friday, however, they magicked a way to defend a total of 168 even though Steven Smith appeared in top form and Ben Stokes looked like he was one hit away from finishing the game.
Rising Pune Supergiant needed 91 off 60 balls with seven wickets in hand. They brought that down to 52 off the last five overs, and then, were just shut down. Only three boundaries came in the slog overs as a disciplined bowling attack led by the street-smart Zaheer Khan secured a memorable victory and left the opposition unsure of their place in the playoffs.
A Powerplay of two halves
At the toss, both captains said they wanted to bat, even though only once in four IPL seasons has that led to a victory at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Daredevils' efforts to defy those stats were off to a terrible start. Sanju Samson was run-out in the first over and Shreyas Iyer caught behind in the third. The score was 11 for 2.
Rising Pune then turned to Washington Sundar because he has the second-best economy rate (7.35) among the spinners to have bowled at least 50 balls in the Powerplay. But those numbers meant nothing to Karun Nair. All he knew was he was a superb sweeper of the ball and fine leg was up inside the circle. That was the first of nine boundaries in 18 balls.
Rishabh Pant, too, received preferential treatment from the bowlers. He had come into the match making 190 of his 321 runs this season on the leg side and that's exactly where he found 32 of his 36 runs on Sunday, including four fours and two sixes.
The squeeze
While Nair and Pant were together, the lowest a full over went for was nine runs. But once the 74-run partnership was broken, Rising Pune regained control. The new batsman Marlon Samuels could make only three runs in his first 10 balls. He fell top-edging to MS Dhoni, who had to run back, jump up, extend his right hand as far as it could go. Such acrobatics weren't necessary to stump Corey Anderson; just fast hands and a sixth sense for when the batsman's back foot lifted up as he toppled over.
All the while the set batsman Nair could only watch from the other end. He faced only 11 deliveries in five overs between the 12th and the 16th. He finished 64 off 45. His team-mates 97 off 75.
The Supergiant's supergiant
If Stokes raised eyebrows by becoming the auction's costliest buy, his performance is making them disappear beyond people's hairlines. Case in point was the catch he took in the final over. The ball was soaring over his head at midwicket, but he positioned himself on the edge of the boundary, leapt back, caught it in mid-air and threw it back up because he was going over the ropes and then came back to take the rebound.
Aside from such remarkable athleticism, there is his power hitting. At 92 for 3, he ran at Daredevils' fastest bowler Pat Cummins and pummeled a one-bounce four to midwicket, launched Marlon Samuels' third ball of the match over long-on and nonchalantly flicked Mohammed Shami for a six over deep square leg.
Peak Daredevilry
It was amid this carnage that a scorching yorker arrived. So good was it that Stokes, despite putting bat to it, had to worry about not being bowled. The next ball changed the game.
Shami ran in looking for the blockhole again. Stokes took a shimmy down the pitch and was surprised by a low full toss. The bat turned in his hand as his loft ended up in long-off's hands.
By the time Dhoni was taking guard for his second delivery the required rate was 12. And before he could get set, he was caught short of his ground by a direct hit. It was only the seventh time in 141 IPL innings that he was run-out.
As badly as Rising Pune choked, the Daredevils bowlers were remarkable. They bowled straight, gave no room and nailed the yorkers. The inherent risk in this plan is if the ball doesn't land where it is supposed to, it can be launched halfway around the world. But the big-hitters were gone, and Manoj Tiwary, as well as he had played for his fifty, wasn't really a threatening presence.
He managed two sixes to start the last over to tempt the Pune fans, but Cummins closed the game out with a slew of 145 kph yorkers.
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53rd match - Gujarat Lions v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 158 for 2 beat Gujarat Lions 154 by 8 wickets
It seemed Royal Challengers Bangalore's slide to 47 all out would take some undoing, but in their last match as a franchise Gujarat Lions managed the worst IPL collapse of all time: from 111 for 0 to 154 all out after they had looked like they could get to a defendable score on a flat pitch and a small ground. After the collapse, though, Sunrisers chased with ease to make it 5-0 against Lions, and took the two points that gave them a chance of finishing in the top two, which comes with two bites at the playoff cherry. With 17 points from their 14 games, they now needed Kolkata Knight Riders and Rising Pune Supergiant to lose their respective last matches.
For the first 10.4 overs of the match, it seemed it would take a big chase from Sunrisers. Ishan Kishan and Dwayne Smith got Lions off to a flying start, which showed no signs of slowing down even after the Powerplay, but Rashid Khan and Mohammed Siraj broke the back of the Lions top and middle order. Six batsmen were bowled - second-most in an IPL innings - which spoke both of the bowlers' accuracy and reckless batting. Praveen Kumar took two early wickets to create some interest, but David Warner and Vijay Shankar denied any further drama.
Kishan and Smith run away
It looked like stick cricket, really. The Sunrisers quicks bowled a touch too short, and Kishan kept getting inside the line to help some pulls along their way. Even if he didn't get the best of connections, the pulled-in ropes made sure he kept clearing them. Mohammed Nabi conceded just two runs in the fourth over, but Smith accounted for him in the sixth, slogging him for a six and following it up with an off-driven four. Nabi remained the only bowler to bowl a boundary-less over in the first 10, doing it again in the eighth. Even Rashid went for two sixes and a four, again bowling short and getting pulled away by both batsmen.
11th over, 111 runs, 1st wicket
Outside the short balls in the first 10.4 overs, Sunrisers had conceded at just 8.2 an over. The 13 short balls, though, had gone for 42 runs to leave them looking at a 200-plus chase to ensure qualification. Ironically, it was the short ball that turned it around. Rashid got one to skid under Smith's pull and hit him on the back foot in front of middle. 111 for 1 after 11.
Turn it from left to right
Siraj came back in the 13th over, Rashid continued, and Lions slumped. Siraj primarily bowled slower offcutters, and Rashid wrong'uns. Kishan dragged a length ball from outside off for an easy catch. Suresh Raina did the same to one on the pads. At the other end, Dinesh Karthik lobbed a gentle full toss - a wrong'un - to deep midwicket. Aaron Finch, who had been a victim of the Rashid googly in the previous matches between these two sides, picked the wrong'un this time but still missed with the slog sweep. Five wickets had fallen in 19 balls, and Lions now desperately needed to recalibrate.
Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner looked to do that with 19 off the next 17 balls, but the moment they went back to big hits, the quality of the Sunrisers attack shone through. Siraj, Siddarth Kaul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar kept hitting the stumps, and Jadeja was left stranded on 20 off 14 balls.
Praveen gives Lions hope
This was Lions' last IPL match with their contract as a franchise coming to an end. It seemed they were doing a nostalgia night when they picked Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel ahead of the younger Dhawal Kulkarni and Basil Thampi. The intensity dropped in the field, but Praveen showed canniness with the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques in the third over: Dhawan with the slower offcutter, Henriques with the outswinger. Sunrisers 25 for 3 after three.
Warner breaks away, and gets Sunrisers home
Both Warner and Shankar took time to get into their innings. At the end of the fifth over, Warner was on 7 off 12 and Shankar 2 off five. The asking rate had crossed eight. Lions needed to build on this, but they just didn't have the resources, playing as they were with only three overseas players. Warner got going with Faulkner's over - the sixth - and some lazy fielding meant the runs kept coming. The final chance for Lions came in the 10th over, when Ultra Edge showed Warner had edged legspinner Ankit Soni through to Karthik. Warner wasn't given, and he followed it up with two fours in the same over. Shankar, too, found his touch and went past Warner's strike rate as both notched up fifties to cap it off. It ended with another IPL record: the highest team score without a six.
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54th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians 173 for 5 beat Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 8 by nine runs
Mumbai Indians ended the league stage of the IPL with a table-topping 20 points after they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs at the Eden Gardens. The defeat meant Knight Riders, with 16 points, would not finish in the top two. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had beaten Gujarat Lions in Saturday's afternoon game, had ended the league stage on 17.
Having made as many as six changes to their line-up in an effort to test their bench strength ahead of the playoffs, Mumbai posted 173 on the back of half-centuries from Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu. Knight Riders were in control of the required rate from the start, but kept losing wickets far too frequently.
As many as five Knight Riders batsmen got to 20, and yet their top-scorer only made 33. This proved decisive, in the end, as they fell short of their target by 10 runs. It was Knight Riders' first home defeat while chasing since 2013.
Rayudu fires to lift sluggish Mumbai
Lendl Simmons came into this game with an ordinary T20 record against left-arm pace - 503 runs off 492 balls, 20 dismissals - and he duly fell to a left-arm quick, flat-batting Trent Boult to mid-off in the third over of Mumbai's innings. Rohit Sharma, pulling and slog-sweeping crisply, then scored 27 off 20 before Ankit Rajpoot had him lbw with an offcutter. That left Mumbai at a healthy 69 for 2 in 8.2 overs.
From there, though, they slowed down. Tiwary and Rayudu were Mumbai's most productive pair in the 2010 season, and now, seven years on, they added 61 in 7.4 overs. Tiwary struggled to find the boundary once the Powerplay restrictions disappeared, scoring only 18 off 21 from the start of the seventh over before muscling Sunil Narine for successive fours in the 15th over to bring up his half-century. A comical mix-up - he stood unmoved at the non-striker's end when Rayudu called for a fairly regulation single - ended his innings at 52 off 43 - it was the second-slowest 50-plus score of the season.
The four other fifties in that top five (Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli, Chris Morris and Manoj Tiwary) had all ended up in losing causes.
Rayudu, though, ensured Mumbai would post a challenging if not entirely massive total. He began fairly sedately, hitting only one boundary in his first 20 runs, but upped the pace by peppering the leg-side boundaries, the highlight of his innings a pick-up shot over the deep backward square-leg boundary off Boult to bring up his half-century. Despite Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya only scoring 14 off 14 between them, Rayudu's 63 off 37 ensured Knight Riders wouldn't run away with the game.
Slog on, regardless
Given that a team has ten wickets to exhaust over 20 overs, the "ideal" T20 innings would consist of batsmen going for big hits right through, with no pause for the rebuilding phases characteristic of 50-over cricket. That approach, however, requires a side that bats deep, with power hitters all the way down to Nos. 9, 10 and even 11.
Here, Knight Riders - in a chase of 174, where such an approach may not have been strictly necessary - seemed to be aiming for the platonic ideal of a T20 innings without having the line-up for it. Given that Chris Woakes was ruled out with an ankle injury, and that his replacement Boult is a classic No. 11, Knight Riders' serious batting only extended up to Colin de Grandhomme at No. 7.
Still, they kept going hard; they kept finding the boundaries, but they also kept losing wickets. By the end of the ninth over, they had hit seven fours and six sixes and lost five wickets. Chris Lynn, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan fell in the 20s, and it felt as if one of them could have attempted to anchor Knight Riders and give them some stability to go with their scoring rate. Instead, all three were out going for big shots.
When Yusuf holed out against Vinay Kumar, Knight Riders needed 87 from 66 balls; a perfectly straightforward ask, but they already had their last recognised pair at the crease.
Pandey, de Grandhomme steady chase
Manish Pandey and de Grandhomme gave Knight Riders the partnership they needed, putting on 41 in 31 balls. De Grandhomme maintained Knight Riders' momentum, employing deftness rather than brawn to pick up his boundaries. He used Vinay Kumar's pace to steer him either side of short third man for three fours in the 11th over, before clubbing Hardik Pandya over the midwicket boundary in more characteristic fashion.
Umpire S Ravi missed an inside-edge from Pandey to wicketkeeper Rayudu in the 14th over, but Mumbai didn't have to wait too much longer for a breakthrough, Hardik nipping one back off the seam to bowl de Grandhomme at the start of the 15th. At that point, Knight Riders needed 46 from 35.
Knight Riders run out of batsmen
Pandey's run of luck continued - substitute fielder J Suchith put him down at deep midwicket when he pulled Tim Southee uppishly in the 17th over. The rest of that over continued to frustrate Mumbai. Kuldeep Yadav guided the next ball past short third man for four, and then escaped being run out while taking a non-existent single when Karn Sharma missed the stumps at the bowler's end. Then Southee was no-balled for bowling with only three fielders inside the circle. At the end of that over, Knight Riders only needed 25 off 18.
But they still only had one real batsman left, Pandey, and he pulled Hardik straight to deep midwicket off the first ball of the 18th over. Having now lost seven wickets, Knight Riders simply had no batsmen left with the skill to score 25 off 17 balls, particularly when umpire A Nanda Kishore gave Kuldeep caught-behind in the penultimate over when the ball missed his outside edge.
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55th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 73 (15.5/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant 78/1 (12/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 9 wickets (with 48 balls remaining)
Rising Pune Supergiant stormed into the playoffs, earning at least two more matches, and the opportunity for an IPL title before signing out of franchise cricket. They demolished Kings XI Punjab in a virtual knockout match at home to book a spot in the first qualifier against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday. Kolkata Knight Riders will take on defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
TheKings Paupers XI
Steven Smith made a mention of the moisture in the Pune pitch, and his bowlers made excellent use of it with cross-seamers that tempted the on-the-up drive. On a bare surface, those deliveries come on nicely and batsmen can hit through the line. On this one, offering more purchase, such shots were ill-advised. The ball zipped through or bounced extra, and Kings XI were 32 for 5 in the Powerplay. They were then all out for their lowest total in the IPL - 73.
The surprise strike-force
Jaydev Unadkat started it all, having the big-hitting Martin Guptill caught at short cover off the first ball of the game. He ran out Eoin Morgan with a direct hit from mid-on. A little later, he pulled off a smart, diving catch at short fine leg. Finally, he finished with 2 for 12, only four wickets behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the most successful bowler in IPL 2017, having played three fewer matches. Unadkat's strike-rate of 10.8 is the second-highest among anyone that has taken 10 wickets in the tournament.
The partner-in-crime
"My palms were sweating when I was in the bus," Shardul Thakur admitted in a mid-innings interview. But once he took a look at his workplace, he quickly perked up. "When we started, it [the ball] was sticking [in the pitch] a bit, and the cross-seamers worked."
He had Shaun Marsh spooning a drive to mid-off in his second over, forced Rahul Tewatia to top-edge a pull to the wicketkeeper, and finally had Glenn Maxwell flicking a leg-stump half-volley into the hands of long leg. The Kings XI captain, who had pushed himself down to No. 6, finished IPL 2017 having played only 18 balls in the Powerplay and lost his wicket thrice.
A little batting practice
Prior to Sunday, Ajinkya Rahane averaged 19.07, his lowest in a season since 2008, when he played only two matches. A target of 74, whilst being too little for a batsman to sink his teeth into, can still give him the opportunity to spend time at the crease. Rahane made sure to last the entirety of the chase, and hit the winning runs too, a six over long-on. Pune will want as many of their gun players in form to fill the hole that will be left by Ben Stokes - 316 runs and 12 wickets in 12 matches - who leaves for England tonight.
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56th match - Delhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 161/6 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 151 (20/20 ov)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 10 runs
They might have had heady highs and lowly lows in between but Delhi Daredevils ended their season as they began it: let down by their mercurial batsmen after the bowlers kept Royal Challengers Bangalore down to a middling total. In their first fixture, Daredevils failed to chase down 157; here they came short going after 161. On both occasions, Rishabh Pant was left without any support from the other end, out for 45 off 33 in the 17th over. Like in Bangalore, Pawan Negi bowled the last over to take out Daredevil's last hope, Mohammed Shami, who had scored 21 off nine balls.
Winning their first match in their last eight attempts, Royal Challengers managed to get off just two wins, which would the joint-worst return for any team in any IPL. They did have their usual failings, though. On a pitch that Virat Kohli expected to offer a lot of turn, he and Chris Gayle laid a platform, but both fell for middling strike rates of 128.88 and 126.31. The rest didn't contribute much as Pat Cummins, Zaheer Khan and Shahbaz Nadeem pulled things back.
In response, though, Daredevils' batsmen made more mistakes. Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer got themselves in on a pitch that lived up partially to Kohli's expectations but got themselves out before they could pay the team back for the 22 and 30 balls they faced for a strike rate of 118.18 and 106.67. The soft dismissals left Pant with all to do, which once again proved too much.
RCB 157/8 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 142/9 (20/20 ov)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 15 runs
One bull, two bears
Royal Challengers opened with their best batsmen in the XI - Chris Gayle and Shane Watson. Both looked fluent, choosing timing over their preferred modus operandi of brute force. It worked well until Gayle mis-timed a full toss from Chris Morris to mid-off. Mandeep Singh chopped on. Shane Watson was stumped for just the third time in the IPL. Shahbaz Nadeem delivered 4-0-13-1, his most economical four-over figures in the IPL. It was Royal Challengers' first bear market.
Then came Jadhav: full of form, confidence and belief. All of it was discernible with his timing and shot selection despite Royal Challengers' shaky footing. He brought out the inside-out lofted drives and the off-balance flicks through midwicket. Jadhav's natural flair was uninhibited. He struck five fours and five sixes in his 37-ball 69. Suddenly a score of close to 180 seemed possible.
Clichéd as it may be, wickets turned the game again. Zaheer Khan had Stuart Binny caught at midwicket and then flummoxed Jadhav with a slower ball. In between, he contributed to debutant Vishnu Vinod's run-out. Seventeen of Chris Morris' 24 deliveries were dot balls as he returned figures of 3 for 21. The last four overs yielded just 23, and Royal Challengers finished with an under-par 157.
Another impressive debut
Having impressed with his pace in the Big Bash League for Adelaide Strikers, Billy Stanlake was bought by Royal Challengers for his base price INR 30 lakh, in the second round of the auction. Stanlake used possibly the quickest surface in the competition to zip through Daredevils' top order with accuracy and sufficient lateral movement. He went through Karun Nair's defense with a length delivery that moved away and then harried Sanju Samson for pace with a short delivery, picking up two wickets to keep a packed crowd squealing.
Hit and miss
Pant smashed his first ball of the season for a massive six over midwicket. Even as his innings wore on, his timing didn't fail him. Daredevils' middle and lower order crumbled around him, but he kept his composure to take his team within 21 with two overs remaining. Bowling the penultimate over, Watson's plan was clear: beat or get under the bat outside off. He varied his lengths and pace to concede just two runs, including four dot balls to Mishra.
With 18 to defend off the final over, the game was still not done. Watson opted for the left-arm spin of Negi to Pant. "Pant had not seen him all night. Iqbal Abdulla had bowled three overs to him," Watson explained at the post-match presentation. Negi's dart hit leg stump off the first ball, and Watson was vindicated.
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6th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Gujarat Lions
Sunrisers Hyderabad dominated all aspects of a T20 game - batting, bowling, fielding and winning a toss - to consign Gujarat Lions to their second rout of the season. Sunrisers cruised to their second comfortable victory, with nine wickets in hand and 27 balls to spare. Lions stuck to the same combination as the first game - four overseas batsmen and five Indian bowlers - and lacked balance and penetration again. With the bat, they could muster just 135, their second-lowest first-innings total. With the ball, they've taken just one wicket in two games.
Sunrisers, on the other hand, were clutch in planning and execution. Rashid Khan flummoxed the Lions batsmen with his variations to become the highest wicket-taker of this season's IPL. Then chasing 137, David Warner struck an unbeaten 45-ball 76, going past 1000 IPL runs at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium and 7000 overall runs in T20 cricket.
The IPL's most significant trend
Sunrisers captain Warner was clear at the toss. He knew the surface would play slower in the afternoon and his spinners would be useful against Lions' packed overseas stars. After putting Lions in to bat - the fifth occasion in six games a team has chosen to chase this season - Warner started with left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma. The pitch played pretty much as expected: slow, low, and timing spinners wasn't easy. Sunrisers' spinners - Rashid and Bipul - returned combined figures of 8-0-43-3 leaving the Lions to play catch-up thereafter.
Legspin winning T20s
Picking Rashid's variations from his stock ball has been one of the harder tasks in Associate cricket. That is why he is regularly employed towards the end overs in T20Is for Afghanistan. In just two games, Rashid has shown discerning legspin isn't simple for the best either.
Batsmen often look for a cross-batted option against spin they aren't able to read. That seemed the case when Brendon McCullum chose to sweep in Rashid's first over. He missed the googly and was struck in front of the wicket. Aaron Finch and Suresh Raina were deceived too: Finch off a googly and Raina off a regulation legbreak. Both batsmen missed the ball by a considerable distance, an indicator that they failed to pick Rashid. It was the first time a bowler took three lbws in an IPL game.
Two of the best legspinners in the world currently, Rashid and Imran Tahir, both attack the stumps - a legbreak to a left-hander and a googly to a right-hander - to new batsmen. It has worked, and not just in the IPL.
Not timing a T20 chase
Sometimes, a higher total to chase frees up a batting team. Pacing an innings while chasing a relatively small total can also be fraught with danger because of the unpredictability of the end overs. Warner, rightly, didn't change his normal approach to Sunrisers' 136 target.
With two left-handers opening, Suresh Raina bowled the first over. He had bowled only 30 balls in the Powerplay and conceded 32 runs prior to this game. His first delivery was flat and straight, skidding on with the arm. Warner gave himself room and cut to point off middle stump. While that was a risky stroke, it showed Raina his best delivery could be taken for runs.
That risk paid off in the next over, when Raina was forced to change his length. Warner used his feet against Raina's flight to hit a straight six, and then used the depth of the crease to pull for six off a shorter delivery. He had raced away to 32 off 17 balls in the Powerplay, and Sunrisers were 59 for 1. By then, the game was effectively won.
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7th match - Mumbai Indians v Kolkata Knight Riders
Kolkata Knight Riders 178/7 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 180/6 (19.5/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 4 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
On a high-scoring, field-first ground, and fighting considerable dew, Kolkata Knight Riders nearly won with an under-par 176 but failed to defend 59 in the last 23 balls. In the cauldron, with the home crowd burning their ears and a wet ground underfoot, the visiting Knight Riders just froze in the field after taking out almost all the big guns from Mumbai Indians.
Almost. Because at 119 for 5, Mumbai sent out Hardik Pandya, whose cameo met Nitish Rana's hitherto solid innings to stage a heist. Rana went from 29 off 23 to 50 off 28, and Hardik hit the winning runs in his 11-ball 29. The night belonged to the brothers after Krunal Pandya dragged Knight Riders back with his left-arm spin of 4-0-24-3. Two of these wickets read c Pandya b Pandya.
Looking London, going Tokyo with K Pandya
Chris Lynn came into this match on the back of an explosive 93, but he goes at only 6.16 against left-arm spin. It was expected, then, that Krunal would bowl early in the innings. Knight Riders had already run away to 44 in four by the time he came on, and Lynn was not on strike first ball. Doesn't matter, because Krunal took two bonus wickets of Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa in that over.
Sometimes a wide is better than going for a boundary
The other thing about Lynn was his wagon wheel in his 93. He scored 52 off those runs in 17 hits to leg, and not one behind square. So Mumbai bowled to him with a long-on and a cow corner, short and into the body, denying him the swing of the arms. The quicks even bowled two wides to him down the leg side. In the end, against Jasprit Bumrah, Lynn went to hit square, to miss that man at cow corner, and moved too far across to be lbw with Knight Riders at 67 for 3 in the eighth over, with a middle-overs slowdown to follow.
Pandey to the rescue
Manish Pandey, who before this match had scored 53 off 53 Harbhajan Singh deliveries, was part of that slowdown when Harbhajan and Krunal turned the screws. Pandey, though, can shift gears dramatically. His overall strike rate in IPL is 111 over the first 30 balls of an innings, and 173 off the next 30. Here he went from 35 off 30 to 81 off 47, taking Mitchell McClenaghan apart in a 23-run final over.
Confusion at the top
Perhaps Mumbai don't trust Parthiv Patel to bat anywhere other than against the new ball. Perhaps they want a big batsman in the middle. Perhaps they are not giving it enough thought, but their top four remains a muddle. Knight Riders bowled superbly against Jos Buttler, Parthiv, Rana (promoted ahead of Rohit Sharma) and Rohit to reduce them to 74 for 3 in 10. There was swing for Trent Boult, pace from Ankit Rajpoot, and guile from the two spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Sunil Narine.
Pollard gone, game over?
This was now becoming Kieron Pollard v Knight Riders. Pollard even blocked out a whole over from Kuldeep to turn 73 off 41 into 71 off 36. Soon it went past two runs a ball and nudged 2.5 a delivery as Pollard struggled against fellow Trinidadian Narine. Pollard was now ripe for the taking, and Chris Woakes did so with a wide bouncer. This was the 17th over, the wheels were about to come off.
Own goal after own goal
The ground was pretty wet by now. The pitch was still flat. The boundaries were still small. Mumbai still needed just one man to get on a roll. It all began with a fielding error. Rana set off for a desperate single, the throw from mid-off came in, and Woakes didn't have the ball in his hands when he removed the bails. Rana should have been out for 28 off 22. And then both of them got on a roll.
With Gambhir off the field, Suryakumar Yadav bucked the trend of bowling the best bowler in the 19th, and kept 18th and 20th for Boult. Nineteen came off the 18th over with Boult missing the yorker twice. It is arguable if they should have been bowling yorkers with the wet ball, but at Wankhede, length is not the answer either. Youngster Rajpoot kept going for the yorker in the 19th, conceding two sixes but also taking out Rana with one.
With 11 required off the last over, Boult went full for the first two balls. Two leg-byes and a single should have been the result but the ball slipped under stand-in captain Suryakumar's hands at long-on. Now with Hardik on strike instead of Harbhajan, Boult went for the bouncers. A dot ball and a wicket should have been the result, but substitute Rishi Dhawan slipped under a sitter. What should have been a single became a boundary, what should have been an easy catch became two runs, and Knight Riders weren't left with anyone else to blame.
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8th match - Kings XI Punjab v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 148/4KXIP 150/2
KXIP win by 8 wickets
AB de Villiers, returning from a back injury and replacing Chris Gayle, made a jaw-dropping 89 off 46 balls, but the rest of Royal Challengers Bangalore was so woeful that Kings XI Punjab won with 33 balls to spare.
De Villiers arrived in the second over but by the end of the 15th, he had faced only 28 balls and scored 31 runs. Mandeep Singh and Stuart Binny had taken most of the strike and scored at less than a run a ball. In the last five overs, though, de Villiers faced 18 deliveries and scored 58 off them. He helped RCB double their 15-over score of 71 and was the sole reason they got 148.
A measure of how poor the rest of the RCB batsmen were, though, was how easily a collective effort from Kings XI overhauled the target. Manan Vohra, Hashim Amla and Glenn Maxwell timed the ball sublimely under lights and took the RCB seamers for more than ten runs an over. Kings XI's eight-wicket win was their second in two games, while RCB suffered their second defeat in three.
RCB strangled in the Powerplay
In their previous match against Rising Pune Supergiant at the same venue on Saturday, Kings XI bowled 14 dots in the Powerplay. Against RCB, Sandeep Sharma alone bowled 14. In all Kings XI sent down 22 dots, limiting RCB to 23 for 3; only four times in the past had RCB made a lower Powerplay score.
Before this match, Axar Patel had dismissed Shane Watson every time they had faced off in the IPL. So it made sense for Axar to take the new ball against Watson and he maintained his perfect record when Watson dragged an arm ball back onto the stumps. Sandeep sent down a volley of swinging deliveries but it was the short ball that coaxed a top edge from Vishnu Vinod.
De Villiers repairs damage
De Villiers rusty? You've got to be kidding. He deftly guided his first ball to the point boundary. He then watched his team-mates starve him of the strike, and fall into the hole Kings XI had dug for them. The pitch was quicker than the one used for the match against Rising Pune. Varun Aaron, picked in place of left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh, Axar, and Marcus Stoinis tucked RCB up, and ensured they did not score a boundary for 38 balls in the middle overs.
De Villiers then switched into super-batsman mode: carving near-yorkers for fours and launching length balls on to the roof - or over the roof - of the stadium. He even struck a six over cover despite being off balance and having to reach far away from his body. He hit eight sixes and a four in the last five overs of the innings.
Nailing the chase
Vohra likes pace on the ball. Before this match, he scored at 8.39 an over against pace in the IPL, and 6.78 against spin. He kick-started the chase with three fours in four balls off Watson. Amla also prospered, hitting on the up, as Kings XI shaved 50 off the target in five overs. Tymal Mills came into the attack next over and pinned Vohra lbw with a slower legcutter, but Amla progressed to a typically serene fifty. At the other end, Maxwell produced more unorthodox shots - ramps and golf-swings - and a chastening loss was inevitable for RCB.
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9th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils 205 for 4 beat Rising Pune Supergiant 108 by 97 runs
A maiden T20 hundred from Sanju Samson and a blistering unbeaten 38, off just nine balls, from Chris Morris, led Delhi Daredevils to their first 200-plus total since April 2012. It was more than enough to give them their first win of the season, as Rising Pune Supergiants - who were without Steven Smith, their regular captain and best batsman - crumbled in the face of a steadily mounting asking rate, folding for 108 in 16.1 overs.
The efforts of Samson and Morris - helped by some not particularly clever death bowling from Ashok Dinda, Adam Zampa and Ben Stokes - brought Daredevils 76 runs off their last four overs. It was the third-best last-four tally in the IPL, behind two Royal Challengers Bangalore blitzes, and it undid the control Rising Pune's bowlers - Imran Tahir in particular - had exerted through the middle overs, and ensured they would be chasing 206 rather than, say, 184.
An innings of three thirds
Samson walked in after Daredevils lost Aditya Tare in the second over and began with a flurry of boundaries against Rising Pune's quicks, piercing the field with a series of drives and punches through point and cover. Capitalising on the width given by Deepak Chahar and Dinda, Samson scored 31 off his first 14 balls, hitting six fours in that time. With Sam Billings similarly positive at the other end, Daredevils scored 62 for 1 in the Powerplay - their best effort since scoring 64 against Deccan Chargers in May 2012.
The spreading of the field and the introduction of slower bowlers - Tahir, Zampa and Rajat Bhatia - slowed Samson down. He didn't manage a single boundary as he went from 31 off 14 to 54 off 45, with Rishabh Pant - who smacked 31 off 22 - assuming the dominant role in a third-wicket partnership worth 53.
Then came the third phase of Samson's innings, which began with a straight six off Zampa. From that ball on, Samson made 48 off 17 - the bulk of them in a 19-run 18th over from Dinda - and reached his century with another six off Zampa before being bowled by his quicker ball in the 19th over. Samson's 63-ball 102 was the 43rd IPL hundred, and the sixth slowest.
The Morris massacre
Daredevils were 166 for 4, with ten balls left in their innings, when Morris entered the picture. Of those ten balls, Corey Anderson would only face one, wisely taking a single off it - wisely, because Morris was in utterly unreal form, dispatching seven of the nine balls he faced to or over the boundary, all off the middle of his bat. Zampa went for 22 in the 19th over, and Stokes for 23 in the 20th. There were three massive sixes in Morris' innings, but his best shot went for four - an off-stump yorker from Stokes, squeezed past backward point with a cleverly manipulated bat-face.
A non-rising Pune chase
Rising Pune's bowlers had sent down a number of freebies to get Daredevils' innings going. Daredevils' bowlers did not return the favour. There were only four boundaries in Rising Pune's Powerplay overs, and three wickets. Two fell to Zaheer Khan's slower ball, and one - the debutant Rahul Tripathi - to a fast and accurate bouncer from Morris.
With the required rate nearing 12 an over, Faf du Plessis and Stokes fell in the next two overs, trying to manufacture shots. From 54 for 5, there would be no way back for Rising Pune.
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10th match - Mumbai Indians v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Mumbai Indians 159 for 6 beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 158 for 8 by four wickets
Harbhajan Singh and Jasprit Bumrah bowled accurate and miserly spells on a typically high-scoring ground to condemn Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first defeat in six matches. Harbhajan did not find much turn, but maintained a constricting line, while Bumrah showcased his variations to limit Sunrisers to a modest 158 for 8.
Sunrisers, having Mustafizur Rahman and Rashid Khan in their ranks, might have still felt they were in with a chance, but the lack of grip and turn off a dew-slicked pitch doused it. That Mustafizur conceded 34 runs in 2.4 overs summed up the impact of the dew. Parthiv Patel had made early headway in the chase with a slap-happy 39 off 24 balls. By the time he fell, Mumbai Indians needed 74 off 60 balls. Nitish Rana then worked his way through the middle overs with Krunal Pandya, but it was Harbhajan who fittingly sewed up the win. The chasing team has now won each of the last six IPL games at the Wankhede Stadium.
The strangle I
Harbhajan and Lasith Malinga got the ball to skid into Shikhar Dhawan and cramped him for room. The only real loose ball to Dhawan in the Powerplay was a waist-high full toss, which he punched straight to cover point. He eked out only seven runs at strike rate of 46.66 - his second lowest in the first six overs in the IPL, when he has played at least 10 balls.
Dhawan and Warner break free
Mitchell McClenaghan, introduced after the Powerplay, let Dhawan off the hook with a brace of length balls. Dhawan opened up his hips and powerfully swatted one over the midwicket boundary. He then manufactured his own length by jumping down the track, taking a half-volley and belting it to the cover boundary.
Warner had looked fidgety against the new ball as well, but found fluency against the old one with four boundaries off five balls in the middle overs.
The strangle II
At 81 for 0 in 10.1 overs, Sunrisers might have set their sights on a rousing finish, but they were in for a rude shock: they lost 7 for 72, including four in the last three overs. It was Harbhajan who set the collapse in motion, dismissing Warner for 49 and Deepak Hooda for nine in successive overs. He finished with 2 for 23 and ceded the stage to Bumrah who throttled Sunrisers further with his yorkers and slower dippers. Bumrah capped the innings with better figures of 3 for 24 but much of the strangle was down to Harbhajan's accuracy.
Parthiv and Rana go bang
In stark contrast to Sunrisers, Mumbai Indians held nothing back in the Powerplay. Despite the early loss of Jos Buttler and Rohit Sharma, Parthiv scythed full balls through the covers and pulled shorter ones over midwicket. His blows at the top perhaps freed up Rana, who began with an shovelled six off Mustafizur over fine leg. Rana also smartly saw off Rashid, who conceded just 19 despite the dew. The match was all but over when Rashid was done in the 15th; Krunal made sure of things with a flurry of boundaries over the next couple of overs.
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11th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Kings XI Punjab
KXIP 170/9
KKR 171/2
KKR win by 8 wickets
Kolkata Knight Riders improved on this season's chasing trend, coasting to an eight-wicket win against Kings XI Punjab with 21 balls to spare in their first home game. It was the eighth win by a chasing side in 11 games this season. Chasing 171, Gautam Gambhir and Sunil Narine, promoted to open the batting, struck 76 in the Powerplay to effectively kill the game. Gambhir made an unbeaten 72, his 33rd IPL fifty, equalling David Warner's tally in the tournament. Knight Riders have not lost an IPL game at the Eden Gardens while chasing since 2012.
Kings XI had initially made a bright start with a 53-run opening stand between Hashim Amla and Manan Vohra, their second successive fifty-plus stand. However, Kings XI lost a middle-overs tussle between their own attacking approach and Knight Riders' slow bowlers, losing wickets and momentum. Knight Riders curbed the scoring rate, and Umesh Yadav took three wickets in the 18th over - finishing with 4 for 33 on his return - to limit Kings XI to 170, a sub-par score on a quick outfield and a true pitch.
Do what your opposition doesn't want
Amla and Vohra, rely on their timing more than power even in T20s. On a surface with plenty of pace and bounce, Knight Riders used seam, playing into the hands of the Kings XI openers. They struck nine boundaries between them and Kings XI raced away to 45 for 0 in the first four overs, forcing Gambhir to look at his slow-bowling options.
He turned to the spin of Sunil Narine and Piyush Chawla. The difference in tact was evident when the openers were made to hit through the line, instead of using an angled bat. Both spinners struck in their first spells and stalled Kings XI's momentum.
The art of setting a target
The challenge of batting first on small grounds is deciding how much to set the chasing team. How hard does their top order go? How many resources would they want in the end overs? In either case, utilising the last five overs efficiently is imperative.
Kings XI lost three wickets in 27 balls in the middle overs, falling from 66 for 1 to 98 for 4. While that may not appear to be a slump, it ensured that wickets in the end overs would leave Kings XI well short. Gambhir finished Narine relatively early, by the 16th over. Before 2015, he had bowled 42% of his overs in the last five overs; but since then, he has bowled 23% in that period.
In the 2016 IPL, the average score in the last five overs was 45.55. Kings XI, with the pressure of avoiding a collapse, scored just 36 runs in that phase. Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron faced the last two overs. No batsman scored 30 or more.
Using the Powerplay
It was a surprise when Melbourne Renegades chose to open with Narine in the last Big Bash League. A left-handed Marcus Harris was their designated opener. So it wasn't because they wanted a left hand-right hand combination. Instead of a batsman building an innings, they perhaps felt maximising run-making in the Powerplay was what the format needed. In the Pakistan Super League, Narine hit 11 sixes, the joint fifth-most in the tournament.
It was a surprise even when Knight Riders opened with Narine in their chase, but it wasn't flawed thinking. At worst, he would get out having not consumed too many balls.
But his promotion came off. He faced 18 deliveries and his intent was to block none of them. He ended up hitting four fours and three sixes to finish with 37. He added 76 runs with Gambhir in 34 balls, helping Knight Riders make their highest Powerplay score.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------12th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians
RCB 142/5
MI 145/6
MI win by 4 wickets
A drier-than-usual Chinnaswamy Stadium pitch produced a low-scoring contest that included a 59-ball spell without a boundary and a Powerplay hat-trick by a legspinner. That legspinner, Samuel Badree, took 4 for 9 on his Royal Challengers Bangalore debut, and at the end of his four-over quota, Mumbai Indians, chasing 143, were 33 for 5 in eight overs.
Badree, though, was to end up on the losing side. The match-winner was another Trinidadian, Kieron Pollard, who scored a brilliantly calculated 70 off 47 balls and added 93 for the sixth wicket with Krunal Pandya to consign RCB to their third defeat in four games.
Kohli and Gayle make ponderous start
A shoulder injury had kept Virat Kohli out of action for nearly a month, but showed no signs of rust when he hit a six and two fours off Tim Southee in the third over of RCB's innings. Perhaps the most important ball of that over, however, was a dot - the last ball, to Gayle. Southee bowled it cross-seam, Gayle left it alone, and the ball kept low and bounced a second time before reaching the keeper.
Both captains had mentioned at the toss - Mumbai won it and chose to bowl - that the pitch seemed drier than usual, and Mumbai's bowlers quickly cottoned on. Harbhajan Singh bowled in the Powerplay to specifically target Gayle - before this match, he had conceded 65 off 65 to the Jamaican in the IPL, while dismissing him three times - and the seamers bowled cutters into the pitch, and found the two-paced pitch to their liking.
Aside from that Southee over, only the really bad ball went to the boundary, with Kohli and Gayle content to push the rest around for ones and twos, and RCB were 66 for 1 at the 10-over mark. Gayle fell in the 10th over for 22 off 27 balls.
Krunal snuffs out RCB's spark
RCBs were beginning to build some momentum, taking 19 off Jasprit Bumrah in the 14th over, in the course of which Kohli had reached his fifty with a six over long-off. AB de Villiers was at the crease too, and had been dropped on 7 by Jos Buttler at deep midwicket.
The unlucky bowler was Krunal Pandya, who had come on as soon as de Villiers came in, probably because he had dismissed him in both their previous meetings. The drop didn't end up costing too much - de Villiers, looking to hit him inside-out in the 17th over, failed to get elevation and Rohit Sharma caught him with a dive to his left.
In the previous over, Kohli had slapped McClenaghan straight to deep point. If RCB's' slow build-up was supposed to lead to fireworks in the slog overs, they probably didn't account for having new batsmen at the crease on a difficult pitch to start hitting immediately. As it happened, they only managed 32 for 4 in the last five overs.
Badree runs through Mumbai's top order
Given the dryness of the surface, RCB had left out the fast bower Billy Stanlake and included Badree as one of two legspinners. By now, driving on the up seemed fraught with risk on this pitch. Jos Buttler departed in the second over, flicking Stuart Binny in the air. Parthiv Patel followed in the next over, scooping Badree to short cover.
In the next two balls, 7 for 2 became 7 for 4. McClenaghan, ostensibly promoted to use his left-handedness to go after Badree, slogged a full-toss straight to long-on, and Rohit, for the second time in two matches, was deceived by a googly.
Badree bowled out by the eighth over, and ended his spell with another wicket: Nitish Rana caught at backward point, failing to keep a cut down. At this point, Mumbai needed 110 off 72 balls, with half their side gone.
Pollard, Krunal turn it around
But Mumbai would no longer have Badree to worry about. After the match, Pollard revealed that he and Krunal had targeted the other spinners, looking for at least one boundary off each of their overs to keep the asking rate in check. They managed to do this right through their partnership, while working the strike over regularly.
Five off five balls became 11 off the 10th over when Krunal muscled a wide quicker ball from Yuzvendra Chahal over the long-off boundary. Four off five balls became 10 off the 14th over when Pollard made room and lofted Pawan Negi over extra-cover. Pollard clobbered Negi for sixes off the last two balls of his next over, the 16th, and Mumbai suddenly only needed 33 from 24.
With only one over left from Tymal Mills, the rest of the last four would have to be bowled by the spinners and S Aravind. Pollard fell in the 18th over, to Chahal, but by then Mumbai only needed 17 off 15. Hardik Pandya arrived at the crease to help his brother ease them over the line.
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13th match - Gujarat Lions v Rising Pune Supergiant
Gujarat Lions 172 for 3 beat Rising Pune Supergiant 171 for 8 by seven wickets
Gujarat Lions had picked up only one wicket in two matches this season. But Andrew Tye took five times as many - including a hat-trick, the second of the day - to record the best figures by an IPL debutant. His 5 for 17 was then followed by a typically brutal display of batting from the top order to ensure a perfect record against Rising Pune Supergiant after three matches so far.
Good length = bad length
In the space of this past week, Lions have put on their two worst performances in the Poweplay. They leaked 73 runs in the season opener against Kolkata Knight Riders last Friday and now they gave up 64 to Rising Pune Supergiant. Their bowling attack largely consists of medium-pacers who, unless there is some sideways movement, can be lined up. All seven fours in the first six overs came off length balls. Two of the three sixes came off length balls. Praveen Kumar was carted for 25 runs in the fifth over. It had been 10 years since he had been that expensive in the IPL.
The change up
Pune had just recorded their fastest fifty of the tournament - in 27 balls. They had to be slowed down and so Lions turned to the bowler with the best slower ball. A batsman can read the offcutter when the bowler's wrist breaks. Ditto the legcutter. The back-of-the-hand slower ball is difficult largely because of the way it misbehaves off the pitch. But the knuckle ball is slightly different for much of its potency lies in making sure the batsman doesn't pick it.
As a batsman, 22 yards in front, it is hard to read the change in Tye's grip and he doesn't give anything away in his run up. He took four of his five wickets with that knuckle ball, including the one that sealed his second hat-trick of 2017.
Tye's introduction brought Lions back from the brink. They allowed only five of the 48 deliveries that followed the Powerplay to get to the boundary and in the 14th over the returning Ravindra Jadeja dismissed MS Dhoni for the second time in the IPL. The wicketkeeper-batsman fell for 5 off eight balls, his third successive innings at a strike-rate below 100.
From 120 for 5, even a solid partnership of 47 runs in 29 balls between Manoj Tiwary and Ankit Sharma - one of six changes to the XI - could only take Pune to 171.
The top-order threat
Lions' specialist openers made 762 runs in 2016 - that's 30% of the team's total runs. Stopping them had to be Pune's best chance to defend 171. But, on a slow pitch, they fed Brendon McCullum and Dwayne Smith with fast bowling. It proved a costly mistake. Both of them were set by the time Imran Tahir came on to bowl and the legspinnner was smashed for 15 runs in his first over. He would be hit for 10 boundaries in his spell - the most he has conceded in all the matches he has played in the IPL and for South Africa.
With the main threat decimated, all Lions had to do was trust in their batting depth. They had pushed Aaron Finch down the order because among their four overseas openers he handles spin best - averaging 27.73 and striking at 129. He and Raina, the first man to play 150 IPL games, saw this one through to the finish.
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14th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Kolkata Knight Riders 172 for 6 beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 155 for 6 by 17 runs
In an error-strewn match, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav bowled equally immaculate spells, but it was Kolkata Knight Riders who came away with their third win of the season and moved to the top of the points table.
Robin Uthappa nicked his first ball to the keeper, but umpire Anil Dandekar did not spot it. Uthappa continued to lead a charmed life and struck 68 off 39 balls, which formed the crux of KKR's 172 for 6. They could have got more had Bhuvneshwar not nailed his lengths. For the 11th time in an IPL match, Bhuvneshwar went for a run-a-ball or less from his four overs, all bowled in the Powerplay or the last five overs. He finished with 3 for 20, but it was not enough for Sunrisers.
David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan sauntered to 45 for 0 in the Powerplay, but Kuldeep's dismissal of Warner derailed the chase. They lost 6 for 83, and eventually their second successive match.
Brought down to earth
On Thursday, Sunil Narine and Gautam Gambhir ran up 76 in in 34 balls, taking KKR to their best Powerplay score. They were also helped by some lacklustre bowling from Kings XI's seamers, who kept feeding Narine with hip-high balls, which he comfortably swatted away, taking 23 off his 37 runs through the leg side. At the other end, they kept offering Gambhir width.
Narine hardly moves his feet, which means the perfect ball to him is a yorker. Kings XI did not bowl a single yorker to him, but Bhuvneshwar bowled one in his second over and scythed through Narine's defence. Gambhir again went after anything that was remotely full and outside off. Then, in Rashid Khan's first over, he was bowled, attempting to cut a non-turning legbreak, and KKR were kept to their first sub-50 score in the Powerplay this season.
Uthappa, Pandey cash in
Uthappa thickly edged his first ball to the keeper but got away. Dhawan then missed a direct hit when Uthappa was on 15. Uthappa went on to bring up a fifty off 27 balls. It wasn't wild slogging. He read Rashid's googlies and lined up the short balls that sat up on a surface that was drier than the one used for the Kings XI game. Uthappa took Rashid for 21 runs in 12 balls, the most any batsman has scored off him in this IPL.
Pandey could have been dismissed for 8 had Naman Ojha not missed a stumping chance off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma. Pandey was on 26 off 26 balls, including two fours, at one point, but hit three boundaries off his next five balls.
Staying alive at the death
In the previous season, Bhuvneshwar had picked up 13 wickets in 162 balls in the death overs - the joint highest with Shane Watson. After bowling two overs in the Powerplay, he returned to the attack in the 18th over and nabbed Pandey with a slower offcutter. In his next over, Bhuvneshwar cleaned up Colin Grandhomme with an inswinging yorker.
Kuldeep turns it around
Warner and Dhawan punished width, and hit a collective eight fours in the Powerplay. The introduction of Kuldeep, however, applied the brakes on the chase.
Kuldeep had harried Sunrisers last season, collecting 3 for 35 in the Eliminator. So, it wasn't really surprising that he was picked ahead of Piyush Chawla for this game. Warner, however, was surprised by Kuldeep's dip and turn. He managed only 7 off 13 balls against Kuldeep before skying a catch to long-off. Chris Woakes backed that up by removing Moises Henriques in the next over.
When Yuvraj Singh fell, Sunrisers needed 61 off 31 balls. It was too tall a task, and KKR secured their fifth win in as many matches against Sunrisers at Eden Gardens.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 15th 15th match - Delhi Daredevils v Kings XI Punjab
Delhi Daredevils 188/6
Kings XI Punjab 137/9
Delhi Daredevils won by 51 runs
No side had chased down 189 to win an IPL game at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Having conceded 28 more than the average first-innings score at this venue, Kings XI Punjab needed their batsmen to pull off a heist. Instead, they sunk to 64 for 5 in the 11th over, with Glenn Maxwell, Eoin Morgan and Hashim Amla all dismissed. From there on, it was a no-contest and Delhi Daredevils won their first home game of the season by 51 runs.
Shahbaz Nadeem, the left-arm spinner, did the early damage by removing Manan Vohra and Wriddhiman Saha. Amit Mishra used the Kotla surface well, and got rid of Maxwell for the fourth time in five innings. The final nail was fittingly hammered by Corey Anderson, who trapped David Miller lbw, to go along with a robust cameo. Axar Patel pocketed his highest IPL score, but it was merely academic.
Kings XI 'Indians' control first half
Delhi Daredevils have preferred to invest in their young Indian batsmen to take charge upfront. Kings XI Punjab have done the same with the bowlers. This was therefore a contest within a contest. While Karun Nair was snuffed down the leg side for a duck to continue his wretched run of form across formats since scoring a match-winning triple ton in Tests against England in December, Sanju Samson, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant wasted starts. With Daredevils reduced to 120 for 5 in the 16th over, the late lift was left to Chris Morris and Corey Anderson. Up until then, Kings XI had won the bout of Indian players, with all of Mohit Sharma, Sandeep Sharma, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel and KC Cariappa, brought in for his first game in place of Ishant Sharma, among the wickets. But half the job wasn't good enough.
Delhi's overseas players deliver box-office stuff
The platform was set by Sam Billings, whose robust on-side play - pulling, sweeping and flicking fluently against the new ball - helped post 49 in the first six before a slump. Billings slipped into accumulation mode against spin but fell in the quest to heave the ball across the line in the 13th over to leave Delhi on 103 for 4. Anderson, who missed the previous season after going unsold, along with Chris Morris and Pat Cummins provided the muscle in the end overs. Anderson's cameo particularly, an unbeaten 22-ball 39 derailed Kings XI as he swung the ball into the arc behind square to hit three fours and three sixes. On a surface which Zaheer Khan thought was "on the drier side" Delhi had half the job done.
Aaron gamble fails
Varun Aaron had an IPL economy of 8.79 across 39 matches prior to this game. Despite two average outings, he was persisted. His erratic lengths that veered more towards the shorter side provided release to Daredevils' batsmen looking to swing the ball towards the shorter leg-side boundary from one end. He conceded three successive boundaries to Billings in his first over, all on the leg side - two off the pull and one through a flick behind square. Then Iyer hit him for two fours in three deliveries off the over that followed Nair's dismissal. It meant Kings XI couldn't wrest momentum despite getting wickets. He conceded 45 off his four overs, with two wickets being scant consolation. Eventually Kings XI paid the price for conceding 68 off the last five overs.
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16th match - Mumbai Indians v Gujarat Lions
Gujarat Lions 176/4 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 177/4 (19.3/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 6 wickets (with 3 balls remaining)
The chase-friendly image of Wankhede Stadium has survived yet another test. On a slow pitch, Gujarat Lions rode on a mature 64 off 44 from Brendon McCullum and a blinder from Dinesh Karthik to get 176, which McCullum reckoned was 15 above par given the conditions. However, Nitish Rana - highest run-getter in the tournament now - and Kieron Pollard made light work of the target, making it 19 wins for teams batting second in the last 21 matches at Wankhede. Mumbai Indians solidified their lead at the top of the table with four wins in five matches.
Lions did seem to be putting Mumbai into early strife when Rana top-edged Basil Thampi in the second over. However, Jason Roy, replacing Aaron Finch, whose kit didn't make it with the rest of the luggage, dropped the catch, which could have reduced Mumbai to 11 for 2. By the time Rana finally fell, for 53 off 36, Mumbai were well on their way, at 85 for 2 in the 10th over. Pollard, carrying on from his match-winning batting in the previous match, and Rohit Sharma, slowly rediscovering form, saw the hosts through with three balls to spare
McClenaghan and Malinga start Mumbai off
Mitchell McClenaghan hasn't had the best of tournaments, but from the previous match, he seems to have rediscovered his touch. He began with the wicket Dwayne Smith in the first over, and ended up with figures of 2 for 24 in four overs. It was a pitch he loved, giving him purchase if he banged the ball into the pitch. Malinga returned his worst IPL figures, but that took some excellent hitting from McCullum. They bowled two overs each in the Powerplay, which cost Mumbai just 36.
Harbhajan and Krunal go wide
One of the few offspinners doing well in T20 cricket, Harbhajan Singh - 1 for 22 in four overs - extended his dominance over Suresh Raina, and in partnership he and Krunal Pandya stifled Gujarat in the middle overs. The scoreboard will show Harbhajan was slog-swept for two boundaries by McCullum, but they were both hits that went at a catchable height with a deep midwicket in place. McCullum couldn't hit those for usual sixes because the spinners bowled excellent wide lines to both the batsmen, and controlled the amount of turn on the ball.
Raina finally fell to a wide ball from Harbhajan for just 28 off 29. This was the fifth time he had got out to Harbhajan in the IPL, the most against any bowler. Gujarat were now 81 for 1 in the 11th over. A full straight ball from Malinga soon got McCullum when the latter has just begun to look good for a century. Gujarat 99 for in the 14th over.
Mumbai win cat-and-mouse
The fall of Raina brought out Ishan Kishan, and the demise of McCullum send in Karthik. In the dugout sat the big-hitting Roy. Now, on paper Krunal bowled only three overs, but he and Rohit Sharma's canny captaincy had much to do with the absence of Roy for 89% of Gujarat's innings. In T20 cricket in 2016, Roy scored just 14 off 21 balls from left-arm spin and got out twice. Now seeing that Gujarat were not sending out Roy, Rohit held back that over from Krunal, which he eventually didn't even bowl. As a result, though, Roy faced only seven balls, off which he got 14, and Kishan instead faced 14 balls for just 11 runs. Krunal contributed more than just 3-0-18-0.
Gujarat end on a high
Karthik, striking at 145.45 this season, took the slow pitch out of the equation with clean hitting, excellent placement and desperate running in his unbeaten 48 off 26. Two of Karthik's four quickest innings have come this season. This one resulted in 77 off 38 for Gujarat since he came out to bat.
Rana runs away
Benefitting from that drop, Rana displayed his season form again, taking the orange cap from Gautam Gambhir, who had an altercation with the Delhi coach after Rana had been dropped. Rana hit both off the front foot and back, both into the leg side and off, picked the slower balls and used the pace on the quicker ones. With Jos Buttler he added 85 in nine overs, leaving Mumbai with 92 off 64 balls.
Pollard ends it
When Rohit chose to field, he said he was expecting dew to play a part in the last 10 overs of the match. While Buttler fell to a slower short ball after yet another decent start and while Rohit - relieved no doubt that Gujarat didn't have a legspinner, it was Pollard who took the slowness out of the equation, hitting three sixes in his 23-ball 39. Thampi, who had been denied a maiden IPL wicket by that Roy drop, produced a fantastic 18th over of six yorkers for six singles to leave 17 required off two overs. Pollard now took a risk, and was caught at deep midwicket, but Rohit was composed in finishing off with 4, 2 and 2 with eight required in the last over.
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17th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 161/8
RCB 134/9
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 27 runs
Rising Pune Supergiant's middle order froze on sluggish Chinnaswamy surface, losing five wickets for three runs, but their bowlers bailed them out of trouble in emphatic fashion. Their combined effort set a new record for the lowest total defended by a visiting team at this venue in the IPL - 161 - as Royal Challengers Bangalore crumbled to 134 for 9 on a pitch they thought was a belter. But it really wasn't.
Pune understood the surface had become quite slow midway through the first innings. Ben Stokes, who took 3 for 18, said they took that into consideration, concentrated on their changes of pace, and hit a good length which was the hardest to hit. All of that contributed to Pune winning their first IPL game after batting first.
Help yourself
The ball came onto the bat nicely in the early exchanges, and Pune sprinted to 50 for 0 in five overs. Rahul Tripathi regularly hit over the top, while Ajinkya Rahane used the pace and worked the ball square or behind square on both sides of the wicket. For the first time this season, Pune did not lose a wicket in the Powerplay.
Dhoni, Smith don't help themselves
While Rahane and Tripathi enjoyed themselves, Steven Smith and MS Dhoni couldn't. They faced a total of 49 deliveries out of which 22 were dots. The only notable moment of their partnership was Dhoni's six that hit the roof of the stadium. And when it was broken, Pune went from 127 for 2 to 130 for 7.
Smith, struggling to both rotate strike and hit the boundaries, slogged across the line and was bowled. Dhoni fell in much the same way and now he has the lowest strike-rate (87.14) among all batsmen who have faced a minimum of 70 balls this IPL.
Then Adam Milne, playing his first T20 in over a year, took two wickets in two balls and finished with 2 for 27.
Tiwary cleans up the mess
That Pune mustered 161 was largely down to Tiwary's sparkling cameo. He smashed six boundaries in the last two overs, hitting through the line over the off side as opposed to across the line into the leg side. He scored 27 off Pune's last 30 runs and gave the team something to bowl at. Tiwary's strike-rate of 245.45 was his best in an IPL innings of 10 or more balls.
Pune rise again
Shardul Thakur struck in his first over, having Mandeep Singh caught behind for a duck. He found Virat Kohli's edge as well but Tiwary shelled a regulation catch at slip but the RCB captain could not capitalise and was bounced out by Ben Stokes.
Stokes played a key role in AB de Villiers' downfall as well. He along with Dan Christian bowled 15 balls at de Villiers for only six runs, denying the batsman any room to hit through the off side. Perhaps realising he had to get his runs elsewhere, de Villiers tried to target Tahir and was stumped for 29 off 30 balls.
Taking the pace off
Christian, Stokes, Thakur and Jaydev Unadkat all bowled an assortment of slower balls, but the key was their lengths. They tried not to pitch the ball up too much and instead hit the deck as often as they could to exploit natural variation - some balls were misbehaving by keeping low.
Pune also did well by not giving the batsmen any room to work with. And when RCB got desperate for runs, and began swinging wildly, the wickets came. Five out of nine RCB batsmen were bowled going for the slog.
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18th match - Delhi Daredevils v Kolkata Knight Riders
Delhi Daredevils 168/7 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 169/6 (19.5/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 4 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
Kolkata Knight Riders displayed the batting depth that has made them one of the most consistent sides in the IPL, pulling off the highest successful IPL chase for a side losing three wickets in the first three overs. Yusuf Pathan and Manish Pandey rescued them from 21 for 3 with the first century fourth-wicket partnership in the IPL for a team three down for under 25.
The end didn't come without hiccups, though: after Yusuf fell for 59 off 39, leaving Knight Riders 38 to get off 31, Daredevils scrambled hard and brought it down to eight required off three balls, which Pandey managed with one ball to go. That this came on a pitch markedly better for hitting the new ball, and against arguably the best bowling unit of this IPL so far, made it even more special.
Daredevils, the slowest side in the middle overs - seven to 15 - were once again left to rue that slowdown. A blinder from Rishabh Pant - 38 off 16 - gave them a finishing kick, but that only took them to a fighting total.
The Samson slowdown
Sanju Samson is the only man with a century this IPL. Even in that innings, he went through a curious pattern: a flying start of 35 off 19, then only 13 off the next 19, and then the final kick. Once again, the moment spin came on, Samson went from 27 off 12 to just 12 off the next 13 balls. The problem with such slowdowns is, you put yourself under pressure to make up later in the innings, and not always do you get that chance. Here he edged Umesh Yadav, and 36 for 0 in three overs had now become 63 for 2 in 7.5 overs.
The Nair slowdown
Ever since his Test triple-century against England in December, Nair is yet to put together an innings of 30 in any format of official cricket. More than the lack of runs, though, it was his sub-100 strike rate that hurt Daredevils. Even though Shreyas Iyer batted fluently at the other end, the runs just didn't come fast enough for the hosts. Iyer was run out trying to manufacture a second and keep the strike, and Nair just had to hit out and expose his stumps for a 27-ball 21. Daredevils 110 for 4 in 15, having scored just 57 in the last nine, lower than their usual middle-overs rate of 7.22 an over.
The knock
Pant is not just knocking at the door for the Champions Trophy selection. He is thumping at it with a tree trunk. In one of the rare bowling errors from Knight Riders, Umesh Yadav bowled a whole over - 17th - of regulation pace to Pant. The challenger to MS Dhoni's slot in India's limited-overs sides then peppered all boundaries for 6, 4, 6, 6, 4 to consign Umesh to his worst IPL over.
Sunil Narine and Nathan Coulter-Nile, though, followed up with exceptional overs. Narine, who bowled two overs inside the Powerplay for just eight runs, took out Angelo Mathews in the 18th to end up with figures of 4-0-20-1. In the 19th, Coulter-Nile did the opposite of Umesh - bowling slow and away from the batsmen as opposed to fast and within their reach - and took out Pant, and missed out on Chris Morris twice with catches going down. Damage control, though, had been done.
Opening gambit
With most runs expected off the new ball, the first six overs were going to be electric. This was a contest between the fastest batting unit inside Powerplay and the bowling side with the best economy and average inside Powerplays. With the canny Zaheer Khan running his fingers over the seam of the new ball, Knight Riders lost a wicket each in the first three, including that of surprise opener Colin de Grandhomme.
The partnership
It was all Yusuf and Pandey now. Yusuf bolted first, taking on Morris and Pat Cummins, who provided him regulation pace. Then the two targeted Amit Mishra, picked as the only spinner ahead of Shahbaz Nadeem, who has gone at 4.9 an over this IPL. They kept finding the boundary, never letting the asking rate go beyond nine.
The closing gambit
Yusuf, though, fell with the job unfinished. With 34 required to score in the last five, Daredevils managed overs of six, six, six and seven. This was Cummins and Morris with lessons learnt from their earlier mistakes, bowling slower ones repeatedly, one of them getting Suryakumar Yadav caught at mid-off. The last ball of the 19th over was bowled at regulation pace, but it was a yorker, which meant Pandey was off strike at the start of the last over.
Now Zaheer took the gamble. Eight to defend in the last over is not a lot, and with Chris Woakes on strike, Zaheer went to Mishra. Mishra responded beautifully with a flighted wrong'un and legbreak first up. The legbreak got Woakes stumped. Now there was big tension in the dugout. Narine walked out and calmly took a single. It was now down to Pandey to see through what he had started.
Having bowled three flighted deliveries so far, Mishra now fired one in at the sight of a specialist batsman. Pandey was expecting it. He went deep in his crease, and drilled it over long-on. Perhaps Mishra would have been better off keeping it slow because it had become really hard to generate power into shots by now. He didn't, and Pandey was there to cash in.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kings XI Punjab
Sunrisers Hyderabad 159/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 154 (19.4/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 5 runs
Manan Vohra defied a pitch of inconsistent pace and bounce and a situation stacked against his team to produce one of the IPL's great backs-to-the-walls innings. His 95 off 50 balls revived a floundering chase, taking Kings XI Punjab to within 15 runs of victory, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar would ensure he wouldn't be able to finish the match, taking two wickets in the 19th over to finish with 5 for 19.
In the end, neither of them would be involved in what became the nerviest finish of the season. Eleven off six balls usually favours the chasing side, but seldom is a chasing side nine down at that stage. Siddarth Kaul conceded four off the first two legal balls, slipping in two wides, but pulled himself together to send down the perfect yorker with six needed off two. Ishant Sharma couldn't put bat to it, and Sunrisers just about held on to their undefeated home record this season.
Difficult pitch, quiet Powerplay
A pitch full of cracks turned out slower than is usually the case in Hyderabad, with some balls skidding through and others stopping with tennis-ball bounce. Kings XI's seamers looked to exploit this by bowling at the stumps and pitching just short of a good length.
Denied the drive-able ball, the batsmen couldn't play square with too much confidence either - given the line and the tendency of the ball to keep low. Sunrisers only scored 29 in the Powerplay, hitting just one four and losing the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan, caught behind off the glove looking to pull Mohit Sharma.
Warner adapts and prospers
Spin came on for the first time in the seventh over, and David Warner immediately picked up his first boundary with a reverse-sweep off KC Cariappa. In his next over, he switch-hit him for six. By the end of Sunrisers' innings, all but two of Warner's nine boundaries would come behind the wicket.
Wickets kept falling at the other end - Axar Patel dismissed Moises Henriques and Yuvraj Singh off successive balls in the 10th over - but Warner, with a bit of help from Naman Ojha, ensured Sunrisers reached a competitive total. Having scored only 6 off his first 16 balls - all in the Powerplay - Warner went at a strike rate of 168.42 thereafter to finish unbeaten on 70 off 54.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Act 1
Interviewed between innings, VVS Laxman, the Sunrisers mentor, felt 159 was a match-winning total given the conditions and his team's bowling resources. As it happened, it wasn't the pitch that gave Sunrisers an early wicket but Bhuvneshwar's swing and full length, trapping Hashim Amla lbw first ball. Glenn Maxwell promoted himself to No. 3 for the first time this season, and Bhuvneshwar dismissed him as well. This time it was the slower ball, coupled with a change of field - he brought third man into the circle, pushed mid-off back, and Maxwell took him on, unwisely.
Those skiddy Afghan spinners
For the first time this season, Sunrisers were playing both Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan. They bowled expensive first overs - Vohra and Eoin Morgan took 29 off the fifth and sixth overs of the chase - and Warner had to pull both out of the attack. After a quiet over each from Moises Henriques and Kaul, he brought them back.
Nabi struck immediately, bowling Morgan with one that skidded on, and skid would give Rashid two wickets in the next over - bye bye, David Miller and Wriddhiman Saha. Kings XI were 62 for 5 after 10 overs, and an offbreak from Nabi at the start of the next over could have easily had them 62 for 6. Vohra, though, was saved by the umpire Anil Dandekar, who saw or heard an inside edge when there was none. At that stage, he was batting on 32. In the last ball of the same over, Nabi dropped the simplest of return catches off Axar Patel.
Vohra unrolls his own pitch
Even in the early part of his innings, Vohra had timed the ball better than anyone from either side. What he was also doing, better than most batsmen this season, was picking Rashid's googly out of the hand. Having brought up his fifty in the previous over, the 15th, Vohra went after Rashid again, pulling and lofting him for 4, 0, 6, 6, 4. Suddenly, Kings XI only needed 35 from 24 balls.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Act II
Kings XI, however, had already lost six wickets, and they lost a seventh when Mohit Sharma sliced Bhuvneshwar straight to deep point in the 17th over. Two balls later, Vohra timed a back-foot punch so sweetly that he hit it to the same fielder on the full, only for Shikhar Dhawan to drop it. A big six off Kaul in the next over brought the equation down to 16 off the last two, but Bhuvneshwar wasn't done yet.
KC Cariappa, for reasons unknown, decided to slog rather than give Vohra the strike, and Bhuvneshwar went through him with a yorker. Another yorker - or near-yorker - followed when Vohra got back the strike. It struck Vohra on the ankle, on the full, right in front, as he walked across to flick, and Bhuvneshwar had bowled the most important ball of the match.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------20th match - Gujarat Lions v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 213/2 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 192/7 (20/20 ov)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 21 runs
Chris Gayle hadn't made a half-century in 17 T20 innings. His strike rate among openers who had faced a minimum of 50 deliveries prior to this game was the slowest. On Tuesday, a spot opened up after AB de Villiers' late pull-out because of an injury. It meant IPL's most successful opening partnership of Virat Kohli and Gayle were reunited again. With the side desperately needing fresh energy to revive a stalled campaign, Gayle unleashed mayhem - striking 77 off 38 balls - as Royal Challengers posted 213 for 2, the season's highest total, on a slow Rajkot deck.
Then Brendon McCullum came up with an astonishing display of six-hitting in a 44-ball 72 that should have been enough to give Lions victory on most nights. But conceding 35 off the last two overs with the ball - a majority of those plundered by Kedar Jadhav in his unbeaten 16-ball 38 - proved to be the difference as Royal Challengers won by 21 runs and arrested a three-match losing streak to lift themselves off the bottom of the points table.
RCB start steadily
As early as the fifth over, midwicket was in business at least twice, trying to dive forward to try and catch a mistimed flick. On both occasions, the ball skewed off the top part of Kohli's bat. These were early indications that the ball was gripping, which Dhawal Kulkarni, Basil Thampi and Andrew Tye exploited well early on. Lions conceded just 36 in the first five overs, with Gayle and Kohli far from set.
Gayle storm unleashed
The template was set: bowl slower through the air and get the batsmen to force the pace. Royal Challengers had two left-handers in the top six. Gayle is a slow starter against spin and on a slow surface where shot-making wasn't as easy as he later made it out to be, he had to content with Ravindra Jadeja as early as the sixth over.
Jadeja started off by conceding just nine, but deviated from the template in his next over by bowling full, fast and straight. It was the fodder Gayle needed to swing through cleanly: he muscled two fours and two sixes in a 21-run over. One of those sixes could've been out had Brendon McCullum's hat not been in contact with the rope as he flung himself across to take a catch at wide long-off. Gayle raced to a 23-ball 50 courtesy three fours and five monstrous sixes to turn a steady start into a spectacular one.
Kohli, the accumulator
Kohli's timing seemed off initially. This was no surface to punch through the line, so he tried to charge down the pitch and was beaten in trying to hit out. But the three successive boundaries he hit off Dhawal Kulkarni in the third over - to full deliveries - got him going.
Having watched Gayle return to form, Kohli took over after Thampi ended a 122-run opening stand in the 13th over. Signs of recovery from a shoulder injury were evident as he swiveled and pulled without discomfort to bring up a half-century. It helped that Travis Head, replacing Samuel Badree, didn't take long to settle in and finished with a 16-ball 30 not out. Kohli eventually fell to a slower delivery for 64, attempting a heave on the leg side.
Jadhav thrives in finishers' role
Kedar Jadhav showed how much his T20 game has improved since the 2016 season, where he played just four games. His anticipation, particularly to Tye's slower deliveries and Jadeja's darts, were particularly impressive. He hit two sixes and four fours in the last two overs, in which Royal Challengers smashed 35. The final over that went for 17 resulted in Jadeja finishing with 4-0-57-0, his most-expensive T20 figures.
Negi's flight, McCullum's fury
Royal Challengers started with spin and had Dwayne Smith and Suresh Raina out early inside four overs. Left with no choice but to play just one way, McCullum found his hitting range against in Pawan Negi's second over. He raced to a 30-ball 50, but the pressure brought on by dot balls resulted in the wickets of Aaron Finch and Dinesh Karthik in the space of eight deliveries to set Lions back. Negi continued to trust his weapon - flight - and deceived Finch as Jadhav effected a smart stumping. He followed that up by conceding just one in his next over - to leave Lions needing 107 off eight overs. Under the circumstances, Negi's figures of 4-0-21-1 were gold.
Chahal's guile seals it
With McCullum repeatedly favouring the leg side, Chahal threw the ball up outside off and induced a slog sweep that was pouched at deep square leg in his last over. The timing of that wicket - with Lions needing 77 off 32 balls - was significant given Shane Watson and Adam Milne's five overs had cost 63. With Negi bowled out, Kohli had to turn to one of them or S Aravind in the end-overs. McCullum's wicket, however, took the fizz out of the chase. By making 39 off just 16 balls, Ishan Kishan made his case to be promoted, perhaps even as opener in place of Dwayne Smith, once Dwayne Bravo returns from injury.
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21st match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Delhi Daredevils
Sunrisers Hyderabad 191/4
Delhi Daredevils 176/5
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 15 runs
Kane Williamson, playing his first match of the season, made an imperious 89 off 51 balls and propelled Sunrisers Hyderabad to their fourth win in four home matches.
Williamson was named New Zealand's T20 international player of the year last month and yet he could not break into Sunrisers' XI until their sixth game. This was probably because his record in the IPL doesn't match up to his usual standards. Before today, Williamson had only one six in eight innings. On Wednesday, he hit five times as many on a used pitch to lead Sunrisers to 191 for 4.
Delhi Daredevils put up a good fight, led by Shreyas Iyer 's riveting 50 off 31 balls with five fours and two sixes. But even he could do little against an equation that eventually read 24 off the last over. Siddharth Kaul was asked to finish the match off but he was smacked for six second ball. The seamer recovered by bowling two dots and getting rid of Angelo Mathews to seal a 15-run win.
Dealing with a two-paced pitch
On a track where some balls stopped on the batsmen while others skidded on, run-scoring was not easy. David Warner was dismissed for his first single-digit score in 19 T20 innings as a bouncer from Chris Morris came on slower than he expected. Jayant Yadav's accurate non-turning offbreaks gave Sunrisers no breathing space at the other end. They managed only 39 for 1 in the first six overs.
The enforcer
Williamson, coming in place of Mohammad Nabi, became handy for Sunrisers. After getting set, he smashed back-to-back sixes off Mathews and began changing the pace of the game. Suddenly, Sunrisers had hustled 52 in five overs between the seventh and the 11th.
Williamson raised his second IPL fifty off 33 balls and surged into top gear. He took legspinner Amit Mishra for 21 runs off nine balls. He exploited any gap the Daredevils left unprotected. In the ninth over, seeing Zaheer Khan posting his boundary riders on the off side and leaving fine leg up, he walked across his stumps and scooped the ball away.
The anchor
Shikhar Dhawan, having hit the first ball of the match for four, was happy in Williamson's slipstream. Together they put on Sunrisers 10th century partnership - and the first not involving Warner. Only after the stand was broken did he try something fancy. A full delivery from Mathews in the 18th over was almost helicoptered over the midwicket boundary. Just as he looked set to bat through the innings though, Morris dismissed him for 70 off 50 balls. It was Dhawan's third-highest score for Sunrisers in the IPL.
Samson, Nair set Delhi up
Mohammad Siraj, playing his first IPL match, got lucky when Sam Billings chipped a leg-stump half-volley straight to short midwicket. Sanju Samson and Karun Nair, however, showed him no such mercy. Samson picked up a length ball and flicked it with the angle over the long-on boundary, while Nair drove a wide half-volley through the covers. He then reached his first 30-plus score in 15 innings across all formats, since the triple-century in Chennai, when he launched Moises Henriques over long-off for a six. By then, Daredevils were 80 for 1 in nine overs.
The slowdown
Sunrisers then prised out two wickets from nowhere. Vijay Shankar, the substitute fielder, speared a flat throw from long-on to run Nair out for 33. Rishabh Pant then wasted his promotion to No. 4, hoicking a Yuvraj Singh full ball from outside off to long-on. Only 18 runs came off the next three overs as the asking rate ballooned past 12. Samson attempted to prick the balloon, but only skewed a slower ball from Siraj to cover.
Iyer's late rearguard
Daredevils' hope rested in Iyer now and he fanned them with two sixes off legspinner Rashid Khan. Angelo Mathews, sent ahead of the in-form Morris, was able to keep a decent tempo as well as the two batsmen hit at least one boundary per over in the last five.
Sunrisers might have been worried when Kaul conceded 13 off the 18th over and Iyer carved a reverse-swinging yorker from Bhuvneshwar for a four. But Kaul bounced back in the last over to hand Daredevils their third defeat.
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22nd match - Kings XI Punjab v Mumbai Indians
Kings XI Punjab 198/4 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 199/2 (15.3/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 8 wickets (with 27 balls remaining)
In the best batting conditions of the IPL, Mumbai Indians coasted to their highest successful IPL chase to reclaim their spot atop the points table. A target of 199 should have been more daunting but such was their dominance that by the 15th over of the innings, the required rate was 1.6. All of that meant Hashim Amla's maiden T20 hundred, 60-ball 104 stocked with elegance and grace, was in vain. It was also the highest successful chase this season.
Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana struck authoritative fifties in Mumbai's chase after Parthiv Patel's 18-ball 37. Buttler found form with a brutish display of power hitting, hammering seven fours and five sixes. Rana saw no need to keep the ball along the ground, striking seven sixes in his unbeaten 62, taking his top spot back at the top of this season's run-making charts.
T20 batting, a pleasant sight again
Occasionally, T20s are stripped of some of the simple joys of cricket, such as timing or technically-equipped batsmen building an innings. Kings XI have not lacked either. Manan Vohra's replacement, Shaun Marsh, and Amla are arguably the most pleasant opening pair in this IPL. They immediately showed why.
Marsh's delectable cuts, drives and pulls were matched by Amla's beautiful wrists and timing. They raced to 46 before Marsh played his worst stroke - a flick he tried to muscle, instead of relying on his timing.
Saha's sacrifice
Wriddhiman Saha had laboured to 11 off 14 balls, struggling for fluency. Although his strike rate was lofty, Amla was set on anchoring the innings. Kings XI's run rate was approaching seven. With plenty of batting resources to come and the chance of a middle-overs collapse relatively low, Saha decided to attack. It didn't come off - he was bowled off Krunal Pandya, but he allowed more able hitters to use a strong platform. Glenn Maxwell did, thwacking an 18-ball 40, making full use of the second half of the innings.
Malinga v Amla
Lasith Malinga is Mumbai's slog-overs specialist. Amla is Kings XI's most equipped batsman to handle Malinga's variations. Both teams needed their gun overseas players to break the game open. Malinga, though, missed his length too often; his slower balls landed on a full length and skidded onto the bat. Amla wasn't funky, he stuck to his strengths.
When Malinga bowled at the stumps, Amla hit straight and met the ball at different angles to pick different gaps. When the line was wayward, Amla could use the cross bat without risk. Malinga went for 58 - his most expensive IPL returns. Amla alone took him for 51 of those, the second-most against a bowler in the IPL.
Using the best conditions
The reason M Chinnaswamy Stadium was a favourable chasing ground last season wasn't just the small boundary dimensions, but also the nature of the surface - even pace and bounce without much turn. Batsmen can hit through the line, and mis-hits take the ball over the boundary. The Holkar Cricket Stadium is the closest resemblance to those characteristics this season.
Despite Kings XI putting up 198, all Mumbai needed was a strong start to keep the asking rate in check. Their openers - Buttler and Parthiv - took it a step further, plundering 82 in the Powerplay. There were 14 boundaries and just six balls not scored off, the second-lowest in IPL history.
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23rd match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Gujarat Lions
Kolkata Knight Riders 187/5 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 188/6 (18.2/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions won by 4 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Suresh Raina displayed all the elements that have made him a T20 stalwart - strong bottom hand, powerful wrists, tactful strike-rotation, fierce ball-striking and handy offspin - to eke out a four-wicket win that breathed life into Gujarat Lions' campaign. Their second win in six games temporarily lifted them off the bottom of the table. But this was no walk in the park as the scorecard suggests.
Walking in at No. 3, he watched Brendon McCullum, Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Smith and Ishan Kishan fall. The Yadavs - Kuldeep and Umesh - had the batsmen tied in knots with flight and reverse swing respectively. At 115 for 5, Lions were far from ahead in a chase of 189. But Raina held his shape, backed himself to bring out the big hits on demand and single-handedly razed down the target. He fell with Lions needing eight, but Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner completed the formalities with 10 balls to spare.
Narine gamble pays off
Sunil Narine proved his promotion up the order was a calculated gamble that paid off. Swinging through the line to length deliveries from Praveen Kumar and Faulkner, he smashed seven boundaries in 12 deliveries. Then in the third, Basil Thampi came in for similar treatment off length deliveries as Kolkata Knight Riders raced to 44 without loss in three overs. It needed Raina's introduction that took the pace off to break the stand as Narine toe-ended a slog to wide mid-on. By making 42 off 17 deliveries - his highest T20 score and most runs made by a batsman in boundaries at the IPL - he'd left a platform for the in-form Robin Uthappa and Manish Pandey to build on.
Uthappa-Gambhir consolidate
Mixing brute force - particularly on the pull - and fineness to ride the bounce and bring his deft touches to the fore against spin, Uthappa ensured the momentum given by Narine was sustained beyond the halfway mark. He was ably assisted by Gambhir as the pair turned focus on strike rotation.
Their game awareness against the slower bowlers - their 11 singles in 12 deliveries off Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Smith - stood out. But the moment Jadeja erred by bowling flat, Gambhir swung through to hit his first six this season. It was the lack of pace that eventually got Gambhir, who top-edged a pull to Raina at midwicket. At 114 for 2 in the 12th over, Lions were staring at 200 plus. Uthappa's half-century made it tougher for Lions, but they found a way through. Thampi's toe-crushers
Against Uthappa and a batsman in the form of his life, like Manish Pandey has been in, and striking at close to 150, Lions needed a mighty effort to restrict Knight Riders to fewer than 200. By conceding just four boundaries in five overs after Gambhir's dismissal, Lions had done well to pull things back. Knight Riders were still handily placed at 149 for 2 halfway through the 17th over. Faulkner had bowled out, and it was more than likely one of Praveen or Thampi had to complete their quota. Raina went with the bowler who has pace.
The first two deliveries were smashed for 10, but Thampi held his own and speared in a yorker from wide of the crease. He nailed Uthappa in front of middle, but wasn't given by umpire Nitin Menon. He came back in to bowl three more yorkers, the last one angling into Pandey's toes as he backed away to swing. It shaved past leg stump. Having been unlucky in three tries, he finally had luck smiling on him as he rattled all three stumps of Pandey in the next over with an inswinging yorker. He finished with 4-0-44-1, but his ability to bowl yorkers at will stood out.
Finch-McCullum charge puts Lions ahead
McCullum had been dismissed 20 times by a left-arm spinner, the most for an IPL batsman. Knight Riders perhaps picked Shakib Al Hasan precisely for this and opened with him. But McCullum turbocharged to a 17-ball 33, while Finch swung his way to 31 as Lions raced to 61 for 1, ahead by 21 ahead on the Duckworth-Lewis method when a steady downpour halted play. When the match resumed, Knight Riders didn't just have to contend with the in-form McCullum but also a greasy outfield, but had two big strikes in successive overs. McCullum flayed a length ball to deep cover in the sixth, while Dinesh Karthik was deceived by a Chris Woakes delivery that gripped to take the leading edge to Gambhir at cover.
Yadavs pull things back
Kuldeep Yadav is a brave spinner. Not even the threat of two muscular batsmen looking to give him the charge deters him from tossing up the ball. He relies on dip and revs on the ball, and tied Ishan Kishan into knots with a string of dot balls. Ten deliveries had fetched four. Raina was fluent, but by blocking one end and escalating the asking rate, the onus was on Kishan to see it through. Instead he tried to play a slog sweep and holed out to deep square leg . Then off the next, Umesh Yadav, held back until the 13th over, got a full delivery to tail back and sneak through Dwayne Smith's defense. At 115 for 5, Lions needed a lower-order coup.
Raina in top gear
Raina has captained Kuldeep at Uttar Pradesh. But that the 20-year old found a way to nearly fox his captain was noteworthy. But luck was on Raina's side as he played for the turn to a delivery that skidded back in to get a thick inside edge that shaved past leg stump. Up on 45 then, he went on to add 39 more to effectively close out the chase. Jadeja's unbeaten 19 lent the finishing touches.
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24th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 176/3
Rising Pune Supergiant 179/4
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 6 wickets (with 0 balls remaining)
The finisher is not finished yet. MS Dhoni struck a 34-ball 61 to help clean up some of the mess he himself created as Rising Pune Supergiant chased down 177 with a last-ball boundary. Dhoni's slow start of 26 off 23 balls had converted an equation of 90 off 55 into 47 off 18, but he took out the best bowler of the tournament, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, in an almighty assault of 35 runs off his last 11 balls to seal the win.
Before Saturday, Sunrisers Hyderabad had lost only two of the 12 matches in which they made 175 or more. On Saturday, though, they huffed and puffed on a flat pitch, without the services of Ashish Nehra and Mustafizur Rahman, but it wasn't enough. The fielding didn't help - they dropped Rahul Tripathi on 17, who then made 59, Manoj Tiwary too was given a life in a tense final. That Sunrisers had something to bowl at was thanks to Moises Henriques' 28-ball 55. This loss was as much because of their fielding as their batting before Henriques.
Dhawan-Warner go-slow
Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner are the two slowest openers of this season. They are also the slowest partnership, and as a result, their side has been the second-slowest in Powerplays. While Dhawan's strike rate of 118 is more in keeping with his career stats, Warner struggled uncharacteristically as Sunrisers crawled to 55 for 1 in 8.1 overs, with Dhawan top-edging the first ball Imran Tahir bowled.
Kane Williamson took risks to try to correct the rate, and was lbw to Dan Christian after walking too far across. Christian's miserly spell continued, going for just 20 in four overs, as Sunrisers, the best side in the middle overs this year, managed only 68 runs between the sixth and the 15th to be reduced to 113 for 2.
Moises mayhem
Even as Warner failed to convert a slow start, Henriques unleashed his array of strokes, mostly over midwicket or through point. He scored 34 runs off the last 14 balls he faced as Rising Pune lived up to their reputation of being the worst side at the death, conceding 63 off the last 30 balls, which is worse than their tournament average so far.
Bipul and Rashid v Tripathi and Smith
Bipul Sharma replaced the unwell Yuvraj Singh in the Sunrisers XI. He had bowled only 21 overs in his last 10 matches for them, but in Pune he took the new ball and shackled the openers. He bowled nothing in their swinging arc, and gave them no pace to work with. Ajinkya Rahane fell prey to him, but Tripathi managed to find a way around him, hitting the quicks away, especially Mohammed Siraj, off whose bowling he was dropped, and Siddarth Kaul. Against spin he scored 17 off 18, and against pace he managed 42 off 23.
At the other end, Smith too struggled with the lack of pace from Bipul, but finally in the 10th over, Bipul's last, he delayed his bat swing and slogged him for back-to-back sixes. That rearranged the left-arm spinner's figures to 4-0-30-1 and brought the asking rate down to 9.4.
Just before that, Rashid Khan did something not many can claim to have done: he bowled a wrong'un that Smith didn't pick and beat the batsman comprehensively. Now perhaps in the 11th over Smith picked it, or perhaps he read it off the hand, but he went back to cut, and inside-edged the googly onto his pad and then onto the stumps. Smith was livid with himself as he walked off. Out walked Dhoni, his strike rate under 100 this season, and ahead of Ben Stokes, Manoj Tiwary and Christian.
Ever since Dhoni's last-ball win for Pune against Kings XI Punjab last year, no chasing side had won a match off the last ball in the IPL. Surely Dhoni didn't want to take this to the last ball but he can't help himself, can he? At the presentation, he said he wanted to see Rashid off without further damage because the ground was small and the asking rate could be managed. But as well as he prodded and nudged, Rashid struck with his electric fielding to run Tripathi out off his own bowling.
Rashid was done, with 17 runs off his four overs, and the required rate was above 12 for the last six overs, but Dhoni still struggled to find his range. Siraj, bowling the 16th over, tied him and Stokes down with yorkers, and even beat Dhoni for pace. Dhoni 21 off 19, and 56 required off four overs.
On came Bhuvneshwar, for overs 17 and 19, and removed Stokes with the first ball he bowled, and the equation went up to 47 off 18. Dhoni now picked on the rookie Siraj, dropping a slower ball over long-on and upper-cutting a slower bouncer over point. With 30 required off two, Dhoni still needed to take another bowler down, and he couldn't have left it for the last over.
Bhuvneshwar, Dhoni's favourite bowler when he was India captain, had not conceded 10 runs in any of his death overs this IPL. But Dhoni got stuck into his protégé as Bhuvneshwar kept missing his line or length by inches. A border-line wide first up, followed by a squirt for a four to leg, then a lofted drive over point, and finally the helicopter shot that sent everyone into frenzy.
There were now only 10 runs to defend and youngster Kaul was given the last over. He should have had Manoj Tiwary, who had done his job so far, caught first ball. What looked like a six had got caught up in the wind, but the fielder Rashid couldn't control it inside the midwicket boundary. Kaul followed it up with four really good deliveries to bring it to two required off the last over. He continued what he had been doing - yorkers from round the wicket - but missed his length, and Dhoni drove him through extra cover for four.
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25th match - Mumbai Indians v Delhi Daredevils
Mumbai Indians 142/8
Delhi Daredevils 128/7
Mumbai Indians won by 14 runs
Batting first for the first time in six matches, Mumbai Indians never really got going on a bouncy Wankhede Stadium pitch that also provided grip for spin and cutters, and only managed a total of 142. It turned out, however, to be more than enough to give them their sixth win in seven matches and strengthen their position on top of the IPL table.
A couple of early wickets put an inexperienced Daredevils batting line-up under pressure, and the top half fell away in no time. They lost five wickets inside the Powerplay and another in the seventh over to slip to 24 for 6. A seventh-wicket stand of 91 between Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris ensured Daredevils stayed in contention, but some smart end-overs bowling from Jasprit Bumrah ensured the target remained a fair way out of their reach.
With Daredevils needing 46 from 24 balls, Bumrah conceded only four runs from the 17th over, and, after Morris had clattered a big six off the last ball of Mitchell McClenaghan's 18th to bring it down to 30 off 12, came back to concede only five off the 19th while taking out Rabada with a yorker.
It left Hardik Pandya 24 to defend off the last over - he landed his wide yorkers there or thereabouts, and Morris and Pat Cummins could only manage 10.
Daredevils chip away after Buttler blitz
Jos Buttler's 28 off 18 balls wasn't the biggest innings and was definitely not the prettiest - his first two boundaries, off Morris, both came off the top edge - but it ensured Mumbai had some momentum through the Powerplay. They lost two wickets in those six overs - Rabada, making his IPL debut, yorked Parthiv Patel, and the fleet-footed Sanju Samson ran out Buttler - but also scored 48.
Daredevils had picked perhaps their strongest attack - with Rabada joining Morris, Cummins, Zaheer Khan and Amit Mishra - and the tactic continued to pay off. Mumbai were five down by the end of the 13th over, with Mishra's googly accounting for Rohit Sharma and Krunal Pandya. There was plenty of turn on offer, and Kieron Pollard, in particular was struggling against him - at the end of the 13th, he was batting on 4 off 13 balls.
Mumbai patchy in slog overs
Pollard clubbed three fours in the next two overs, and Mumbai were 102 for 5 after 15.
Before this match, Daredevils boasted the best economy rate in the last five overs (7.71), and Mumbai the best batting run rate (12.26). Mumbai would score 40 in their last five in this game. Cummins, Morris and Rabada varied their pace well, and either bowled short of a good length and into the body, or pitched it right up. Hardik Pandya hit two sixes, off what were probably the only two balls that were really in his hitting zone in his 23-ball innings. In an effort to keep Hardik on strike with only the lower order for company in the last two overs, Mumbai suffered two run-outs too.
McClenaghan revels as Daredevils stumble
Daredevils had fit Rabada, Morris, Cummins and Corey Anderson into their side, which meant no place for Sam Billings at the top of the order. Sanju Samson, Aditya Tare, Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer made up Daredevils' top four - plenty of talent but not a whole lot of experience at the top level.
An attempt at a chancy single led to Tare's dismissal off the fourth ball of Daredevils' innings, and when Samson drove McClenaghan uppishly and straight to mid-off in the next over, uncertainty gripped their batting. Iyer, shuffling this way and that, seemed a little off with his timing and McClenaghan dismissed him in his next over off a tickle down the leg side. A bit of skid into Anderson and McClenaghan had three in two overs.
Karun Nair, struggling for form all through the season, played out a nervy maiden off the next over, failing to get to grips with Mitchell Johnson's pace variations. Then Mumbai struck two more times - Rishabh Pant poked uncertainly at Bumrah and edged to slip, and Nair, feet going nowhere, chopped Hardik on.
Morris, Rabada save face
Rabada had been promoted to No. 7, above Morris, and he showed both technique and an ability to hit cleanly down the ground while dominating the early part of the seventh-wicket partnership. Once they spent a few overs at the crease, the smallness of the target became apparent again. With five overs remaining, Daredevils needed 52. You would usually favour the batting team in those circumstances, but not a batting team that had lost so many early wickets.
McClenaghan and Bumrah, moreover, had two more overs to get through each. McClenaghan mixed slower short balls with quick short balls, and Bumrah, generally aiming fuller, varied his pace just as well. Rabada's limitations as a T20 hitter quickly became apparent, and there wasn't much Morris could do either. Daredevils only managed 27 off McClenaghan and Bumrah's 24 end-overs deliveries.
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26th match - Gujarat Lions v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 188/7 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 162/7 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 26 runs
Kings XI Punjab won the critical moments of a T20, with both bat and ball, to record only the 11th instance of a team successfully defending a total in 26 matches this IPL. They got to 188 with Hashim Amla following up a century in his previous game with a 40-ball 65 that was also filled with sparkling strokeplay. Then Axar Patel smashed 34 off 17 balls in the death, complemented that by picking up two crucial wickets and eventually made sure Kings XI had their first win after batting first in this IPL.
Dinesh Karthik struck a gritty, unbeaten 58 but it was in vain as the Kings XI bowlers had solid plans and executed them as well as they could have hoped. KC Cariappa concentrated on bowling wicket to wicket and spinning the ball away from both left and right-handers. Mohit Sharma's back-of-the-hand slower balls found purchase on a pitch that got slower as the match progressed. And together they picked up three wickets in eight overs, giving away only 49 runs.
An approach to keep going
In their last match against Mumbai Indians, Kings XI scored 198 and lost with 27 balls to spare. Early signs in Rajkot indicated the pitch was just as good for batting and the boundaries were also pulled in.
Amla laid down anchor, but was still scoring at a strike-rate in excess of 150. Shaun Marsh was brash in his approach, looking to find the boundary with almost every ball. Kings XI's desire for a massive total was evident in their high-risk batting in the middle overs. Glenn Maxwell chose to sweep and reverse sweep Ravindra Jadeja - he was lbw after missing a reverse lap - soon after Amla's wicket.
A proper cameo
Axar has shown impressive hitting ability in this IPL already. So, it wasn't a surprise when he was promoted ahead of Wriddhiman Saha in the closing overs. Sticking to his strengths, he was particularly productive in the arc between long-off and midwicket. He smashed Dwayne Smith for two sixes and a four in the penultimate over to turn his 18 off 13 balls into 34 off 17.
No benefit of doubt in soft signals
The soft signal from an on-field umpire is a crucial call because the third umpire cannot overrule that decision until he has clear and conclusive evidence against it.
When Aaron Finch drove Mohit Sharma low to cover, Marcus Stoinis felt he had taken the catch but wasn't entirely sure. If there was any doubt, the soft signal should have been not out, but umpire Anil Chaudhary seemed confident it had carried, despite the fielder's hesitation. Replays, like they usually are for such decisions, were inconclusive, which meant the third umpire had no grounds to overturn the decision.
Chipping catches and lackadaisical lbws
Chases in excess of 180 are hard enough without losing early wickets and Lions lost some playing pretty sloppily. Brendon McCullum was lbw to a full toss from Sandeep Sharma. Then, Suresh Raina pulled Axar to deep midwicket. He didn't go through with his stroke nor did he keep it down. Dwayne Smith, too, mis-timed a lofted drive to long-off.
The chances of success for the strokes Raina and Smith played were considerably low. They didn't try to place the ball either side of the fielder, disallowing themselves a fail-safe if their shots were mis-timed. Lions' best resources were wastefully spent and there was no coming back.
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27th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Kolkata Knight Riders 131 (19.3/20 ov)
RCB 49 (9.4/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 82 runs
One hundred and thirty-two runs. That's all Royal Challengers Bangalore needed. A little over 13 runs per wicket, only 6.6 runs an over, with Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their side. Against quality pace bowling led by the astute Gautam Gambhir, the most glittering batting line-up in Twenty20 cricket sensationally collapsed to 49 all out, the lowest score in the IPL and the 10th-lowest in all Twenty20 cricket. Not one man reached double figutes. This was only the 10th time in the IPL that a total of 131 or under was defended successfully.
At the halfway mark, Kolkata Knight Riders felt they were about 50 short of the par score, especially after the start Sunil Narine had given them: a 17-ball 34 in the fastest team fifty this IPL. They had collapsed 65 for 1 to be bowled out only for the third time when batting first in IPL. That fall couldn't hold a candle to Royal Challengers, though, who batted with their edges, starting with a golden duck for captain Virat Kohli.
Nathan Coulter-Nile began the slide with the wickets of Kohli, AB de Villiers and Kedar Jadhav in his first three overs, and then Chris Woakes and Colin de Grandhomme feasted on the carcass, taking three wickets each. With Umesh Yadav taking the other wicket, this was the fifth time all 10 wickets had fallen to pace in the IPL.
Trini Posse
At the toss, Kohli said he expected the pitch to be a little tacky, and thus helpful to seam, after rain last night and a delayed start because of more rain. However, he opened with his trusted legspinner Samuel Badree, who has for long been one of the best T20 new-ball bowlers. Fellow Trinidadian, Narine, played him like a man who knows him inside out. Immediately he played him like a slow seam bowler angling the ball away from him as opposed to bring it back in. 4, 4, 6, 4 in the first over, and Knight Riders had their most productive first over since 2013. Narine continuing punishing Sreenath Aravind, who had a decent Powerplay economy rate of 7.32, in the third over.
Mills, Binny strike
The Narine onslaught forced Kohli to bowl half of Tymal Mills' quota in the first four overs. It also meant Kohli had to hold back his two other big bowlers, legspinners Badree and Yuzvendra Chahal. Mills responded, though, hitting Gambhir's thumb on the way to Jadhav in the fourth over. A slower short ball in the fifth over accounted for Narine,
Legspinners come back
In the last match at Eden Gardens, Knight Riders posted 187, and lost with 10 balls to spare. They must have been under extra pressure now to get a total that was Gayle-Kohli-de-Villiers-proof, which is perhaps why they kept going after the legspinners. Badree and especially Chahal loved it. Robin Uthappa fell playing Badree across the line, Yusuf Pathan was stumped down the leg side off Chahal, de Grandhomme skipped out and edged Chahal to slip, and Manish Pandey flicked a Chahal full toss to midwicket. The real show, though, was yet to begin.
Pace like fire
Going into the chase, Royal Challengers might have thought of getting a big net run rate bonus here. Small ground, quick outfield, a paltry total to chase, with explosive batsmen in the shed, this was fertile ground for a quick finish and big momentum.
Gambhir, on the other hand, walked out like a desperate nothing-to-lose Tony Montana from Scarface. He had his helmet on, and he asked Royal Challengers to say hello to his little friend: raw pace and upright seam. A pumped-up Coulter-Nile began with a massive no-ball, but he hit Gayle on the shoulder on the free hit. And when Kohli faced first up, Gambhir had a second slip in place, which is where the edge to the outswinger went.
At the other end, Umesh was cut straight to point by Mandeep Singh, who had moved ahead of de Villiers in the order. The strategy for de Villiers this season has been to give him no room, doing which Knight Riders conceded two early boundaries, but a sharp bouncer from Coulter-Nile drew the fatal top edge on the hook from well outside off.
Towards the end of the fourth over, Gambhir was seen gesturing towards fine leg. He wanted one more from Coulter-Nile, who came back and accounted for Jadhav with the first ball of his third over. Gambhir also knew that Gayle was not enjoying the pace, and he kept peppering him with the pace of Umesh.
Gambhir then overlooked Sunil Narine and Kuldeep Yadav, who many might have thought were the key now, with the score 39 for 4 after six overs and with Gayle on seven off 15. He went to Woakes, who was not going to pitch anything in Gayle's half, even if it meant bowling a wide. That wide out of the way, perhaps Gayle felt there would be no more short balls in the over, but Woakes still bounced him, handcuffing his attempt at a big shot, and having him caught at cover. The rest was just a procession.
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28th match - Mumbai Indians v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 160/6 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 157/8 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 3 runs
A spell of clever pace and length variations from Ben Stokes, which included a wicket-maiden and a tight, match-turning 19th over, helped Rising Pune Supergiant halt Mumbai Indians' six-match winning streak and complete the double against their cross-expressway rivals.
On a slower-than-usual Wankhede Stadium pitch, Rising Pune fell away after a promising start to post a middling total of 160, but managed to defend it against the season's best chasing side. Before today, Mumbai had batted second five times and won on each occasion.
This time, they fell four short of their target, after Rohit Sharma brought them within striking distance with his first half-century of the season. By conceding only seven off the 19th over, Stokes left Mumbai needing 17 off the last over.
Rohit swung Jaydev Unadkat for six second ball, but the left-arm seamer stuck to his guns of bowling slower balls wide of off stump. Rohit left one, hoping it would be called wide, but he had jumped a long way across, premeditatedly, and umpire S Ravi declined to do so. Having argued his point between deliveries, Rohit got back on strike and holed out, miscuing another slower one.
With Mumbai needing 11 off two, Unadkat only conceded one off the fifth ball - Mitchell McClenaghan run-out at the non-striker's end trying to steal a second - rendering a last-ball six from Harbhajan Singh largely meaningless.
Tripathi, Rahane make bright start
Given Mumbai's chasing record, Rohit Sharma had no hesitation in bowling first. The pitch seemed fairly typical early on, with the ball coming on nicely, and boundaries flowed frequently through and over the Powerplay fields. Rahul Tripathi and Ajinkya Rahane moved Rising Pune to 48 for 0 by the end of the Powerplay, and eventually added 76 in 9.2 overs, falling just two short of their team's best-ever opening stand.
Karn, Harbhajan begin Mumbai comeback
An unspecified injury - Rohit did not elaborate on its nature at the toss - had ruled Krunal Pandya out, and in his place Mumbai played an almost like-for-like replacement, the legspinning allrounder Karn Sharma. Karn's first two overs - both bowled in the Powerplay - went for 17, but in his third over he got a googly to rear up at Rahane, who offered up a simple return catch. In his next over, Tripathi holed out.
Harbhajan Singh, meanwhile, had bowled three overs at the other end without conceding a boundary. In his fourth, he gave Mumbai their most yearned-for breakthrough. Steven Smith, failing to spot a drop in pace from the offspinner, played all around him and became his 200th T20 victim.
Mumbai's fast bowlers used the slower one just as well; like Smith, Stokes and MS Dhoni were also bowled playing across the line. Apart from a 13-ball 22 from Manoj Tiwary, there was no middle- or lower-order spark from Pune, and they eventually only managed 60 in their last eight overs.
Stokes gets Buttler
Just like Pune's openers, Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel enjoyed batting against the hard, new ball. Five fours in the space of eight balls lifted Mumbai to 27 for 0 after three overs.
Stokes came on to bowl the fifth over and took only two balls to deliver the breakthrough. Buttler was looking to make room to slap over the bowler's head or over mid-off; Stokes sent down the slower ball, forcing him to drag it further into the on side than he would have wanted, straight to the man at long-on.
Mumbai's left-hander strategy backfires
With Nitish Rana joining fellow left-hander Parthiv, Pune replaced Stokes with the offspin of Washington Sundar, who had delivered one tight over and one expensive over in the Powerplay. He responded by conceding only six runs in the seventh over. Smith kept him in the attack even after Rana fell to a Daniel Christian slower ball. Washington kept denying Parthiv room, and bowled him with his last ball as he tried to cut him off the stumps. The score now read 60 for 3 in nine overs
By bowling Washington out so early, Pune had been able to delay the introduction of Imran Tahir, and time it to coincide with the arrival of Rohit, who has had issues with wristspin through the season. As a counter-measure, Mumbai promoted Karn, another left-hander - he hit one six off Tahir before Stokes returned in the 13th over and bowled him with - surprise, surprise - the slower ball.
Stokes tilts the seesaw
At this point, Mumbai needed 75 off 47 balls. Rohit kept them in touch with the asking rate, clubbing and slog-sweeping Tahir for four and six in the 14th over, and picked up a boundary each off Stokes and Shardul Thakur in the 15th and 16th. Tahir's dismissal of Kieron Pollard, caught at long-off, left Mumbai needing 39 from 23.
It was doable with Rohit at the crease, particularly when he had Hardik Pandya for company. Before today, Mumbai's run rate in the last five overs while chasing - 12.11 - was the best in the league, and Hardik, in that phase, had scored 46 off 21 without once being dismissed. Rohit brought up his fifty in the 18th over, and Hardik spanked Unadkat for successive fours immediately afterwards, leaving Mumbai needing 24 off the last two overs.
Stokes, though, still had an over left to bowl. This one would be full of yorkers, with a couple of slower offcutters thrown in for variety. Neither Rohit nor Hardik was able to get underneath his deliveries, and only seven came off the over.
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29th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Sunrisers Hyderabad
Match abandoned without a ball bowled
On the heels of collapsing for the lowest total in IPL history, Royal Challengers Bangalore had to endure a washout at home, putting their hopes of making the playoffs in jeopardy.
They have only two wins from eight matches so far and might have to win each of their next six games to be among the top four on the points table. Should they pull off such a streak, they will have 17 points. Only four times in the IPL's past nine years have teams got through to the final four with less than 16 points.
Sunrisers Hyderabad, on the other hand, are already at third place, might well have enjoyed having an extra night off during a tournament so hectic. The weather soured approximately an hour and a half before the toss and though it was only a drizzle for the most part, it was persistent. The umpires finally called the game off at 11 pm, which meant David Warner's men continue searching for their first win away from home in 2017.
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30th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Kolkata Knight Riders
Rising Pune Supergiant 182/5 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 184/3 (18.1/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets (with 11 balls remaining)
A turbo-charged innings from Robin Uthappa and a relatively more sedate one from Gautam Gambhir helped Kolkata Knight Riders overhaul 182 with 11 balls to spare and reclaim the top spot in the league. Their 158-run partnership - the second highest for KKR in the IPL - ruthlessly exposed the limitations of a Rising Pune attack that was without Ben Stokes, who was nursing a niggle.
In Stokes' absence, there was a case for Rising Pune to pick either New Zealand fast bowler Lockie Ferguson or Australian legspinner Adam Zampa. Instead, they opted for South African batsman Faf du Plessis, who did not even get to bat.
Five of Rising Pune's six bowlers went for over eight runs an over - and three went for over 10. Pune's fielding was as slipshod as their bowling. Uthappa, who was dropped on 12, moved to his highest IPL score of 87 off 47 balls at a strike-rate of 185.10. Gambhir, who was dropped on 32, went on to make 62. By the time they were dismissed in successive overs, the game was all but over. It was IPL debutant Darren Bravo who applied the finishing touches with a cover-driven four.
Tripathi thrives in the Powerplay
The first over of the match, which had four plays-and-misses and an outside edge that burst through Uthappa's gloves, turned out to be a false dawn for KKR. Rahul Tripathi was scoreless when Uthappa dropped that difficult chance. Yusuf Pathan then shelled a simpler catch to reprieve Tripathi in the seventh over. By then the opener had given Rising Pune their second successive fifty-run opening stand.
He darted around the crease and manufactured swinging room to hit a variety of drives, including an inside-out four over covers off Sunil Narine. In all, Tripathi took two of KKR's key bowlers - Narine and Umesh Yadav - for 28 runs off 13 balls. His early assault allowed Ajinkya Rahane to play himself in at the other end.
Dhoni doesn't start slowly
Before this match, Dhoni had scored just 27 runs off 54 balls from Narine in T20s - 3 off 13 balls in his previous game against KKR. But when Dhoni arrived on Wednesday night, Narine had only one over left. Gambhir held him back, and Dhoni pounced on Piyush Chawla, hitting him for back-to-back boundaries. Dhoni then pulled Kuldeep Yadav for a six and took Pune to 140 for 2 in 16 overs. Gambhir turned to Narine for the next over, but Dhoni saw him off.
The rousing finish
Kuldeep brought KKR back by removing both Dhoni and Manoj Tiwary, who was sent ahead of du Plessis, with googlies. KKR, however, were without their previous match-winner Nathan Coulter-Nile, who was rested for this clash. Chris Woakes and Umesh served up a volley of length balls, and Smith and Dan Christian clattered 30 off the last two overs to lift Pune to 182 for 5.
The partnership that won it
KKR lost Narine, who opened again, in the third over of the chase when Dhoni collected a throw from Shardul Thakur and dexterously flicked it onto the stumps. Imran Tahir induced a swirling top edge from Uthappa in his first over, but Jaydev Unadkat dropped it, falling backwards at deep midwicket. Uthappa soon got stuck into rookie offspinner Washington Sundar, gloriously lofting him for back-to-back sixes down the ground. Tahir wasn't spared either - he was driven down the ground for a six. At the other end, Gambhir simply nurdled the ball into the gaps and let Uthappa do his thing.
Uthappa soon unfurled dabs and sweeps, and secured runs in the other V - behind square. With every boundary, KKR highlighted the lack of depth in the Pune attack. The weakness in fielding was also exposed when Sundar put down Gambhir at short fine leg. Having watched his frontline bowlers regularly disappear to the boundary, Smith turned to Tripathi's medium-pace. He fared just as poorly, conceding 12 off his only over. In the first six overs KKR made 45 for 1. In their next six, they bashed 78 for 0. Game over.
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31st match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Gujarat Lions
RCB 134 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 135/3 (13.5/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions won by 7 wickets (with 37 balls remaining)
Royal Challengers Bangalore paid the price for another batting meltdown to face an early elimination from IPL 2017. On a Chinnaswamy surface that played much better than other three games previously this season, RCB underachieved by being bowled out for 134, and then let the despondency slip into their bowling.
Aaron Finch feasted on an attack without the injured Tymal Mills, to race to a bruising 22-ball half-century to raze down the target with 37 balls to spare and lift Gujarat Lions off the bottom of the points table. But the star was once again Andrew Tye, who unleashed a barrage of variations - including his patented knuckle ball - to finish with three wickets that set up Lions' third win in eight matches.
Tye ties RCB's top-order in knots
Lions unleashed two young fast bowlers - Nathu Singh and Basil Thampi - on a surface where they got the ball to climb onto the batsmen. Four nights after slumping to 49 all out, the lowest score in IPL history, RCB started cautiously. The first four overs had fetched just two boundaries, one of which was Virat Kohli's strong bottom-hand whip for six. But the frustration to score freely resulted in him picking out short fine leg in the fourth over.
With an early wicket in the bag, Tye, who had taken two or more wickets in three of the four matches this season (no other Lions bowlers had taken more than one before this game) was brought in and he struck first ball with a cross-seam delivery that nibbled away to take Chris Gayle's outside edge. Off his next delivery, he got a length ball to climb on Travis Head, who nicked to Suresh Raina at slip. Kedar Jadhav extinguished the possibility of a second hat-trick for Tye, but Lions had done the early damage, with RCB tottering at 23 for 3 after five.
Jadhav's lift, Mandeep's brain-freeze
Jadhav offset the damage by hitting Basil Thampi for three successive boundaries in the sixth over. He started off with a pull in front of square and followed that up with a flick and an upper cut. Then in the next over, Ravindra Jadeja fired them in and got shoveled inside-out over cover. Having raced to 21 off 12 deliveries, Jadhav was in the mood. He welcomed debutant legspinner Ankit Soni by biffing him across the line over deep midwicket. His enterprise overshadowed AB de Villiers' presence. A fight back was on the cards, but trying to be a little overambitious - exposing all three stumps to cutely dab Jadeja behind square - cost him.
Losing wickets in clumps was the order for RCB. Five balls after Jadhav fell, a total breakdown in communication resulted in de Villiers' run-out. Mandeep Singh ran past his senior partner after initially stopping midway on his partner's call to leave him stranded. De Villiers' 11 deliveries fetched him five. At 60 for 5 at the halfway mark, RCB needed a miracle from their lower order. Negi provided that with some lusty blows but fell for a 19-ball 32 in his quest to muscle Soni for a third-successive six. A 23-run ninth-wicket stand between S Aravind and Aniket Choudhary managed to lift them to 134.
Badree's early strikes raise RCB hopes
Ishan Kishan's promotion to open with Brendon McCullum could've meant only one thing: of taking the attack to RCB. Kishan did just that, hitting Badree for three boundaries before being pinned in front by a skidder. Then, Kohli's decision to give Badree a third-straight over paid off when McCullum holed out to long-on, trying to take the fielder on. With Lions at 23 for 2, RCB were in with a shout.
Finch sucker-punches RCB
The game was on the edge, but Finch decided attack was the best way to drive the game forward. He muscled Badree for two sixes in his first three deliveries and punished Aravind for two fours in the over that followed to offset any pressure there was on Lions. Yuzvendra Chahal and Aniket Choudhary came in for similar treatment as Finch used his free swing to pepper the short side boundaries and race to a 22-ball half-century, the fastest for a Lions batsman. At the halfway mark, Lions were 95 for 2. Suresh Raina, far from his fluent self, should've been caught at deep midwicket but Chahal reprieved him by overstepping. But by then the game was all but lost by RCB.
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32nd match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils 160/6 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 161/3 (16.2/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 7 wickets (with 22 balls remaining)
How long is 20 overs? Ask Delhi Daredevils' batsmen, who once again found time to wander aimlessly in the middle overs and then stumble at the end. In a repeat of their first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, Daredevils got off to a flier - 53 in the Powerplay in both matches - but lived up to their well-earned reputation of being the slowest in middle overs and couldn't manage a finishing kick to boot. The most prolific pair this IPL - Robin Uthappa and Gautam Gambhir - then made light of the 161-run target.
In what was the first signs of this being Groundhog Day, the captains walked out for a toss that was purely academic. Daredevils wanted to defend because they don't want their inexperienced batting active in decisive moments, Knight Riders wanted to chase because they last lost chasing at Eden Gardens in 2012. Sanju Samson then continued his schizophrenic IPL: bomb the quicks, go comatose against spin, and then find yourself under pressure and either kick on or fail. Failure is likelier if you keep putting yourself under that pressure, and it didn't help that Chris Morris, Rishabh Pant and Corey Anderson couldn't do much either.
Narine pulls them back
Samson once again displayed his outrageous talent of clean striking and raced away to 25 off nine balls. Then came Sunil Narine with a record of 56 balls against Samson, Karun Nair and Anderson for just 49 runs and three wickets. On cue he produced his first Powerplay wicket this season: Karun Nair, out sweeping. Daredevils 48 for 1 in the fifth over.
Slow bowlers, slower batting
Samson has scored just 81 runs off 76 balls of spin this season. Against pace he has looted 203 off 119. It was a mild surprise Narine was not introduced sooner. Brakes came on immediately with either Narine or Kuldeep Yadav manning one end in the middle overs. The result was a partnership between Shreyas Iyer and Samson that reached 50 in 7.3 overs. Forty-six legal deliveries went without a hit to the fence. Every such delivery meant one fewer for the big hitters to face.
When Samson scored his hundred this season, he went through a similar pattern: a flying start of 35 off 19, then only 13 off the next 19, and then the final kick. Against Knight Riders in Delhi, he did the same, going from 27 off 12 to just 13 off the next 13 balls. Here, too, he put himself under pressure of going big in the end. Like in Delhi, he failed to kick on here, scoring just 35 off the last 29 balls he faced, despite two late sixes.
Iyer's innings was more damaging. He found himself in a desperate situation after scoring 18 off the first 21 balls he faced. They both tried to go hard the moment Colin de Grandhomme was introduced in the 13th over, but Daredevils needed something big from them or from Morris, Pant and Anderson to salvage the situation.
Pace stifles Daredevils
Umesh Yadav got Samson lbw with one that swung back in. Needing quick runs Samson was caught playing a low-percentage flick to square leg. The came back Nathan Coulter-Nile to eliminate the big threat of Pant with a straight near-yorker. Iyer again took high risk in the same over and perished. Corey Anderson was dropped twice, but Morris ran him out. Chris Woakes and Coulter-Nile then finished off for Knight Riders with just one boundary coming in the last four overs. Coulter-Nile has taken two or more wickets in each of the four matches he has played.
The leave
When Daredevils scored an underwhelming 168 in their last match against Knight Riders, the quality in their bowling made Gambhir's side sweat over the chase. Daredevils are one of the sides that can be backed to do something with small defences. Even though Zaheer Khan walked off with what looked like a pulled hamstring in his second over, Daredevils got off to a heartening start. Kagiso Rabada burst through Narine's defence, and soon had Uthappa top-edging. The ball fell near the square leg umpire with ample time for at least three fielders to converge. Samson and Mishra came the closest. Neither of them called. Neither of them went for it. Had the catch been taken, Knight Riders would have been reduced to 37 for 2 in the sixth over, with Gambhir still going at a strike rate of 100.
The endgame
A long one at that. Gambhir, still one of the best players of spin in India, welcomed Mishra with two boundaries in his first over. Uthappa tore into Morris at the other end. In eight overs, Knight Riders had knocked off half the runs. If Daredevils had seven boundary-less overs after the quick start, there were only two middle overs in the Knight Riders innings that didn't feature a boundary. When Gambhir pulled an innocuous short ball from Anderson for a four in the 13th over, the asking rate dropped under a run a ball. The game was over long ago.
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33rd match - Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 207/3 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 181/9 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 26 runs
Sunrisers Hyderabad showed intent from the outset to get ahead of Kings XI Punjab via quickfire fifties from their top-three batsmen, Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Kane Williamson. Thereon, Sunrisers never looked like squandering the decisive advantage they gained within the first quarter of the game, putting on the joint second-highest total of the season and following it up with another relatively comfortable defense.
Shaun Marsh put on a display of timing in a belligerent 50-ball 84 to keep Kings XI in the hunt for the majority of the chase despite an increasing required rate. However, Kings XI's insufficient resources towards the end meant they fell 26 runs short. Sunrisers' win pushed them to third on the points table.
Getting ahead of the game
Ishant Sharma, one of two fast-bowling inclusions for Kings XI, bowled an accurate first over and generated appreciable lateral movement. Anureet Singh, the other, started with three leg-side deliveries. Dhawan flicked two boundaries of them. Ishant's line was wayward in his next over, and Dhawan picked him off for plenty of free runs. Dhawan helped himself to 20 of his first 23 runs into the leg side. Warner laid into the left-arm spin of Axar Patel, and Sunrisers plundered 60 in the Powerplay, their best this season.
The field spread but the Sunrisers openers' intent didn't change: Warner and Dhawan hit five boundaries in the first five overs of the innings and five more between overs 6 and 10. Warner was bowled for 51, looking to swat Glenn Maxwell in the 10th over. By that time, Sunrisers had scored 107.
T20s not all about power
Williamson isn't the most powerful of ball-strikers, especially while hitting straight. What he lacks in power, he makes up in touch. After Warner's dismissal, Williamson took his time, accruing nine runs in nine balls. As soon as he felt a need to attack, he picked his areas and executed flawlessly.
When the spinners dropped short, Williamson pulled. When the seamers were wide, he cut. He also improvised to hit behind square on either side as fatigue crept in. He faced the same number of deliveries as Warner, but scored three runs more without a muscular stroke.
Falling behind legspin
Before the game against Kings XI, Rashid Khan had conceded just 48 runs off 45 balls against overseas batsmen this season. Kings XI required 141 runs off 13 overs when Warner introduced Rashid. Shaun Marsh and Eoin Morgan weren't particularly comfortable against Rashid's legspin. So they decided to chip away as opposed to putting Rashid off his length.
While Marsh and Morgan, aware that Kings XI's lower order was thin on batting, prodded about, the asking rate soared over 12. Rashid conceded just 16 off his four overs and had Eoin Morgan caught in the deep. It wasn't the worst tactic from Kings XI, but the target proved to be too much to 'play out' a bowler.
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34th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Royal Challengers Bangalore
Rising Pune Supergiant 157/3 (20/20 ov)
RCB 96/9 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 61 runs
Utterly wasteful batting left Royal Challengers Bangalore closer to the brink than ever before in IPL 2017. They needed 158 to win the first of five games Virat Kohli said they had to win to make the play-offs. They did not need a scoreline that read 53 for 5 in the 10th over which then turned into a chastening, morale-killing 61-run defeat.
Rising Pune Supergiant were not complaining. They finally got to defend a total at home and safeguard their position at fourth place the points table.
So what now for RCB? They can, mathematically, still make the final four, but can a team that fell to 49 all out, a team that will lose AB de Villiers in the coming weeks, a team that tops the charts in run-outs (7), single-digit scores (40) and scoring slowly in the Powerplay (6.64) stop the rot in time?
The hitter
Rahul Tripathi has shouldered considerable responsibility in his first IPL season. He is expected to take advantage of fielding restrictions in the Powerplay, which by itself is not an unreasonable demand. But the 26-year old has also had to make up for his partner's struggles. Ajinkya Rahane's strike-rate of 123 is the lowest among openers with 100 or more runs in this IPL and today he fell early as well, sweeping a full toss to short fine leg.
RCB might have thought that gave them the advantage. After all, Tripathi did not even play the 2017 domestic T20 tournament. But on a grander stage, against tougher bowlers, he has now smashed six straight 30-plus scores - an unmatched tally - and specifically in the first six overs, he has 198 runs - another unmatched tally - hitting a boundary every 3.71 balls.
A see-saw innings
Pune collected 43 runs in the Powerplay, but only 26 in the next five overs, hitting only one four. This was because they had to deal with a dry pitch and a set of RCB players swearing by their slower balls. Another thing that worked for Kohli was his use of Pawan Negi. The left-arm spinner has bowled 120 balls this season - 103 of them have been to right-handers. They have also contributed to seven of his eight wickets, Tripathi the latest to succumb for 37 off 28 balls. Negi finished with 1 for 18, equalling his most economical spell of four overs in IPL history.
The splutter
It seems par for the course for Pune to potter along between the seventh and 14th overs: since they came into being in 2016, their run-rate of 7.55 in this phase has been the slowest among all teams. Only this year, it might actually be their plan, considering Manoj Tiwary's form, MS Dhoni's reputation, and the Ben Stokes investment. Against RCB, they had the first two on call but not the third. So Steven Smith smacked Samuel Badree for 6, 4, 4 in the 12th over and Pune had suddenly found 29 runs in two overs.
RCB did well to pull things back, taking pace off the ball against Tiwary, and tucking Dhoni up by bowling into his body. In the slog overs, when batsmen are solely thinking boundaries, those were sound plans. The last of the sound plans.
RCBusted
It began with de Villiers crunching a backfoot drive straight to short cover's hands. Score, 32 for 2. Then Kedar Jadhav was run-out, as he and Kohli looked for an overthrow when the ball was a few little feet away from the bowler. Score, 44 for 3. Sachin Baby chipped a catch to short midwicket. Score, 47 for 4. Stuart Binny top-edged a hook and was caught at long leg. Score, 48 for 5. Trent Woodhill, the batting coach, was sitting in the dugout, watching in pure horror.
Lockie Ferguson, who conceded 44 runs in his only other IPL game, came away with 4-1-7-2 today, with 18 dots, the highest for the season. Now that suggests he was terrifying, but he wasn't. Then did Smith funk it up with his fields? No. The pitch wasn't playing tricks either. There was no evidence to suggest every RCB batsman barring Kohli would only manage single-digits.
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35th match - Gujarat Lions v Mumbai Indians
Gujarat Lions 153/9 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 153 (20/20 ov)
Match tied
One-over eliminator - Mumbai Indians - 11/2 - all out (0.5 overs)
One-over eliminator - Gujarat Lions - 6/0 (1 over)
Mumbai Indians win the super over
In what became a street fight on a dry surface, Gujarat Lions produced some gun run-outs to force a tie, but in the tiebreaker, the top gun, Jasprit Bumrah bowled a sensational Super Over to defend 11 runs and give Mumbai Indians joint lead at the top of the table along with Kolkata Knight Riders. For most parts, perhaps because of a slow pitch, this match was more about who wanted to lose it more badly, but in the final moments both sides raises their games to deliver a Twenty20 spectacle.
In the absence of the injured Andrew Tye, James Faulkner deflated Mumbai's rollicking chase of 154 with his cutters to bring it down to 15 required off two overs. Basil Thampi then produced two wickets in the 19th over to make it 12 required off six balls with three wickets in hand. Only man keeping his head for Mumbai until now was Krunal Pandya, who was on 19 off 16 after having registered his best bowling figures earlier in the match.
To the last ball of the 19th over, Mitchell McClenaghan played a ramp with fine leg back. He was always going to sacrifice his wicket to bring Krunal on strike for the first ball of the last over, but this ball fell precariously short of the charging Irfan Pathan. Playing for his sixth IPL team, once again as a second thought as has been the case in the last three seasons, Irfan's first over had been butchered for 16 by Parthiv Patel, who scored 70 off 44.
Irfan kept charging at the ball, which fell well short and spun away from him. Not only did he stick out his hand in the other direction to prevent the boundary, he also ran McClenaghan out with a direct hit from fine leg. Riding on that momentum, Irfan came in to bowl his second over, and started off with a half-volley first ball. Krunal, who had done all the hard work, smoked it for a straight six.
With the game now looking sorted, with four required off four, Bumrah tapped one towards point and set off for what is a bit of a regulation single nowadays in the final overs. Ravindra Jadeja, though, had other ideas. He charged in, swooped on the ball, and knocked down the stumps at the bowler's end. Krunal, though, had regained strike, and punched the next slower ball through the vacant third man region for a couple. He did the pragmatic thing by taking the single available on the fifth ball to tie the scores.
Now Irfan bowled to Lasith Malinga. They were going to run no matter what. A fielder stood by the stumps at the bowler's end as Irfan ran in. He bowled full, hit Malinga's pad, Krunal hared through, and Jadeja at point got the ball on the full. Instead of going at Malinag's end, he went to the striker's, and beat the dive of Krunal by a frame, hitting the only stump visible to him. Lions' fielding had forced a tie after they had dropped two catches.
Lions' fate was now in Faulkner's hands. Tye, used for the first time in the sixth over, by which time Mumbai had run away to a flying start, injured himself in the field and had to be stretchered off. He could bowl just one over. Faulkner had kept Lions alive in regulation time with the run-out of Jos Buttler, and wickets of Rohit Sharma and Parthiv in the 14th over. He now had to bowl to Buttler, Kieron Pollard and Rohit Sharma.
Pollard announced to Faulkner that his birthday was approaching its end with a four and a six; 11 after three balls looked ominous. Faulkner, though, came back with wickets off the next two balls to enjoy his birthday some more. Ishan Kishan, who had scored 48 to set up Lions' innings, took a pressure catch as the big skier from Buttler swirled and the keeper hovered in his vicinity too. Mumbai hadn't even faced their quote of six balls in the Super Over.
By the time Bumrah began his over, the date had changed. Faulkner, though, was not going to play any more role in the game. It was down to Aaron Finch and Brendon McCullum. Bumrah had had a bittersweet match. He had taken the wickets of Raina and Faulkner, but he had also bowled two no-balls. Now there was no room for more mistakes. Were Mumbai now thinking of those no-balls? Or the dolly dropped in the final over, which could have bowled Lions out for eight fewer than they ended up with?
Bumrah ran in and bowled the perfect yorker, except that he had delivered his third no-ball of the night. Finch, the man on strike, expected another yorker, and felt that the way to beat Bumrah off his rhythm was to look for the ramp on the free hit. Bumrah bowled the perfect dipping yorker again, and conceded just one leg-bye.
Now with 10 required off five, McCullum took strike. He too moved around in the crease to upset Bumrah's rhythm. He possibly succeeded. Bumrah went wide outside off, but McCullum held his ground, and the dipping slower ball was ruled a wide. Nine off five now.
Bumrah released, it looked like the fast yorker, McCullum shaped up to get under it, but midway it seemed like a balloon that had been deflated. Surely not another slower ball? It was, and it was a perfect slower ball, dipping late, squeezing under McCullum's bat. Another slower ball arrived next ball and dipped under McCullum's bat. Only some ordinary keeping from Parthiv - a reminder that the night had been about a lot of ordinary cricket - allowed them a bye.
Lions now needed eight off three balls. Bumrah went back to a yorker to Finch, who looked to make room, swung inside the line, and was lucky to not be bowled. Bumrah had by now delivered six balls without letting two of the biggest hitters in the world get bat on ball. The death of the yorker might be overstated after all.
Finally Bumrah erred, but Finch could only taker a single off the full toss, leaving McCullum seven to win off the last ball. Even if he had hit a six, Mumbai would have won by the virtue of having hit one more boundary than their opponents in regulation time and Super Over put together.
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36th match - Kings XI Punjab v Delhi Daredevils
Delhi Daredevils 67 (17.1/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab 68/0 (7.5/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 10 wickets (with 73 balls remaining)
Sixty-seven all out. That is worst total in the first innings of an IPL match and the unqualified worst for the Delhi Daredevils in 10 years of franchise cricket. The bottom-placed team in 2017 burrowed further underground as Sandeep Sharma exploited a slow Mohali pitch to deliver a career-best 4 for 20.
The Kings XI Punjab openers gunned down their target in 7.5 overs with Martin Guptill making 50 runs all by himself.
The Powerplay specialist
Glenn Maxwell's confidence to bowl first rested on his understanding that overnight rain could have juiced up the playing surface. He totally forgot he had the best Powerplay bowler this season.
No one has bested Sandeep Sharma's tally of balls (114) and dots (62) bowled, or even wickets taken (6) in the first six overs of an innings. But his success on Sunday was down to an understanding that hitting the deck and keeping it straight would be enough to confound the batsmen.
Vertical bat shots are difficult on a slow pitch. Sandeep, fully aware of that, kept tempting the Daredevils to go for them. Sanju Samson was caught off a flick for 5 off 14 balls - his slowest IPL innings in India (min of 10 balls faced) - and Shreyas Iyer drove one back into the bowler's hand.
The lay up
Coming in with the opposition at 29 for 4 with no fielding restrictions is paradise for a spinner. Axar Patel made it even better with a wicket first ball, removing Karun Nair, who was captaining for the first time in T20 cricket. Maxwell, then, brought himself into the attack, eager to deny a choking team the oxygen they needed, also known as pace on the ball. Together they bowled eight overs for only 34 runs and the Kings XI captain even recorded his most economical four-over spell - 1 for 12.
The finish
Daredevils crawled to 37 for 6 in 10 overs and were bowled out in 17.1, hitting a mere five boundaries. Kings XI rocketed past that score, with more hits to the fence, when the chase was only 27 balls old.
Guptill was listed to bat in the middle over, but the team management did well to push him out to open. He collected his 32nd T20 fifty, Kings XI's net run-rate went from -0.44 to +0.23 and so the second-shortest IPL match in history with only 150 balls bowled came to an end.
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37th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders
Sunrisers Hyderabad 209/3 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 161/7 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 48 runs
Against the third-best best attack of this IPL, David Warner scored a sensational 126 off 59 balls as Sunrisers Hyderabad served notice to the two table-toppers with a dominating win. Kolkata Knight Riders, Warner's victims on the night, and Mumbai Indians still remained at the top of the table with 14 points, but Sunrisers were now breathing down their necks, just one point behind.
Some of the best batsmen in the world watched and tweeted in awe as Warner took the Knight Riders attack through the shredders. It didn't make as much noise as Chris Gayle's 175, but at one stage Warner threatened a double hundred. This was the fifth-fastest IPL century, but the amount of strike Warner took made the big difference. He reached his century in the 11th over, having faced 43 balls by then already. His share of strike reduced in the following deliveries - 16 out of 32 - and he eventually perished playing yet another big shot.
Despite an underwhelming - relatively speaking - second half, Sunrisers managed their highest total and the highest by any team against Knight Riders. And they have only ever failed to defend scores of over 175 on three occasions. Given the depth in their bowling, there was no addition being made to the list on this night, not in Hyderabad where they have now five straight matches.
Warner steps out
There was something about Warner from the moment he walked out. To the first ball of the innings, he charged down the track and tried to hit Nathan Coulter-Nile out of the ground. This was a bowler whom Knight Riders used as a strike weapon: in four matches, he had taken 11 wickets, with at least two in every match. Warner wanted to eliminate his threat. He managed only six off that over, but got stuck into Umesh Yadav and Chris Woakes, taking Sunrisers to 35 in three overs.
That forced Gautam Gambhir to call upon Yusuf Pathan for only the third time this IPL - he had previously started overs against Suresh Raina and Aaron Finch, and Warner and Shikhar Dhawan - with reasonable success. This time, though, Warner hit him for four, four and six. Sunrisers 52 for 0 in four overs.
Knight Riders were not holding back. Now came Sunil Narine. Immediately Warner went down on a knee and switch-hit the first ball for a six over point. Knight Riders had tried every thing, but Warner was unstoppable. Sunrisers 67 for 0 after five.
The luck
Warner faced 59 balls and hit 18 boundaries. That is one boundary every third ball. And you have to attempt them more often to have this boundary-per-ball rate. It's quite feasible Warner attempted to hit a boundary every second ball, and if you do that you need some luck to last 59 balls. It arrived when Warner skied a pull off an Umesh slower ball in the second over. Woakes misjudged it, back-pedalling instead of turning around and running. Had he done so, he might have made that catch and possibly sent Warner back for 13.
The next time Warner was dropped, by Woakes again, he was moving from 86 to 92, having peppered all boundaries with all kinds of shots.
The late control
Knight Riders did well to pull Sunrisers back from 123 for 0 in 10 overs. Dhawan struggled for fluency, scoring 29 off 30, but the duo must have done something right because Warner had faced 46 balls by then, a ratio that had been much higher earlier. Umesh made a good comeback with pace variations, Woakes finally got Warner out, but the classy Kane Williamson's 25-ball 40 still made sure Sunrisers crossed 200.
Uthappa on the burning deck
Okay, burning deck is a little too dramatic, especially when it did rain for 45 minutes in the middle of the chase, but once Knight Riders lost Narine and Gambhir early they were always up against it. Robin Uthappa, though, had other ideas, hitting four sixes and four fours in the 28 balls that he faced, and that after having to stabilise the innings a little. The highlight was playing Rashid Khan like an offspinner and slogging him for two enormous sixes.
However, once local boy Mohammed Siraj got Uthappa with a slower ball in the 13th over, for a 28-ball 53, the 101 required in 45 balls was always going to be too much against the second-best attack in the competition.
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38th match - Mumbai Indians v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 162/8 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 165/5 (19.5/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 5 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
Rohit Sharma masterminded the regulation chase that became tight to give Mumbai Indians the lead in the standings, and put beyond doubt their qualification for the playoffs. It pushed the star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore out of the tournament.
On a pitch that was drier than the usual Wankhede belters, Mumbai Indians batsmen kept getting out after getting in. Two big ones - Jos Buttler and Nitish Rana - fell to Pawan Negi, who firstly gave Royal Challengers something to bowl at with his 23-ball 35 and then followed up with figures of 4-0-17-2. That left Mumbai needing 65 off the last seven, with Kieron Pollard out and Krunal Pandya - who took the wicket of AB de Villiers once again - injured, but Rohit signalled a return to form with a cool chase whose feature was calculated blows. He ended up with 56 off 37 without taking any big risks as Mumbai won with one ball to spare.
One slower ball picked, another not picked
Royal Challengers changed their opening combination again with Mandeep Singh coming in ahead of Travis Head. This was one of the six they had tried in 11 matches. Mumbai were missing their ace defensive bowler, Harbhajan Singh, and his replacement Karn Sharma was one whom Virat Kohli fancies the most. They also had Mitchell McClenaghan who had good numbers against Kohli, but again the big bowler Jasprit Bumrah had struggled against his India captain.
Mumbai took the risk of bowling Karn in the fourth over, and that produced Mandeep's wicket, with a slog settling with the only man in the deep on the leg side. In the next over, Kohli showed ominous signs when he picked the near unpickable Bumrah slower ball and dropped him over cow corner for six. At the start of the next over, though, Kohli failed to pick the McClenaghan offcutter, and chipped an easy catch to midwicket. Royal Challengers 40 for 2 in the sixth over. McClenaghan to Kohli in IPL: 28 balls, 20 runs, four wickets.
De Villiers v Krunal, part 4
De Villiers is arguably the most dangerous batsman in the world. Krunal has not even played international cricket. He made his first-class debut last year. Yet, in Twenty20 cricket, Krunal had got de Villiers out every time he batted against his team. In this match, though, de Villiers looked a million dollars from the time he cut the third and fourth balls he faced for four and six. In Krunals' first over, de Villiers got a four and six more. The first one was a short ball, which Krunal doesn't want, but the second was a slog-sweep against the turn, which Krunal has been making de Villiers do. In Krunal's last over, de Villiers again pulled out the sweep for another massive six, reaching 43 off 26. The next ball, though, drifted a little bit more, and drew the edge from another attempted six.
Interestingly, in the innings break, de Villiers said he could see Rohit was looking to squeeze in a few overs of spin and didn't want to let him do that. Did Royal Challengers over-aim here? Shane Watson's wicket followed soon, and made it 108 for 5 in the 14th over.
Negi fights with the bat
Negi, though, made sure the familiar tale of Royal Challengers surrender didn't repeat itself. He took toll of Lasith malinga and Bumrah after picking their slower balls and taking three sixes in the 18th and 19th over. The McClenaghan slower ball, though, got him in the last over, and controlled the late damage. What looked like 150 had rocked up to 170 but had settled at 162 now.
Negi fights with the ball
Despite the first-ball loss of Parthiv Patel, Buttler and Rana ran away to a quick start against the pace, taking Mumbai to 55 for 1 by the end of the Powerplay. Watson and Negi pulled them back, with Watson bowling tight seventh and ninth over and Negi taking the set batsmen out in the eighth and 10th. Pollard fell soon, taking two risks in one Yuzvendra Chahal over, making it 98 for 4 at the end of 13 overs.
Leave it to Rohit
Krunal, who had injured himself in the field, came out, presumably to counter spinners who were taking it away from right-hand batsmen, but found it too painful to carry on and walked back off. Mumbai did seem concerned about spin because they replaced him with another left-hand batsman, Karn Sharma. The one man not worried, though, was Rohit, who knew the asking rate was not enormous and waited for the occasional mistake from the bowlers.
A square drive and an extra-cover drive in the 15th over followed by a punch in the 17th kept the asking rate in check, but with 30 required in the last three, Rohit might have thought of the match against Rising Pune Supergiant that he couldn't finish off. He still remained cool, though, even with Aniket Choudhury bowling an exception 18th over with just five off the first five. Then a slower ball slipped wide, and the quicker ball was smacked for six by Hardik Pandya.
Mumbai needed one more such blow to seal this, and Rohit struck that blow with a sweep off Sreenath Aravind in the 19th over, placing the slower ball into the vacant square-leg region. Watson bowled a tight final over, but it was always going to tough defending just six.
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39th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Gujarat Lions
Gujarat Lions 161 (19.5/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant 167/5 (19.5/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 5 wickets (with 1 ball remaining)
A maiden T20 hundred from Ben Stokes moved Rising Pune Supergiant to their sixth win of the season in a seesawing contest against Gujarat Lions. Battling cramp, frequent wicket losses at the other end, and the demands of a testing asking rate, Stokes steered Rising Pune home with a ball to spare.
Sent in to bat, Lions ran away to 55 for no loss inside the Powerplay, but lost their way thereafter to get bowled out for 160. Supergiants' chase inverted the pattern: the flurry of wickets came in the beginning, leaving them 42 for 4 at one point, before Stokes, with a bit of help from MS Dhoni and Daniel Christian, took the game away from Lions once again.
Tahir stalls Lions after bright opening stand
Having been sent in to bat, Lions got off to an excellent start, Brendon McCullum and Ishan Kishan finding the gaps and putting away the short ball clinically to race to 55 in just 5.5 overs. Then Kishan, having already hit Imran Tahir for two fours in the sixth over, sliced the last ball of the Powerplay into the hands of short third man.
What followed was a puzzling slump. With Dwayne Smith coming in for the injured Andrew Tye, Lions had batting depth all the way down to James Faulkner at No. 8. But this was to be one of their bad days.
Suresh Raina fell to a harebrained run-out before Tahir struck with successive balls - Aaron Finch sending back a return catch off the leading edge and Dwayne Smith playing all around a googly - to leave Lions 94 for 4 after 10 overs. McCullum fell soon after. Then, from 109 for 5, came a brief revival, with Dinesh Karthik and Ravindra Jadeja adding 26 in 19 balls, before another slide. Struggling to put away the slower ball, Lions did not score a boundary between the fourth ball of the 14th over and the fifth ball of the 19th. Eventually, they were bowled out with one ball still left to play.
Sangwan, Thampi shock Pune top order
Within nine balls of the Rising Pune innings, a middling target became a daunting one. Pace was the catalyst in this transformation. Pradeep Sangwan, playing his first game of the season, produced a classic inswinger from left-arm over to trap Ajinkya Rahane lbw (with some help from Marais Erasmus, who did not notice that the ball had pitched outside leg stump) and bounced out Steven Smith. Then Basil Thampi made Manoj Tiwary pay for being stuck on the crease.
Stokes looked in ominous form right from the time he punched his fifth ball for four past the stumps at the other end, and raced away to 25 off 17 to keep the required rate in check. But a mix-up sent back Rahul Tripathi in the sixth over, and Rising Pune were back in deep trouble.
Spinners tie down Dhoni
Before this match, Dhoni had scored 111 off 79 balls against pace this season, and only 62 off 64 balls against spin. His struggles against spin continued here. Against Ankit Soni and Ravindra Jadeja, who began bowling in tandem as soon as he walked in, he scored 8 off 14 balls, facing nine dots.
Soni's legspin caused Stokes a few problems too - he didn't seem to pick the slider out of the front of the hand, angled across him, and on a few occasions ended up playing down the wrong line. But successive sixes over long-on off Jadeja and a sliced four past point off Dwayne Smith kept Pune in touch with their asking rate, just about. After 14 overs, they needed exactly two a ball - 72 from 36.
Hobbling Stokes seals the deal
Despite being tied down by them, Dhoni did not take any chances against the spinners, and couldn't afford to take too many, given Pune's situation at that stage. He had to target the quicks, and he pulled the first ball he faced from James Faulkner, in the 15th over, beyond the square leg boundary. Stokes clattered Dwayne Smith for six and four in the next over, and Rising Pune were left needing 44 off the last four.
They still didn't have too much batting left in the hut, though, and when Dhoni holed out to long-off, first ball of the next over, the balance seemed to swing Lions' way, particularly with Stokes struggling with cramps.
Daniel Christian showed just the calmness a new batsman might need in that situation; he chopped Faulkner away past point when he got a loose ball, but otherwise kept bringing Stokes on strike - there would be no dots in his eight-ball innings.
Stokes' hitting down the ground, crucially, wasn't hampered by his cramps. With Rising Pune needing 25 off 12, he hit Thampi for two sixes - one just clearing a leaping Brendon McCullum at long-on, one just clearing a leaping Aaron Finch at long-off - before collapsing at the non-striker's end after taking a single off the last ball. A bit of assistance from the physio, and he was back on his feet.
By then, Pune only needed eight off the last over, and a flat-bat clatter through the covers off the first ball of the last over halved their ask and moved him from 98 for 102. It eventually came down to one off two balls, and with the field brought in, Christian mowed Faulkner into the stands behind the square leg boundary.
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40th match - Delhi Daredevils v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 185/3 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 189/4 (19.1/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils won by 6 wickets (with 5 balls remaining)
Delhi Daredevils bounced back from the ignominy of falling to their lowest total in IPL history by dominating their chase in a six-wicket win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Delhi's stand-in captain, Karun Nair, had put Sunrisers in on the trust that the wicket would stay true throughout the course of the game. The visitors responded by putting up 66 in the Powerplay with the loss of David Warner for 30. Daredevils did well to pull things back in the middle overs, removing Shikhar Dhawan (28) and Kane Williamson (24) in quick succession after strangling them through effective spin bowling, but regular lapses in the field allowed Sunrisers a way back in. Yuvraj Singh (70* off 44), in particular, made use of a dropped catch and dominated an unbroken 93-run stand for the fourth wicket with Moises Henriques that lifted Sunrisers to 185 for 3.
Daredevils began briskly, with Sanju Samson's 19-ball 24 and Karun Nair's 20-ball 39 setting the pace early on. The momentum was picked up by the rest of the top-order, who produced a chain of quick cameos before allrounders Corey Anderson (41* off 24) and Chris Morris (15* off 7) put on an unbroken 41 off 19 balls to take them past the target with five balls to spare.
Jayant Yadav and the opening stand
Against a top four including three left-hand batsmen, Daredevils have picked Jayant compulsively. In fact, the offspinner's only game of the season before tonight was the away fixture against Sunrisers on April 19. He had opened the bowling in that game.
He did it tonight as well, and, on first glance, seemed to have caught Warner lbw off the first ball. The left-hander, who had struck a thunderous 126 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, went for the sweep first ball against an overpitched delivery drifting into him. HawkEye showed his survival was only marginal.
That was the only sign of their offspin punt working against the openers. Warner and Dhawan played him out respectfully - apart from a Warner switch-hit swept over the backward point boundary.
Against Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris, they were more fluid, taking the pacers for a combined five fours and a six before Warner welcomed Mohammed Shami with a boundary at the start of the sixth over. That whip over midwicket brought up the fifth opening stand of fifty or more for Sunrisers this season. It was to end the very next ball, however, with Shami sliding a steaming yorker under Warner's drive to take his off stump.
Kotla slows down
Sunrisers were 66 for 1 at the end of the Powerplay. Kane Williamson, the beneficiary of an overthrow boundary in the previous over, played four dot ball balls in the next against Morris, two of which were slower deliveries. It was a precursor to the home team's plan for the middle overs. Jayant and Amit Mishra bowled four overs in tandem, which set the tone for Daredevils' most fruitful phase in the field. Mishra depended heavily on his new-found offbreak against the left-handers, but it was his googly that met the top edge on Dhawan's attempted sweep. His stock ball turned appreciably too.
Jayant had cramped Williamson to the extent that the Sunrisers No. 3, aside from a six off a quicker delivery, had only managed three singles off seven deliveries against him. When Shami came back in the 12th over, his dot-ball ratio had climbed to 50%. That induced a skied hook straight to deep square leg. The six overs after the Powerplay had fetched Sunrisers only 27 runs for the loss of two wickets.
Yuvraj cashes in
There were at least four instances of Daredevils giving away extra runs in the field. The bizzare one involved Rishabh Pant, who tried to flick the ball back to the bowler from inside the square. It slipped out of his grasp and ended up going wide of midwicket for a single. The painful one came at - and out of - the hands of Samson. It was at deep square leg.
Yuvraj, coming into the game with 24 runs in his last four innings, lofted a Chris Morris bouncer to Samson. The youngster, who had been involved in that infamous mix-up with Mishra against KKR last week, wasn't under any such pressure this time - the nearest fielder was a number of yards to his left. It was the kind that is usually described as 'straight down the throat' of whoever takes it. As it turned out, this went straight to the floor.
However different those two missed chances were, the outcome was in the same vein. It was Robin Uthappa who piled on the misery that day, and it was Yuvraj tonight. Yuvraj, on 29 off 26 at that point, made 41 off his next 15. His unbeaten 70 propelled Sunrisers to 185 for 3.
Bhuvi returns the favour, Nair finds his mojo
Another man who hasn't found runs recently is Karun Nair. The Daredevils' stand-in skipper opened the innings today and utilised the boundary access allowed by fielding restrictions to hit himself into form. Like Yuvraj, Nair too was helped along by ordinary fielding. While on 20, he toe-ended a scoop to Bhuvneshwar Kumar at short fine. He was late in getting his hands up and only parried it to give himself a chase. Nair made 15 off his next four balls, primarily through shots on the up or ramps behind the wicket while the ball still came on.
His knock took Daredevils to 62 in the Powerplay after they lost Samson. Shortly after, he offered another catch to Bhuvneshwar. This was a full-blooded drive that went flat to him at long-off; he held on this time, but the momentum had been conceded.
Finish it with power
Daredevils had two spinners to tie Sunrisers down on a slow track; Sunrisers had dropped their second spinner, Bipul Sharma, in favour of Deepak Hooda who didn't end up batting. This proved to be the difference in the middle overs as Daredevils' young top order capitalised on Moises Henriques' medium-pace, taking the allrounder for 36 off his 2.1 overs. The promotion of Rishabh Pant to No. 3 also played its part, with Warner reluctant to expose his only other spin option, Yuvraj, against him. It didn't end up making much of a difference. Yuvraj, coming in immediately after Pant had been cleaned up by Mohammed Siraj's yorker, went for 16 in his only over. It allowed Daredevils the luxury of playing Rashid Khan out at a run a ball without losing a wicket to him. It was only his second wicketless game - the previous one was also against Daredevils.
One might have expected to see Angelo Mathews - brought into to bolster the middle-order - come in at No. 5, or even No. 6 as Daredevils lost wicket within a comfortable distance of the target. In the end, Corey Anderson and Morris filled up those slots, a clear signal that Daredevils didn't just want to win, but wanted to do it comprehensively.
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41st match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Rising Pune Supergiant
Kolkata Knight Riders 155/8 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant 158/6 (19.2/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 4 wickets (with 4 balls remaining)
Rahul Tripathi ran up a 52-ball 93 to power Rising Pune Supergiant to their sixth win in seven games and move to third spot in the league. Despite wickets falling at the other end, Tripathi produced a full-blooded onslaught - hitting 78 runs in boundaries - and ensured Rising Pune had only a little to do towards the end.
The chase of 156 got a bit harder with the loss of Ben Stokes, MS Dhoni, and then Tripathi himself with six needed. But Daniel Christian's flat six over deep midwicket off Colin de Grandhomme sealed victory with four balls to spare, consigning Kolkata Knight Riders to only their second defeat in six home games this season.
The result was set up by Rising Pune's bowlers, led by Jaydev Unadkat's 2 for 28, who took pace off the ball on a two-paced surface to keep Knight Riders to 155 for 8. Struggling at 55 for 4 in the tenth over, the hosts needed a counter-attacking partnership from Colin de Grandhomme and Manish Pandey to breathe life into the innings, before Suryakumar Yadav gave them a late lift with an unbeaten 16-ball 30.
Variable bounce, a stifled start
Sunil Narine had pinched quick runs at the top of the order in previous games, but he was up against Jaydev Unadkat, who had gone at just 7.8 an over in the Powerplay this season.
Unadkat got the ball to nip around both ways and Narine struggled to connect with the first five balls. When he finally made contact, it was to an offcutter that didn't come on. Narine missed his timing and skewed a return catch; Rising Pune had begun with a maiden for the first time in the IPL.
Shortly after, Sheldon Jackson stepped on his stumps after moving too far back against offspinner Washington Sundar. But Gautam Gambhir dealt with the variable pace and lack of room by shifting around his crease to make space for shots. Back-to-back fours off Ben Stokes and a four and six off Sundar gave Gambhir 20 runs off six balls, but he holed out to deep midwicket in the pursuit for more. Knight Riders were 41 for 3 - their second-worst Powerplay score this season.
De Grandhomme and Pandey fight back
Colin de Grandhomme had two ducks and a 1 in three out of four innings this IPL. If there ever was a time that KKR needed him to find form, this was it - 59 for 4 after 10 overs. And he did, along with Manish Pandey. Pandey hit three successive fours in the 11th over from Shardul Thakur, and de Grandhomme matched that tally with consecutive sixes in the next from Imran Tahir. Knight Riders scored 44 runs between overs 11 and 14.
Dot and out
Pandey's dismissal to a slower ball from Daniel Christian barely slowed de Grandhomme down. So fluent was he that until Unadkat came on to bowl the 17th over, not one of the 17 balls de Grandhomme had faced had been a dot. Unadkat then sent down an offcutter to beat de Grandhomme, who played too early. The next ball was a slower one as well and de Grandhomme closed the face of his bat to pop a leading edge to backward point.
Unadkat's changes in pace had fetched him figures of 3-1-7-2; only four balls had been scored off. However, a sure-footed Suryakumar Yadav lay in wait during the 19th over. Three successive slower balls were swatted for 14 runs, before Nathan Coulter-Nile completed the assault with a mow over cow corner. The 21-run over gave KKR the late surge they were looking for.
Fastest fifty, fastest start
While Rising Pune's bowlers had taken pace off the ball, KKR's hit the pitch hard. Umesh Yadav had Ajinkya Rahane caught behind with one that nipped in, and Chris Woakes claimed Steven Smith's off stump with a similar ball. At the other end though, Tripathi had gathered steam.
He benefitted from pace on the ball and also from errors in length, moving forward to drive fuller balls as confidently as he moved back to pull the short ones. Coulter-Nile went for 19 runs in his second over, and Umesh and Woakes also suffered as Rising Pune stormed to their fastest fifty in the IPL, off 26 balls.
When Coulter-Nile came back to bowl three overs later, Tripathi took him for 15 more. At the end of the Powerplay, Rising Pune had 74 - 33 more than KKR had managed. Tripathi then scooped Narine fine to raise the fastest fifty by a Rising Pune batsman, off 23 balls; at that point, 50 of his 53 runs had come in boundaries.
Woakes got Manoj Tiwary to play on against one that ripped back in off the seam, but Tripathi continued to find the boundary to offset the losses. Kuldeep Yadav was bludgeoned for three successive sixes, each struck with a steady head, in the 13th over. That brought the required rate under four. Tripathi's seventh six - a slog sweep over square leg - took him into the nineties. He finally perished on 93 - the substitute Rovman Powell flinging himself to his right at midwicket to catch a stunner - but he left Rising Pune with only six to get off eight balls.
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42nd match - Delhi Daredevils v Gujarat Lions
Gujarat Lions 208/7 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 214/3 (17.3/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils won by 7 wickets (with 15 balls remaining)
Delhi Daredevils made easy work of chasing a target of 209 to end Gujarat Lions' prospects of making it to the qualifiers. The Daredevils hit 20 sixes, led by local boy Rishabh Pant who blazed his way to a 43-ball 97 and stitched together a destructive stand with opener Sanju Samson who struck seven sixes in making 61 off 31. The pair's 143 runs off 63 balls put the game beyond Lions with more than two overs to spare.
Earlier, impressive spells from Kagiso Rabada and Pat Cummins had overturned the momentum after Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik struck rapid fifties to restrict the Lions despite their making 158 in their first 14 overs.
Raina gets on Daredevils' list
The Daredevils have a new tradition: they'd dropped at least one catch in each of their last two games. Today, they dropped three. Each of the reprieved batsman - Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa - had gone on to score 70 or more and Raina followed suit tonight. He was on 2 when Shreyas Iyer spilled a dolly at first slip off Rabada's bowling. He was on 40 when Marlon Samuels couldn't hold on to a flick aimed straight at him at midwicket. Eventually, the latest beneficiary of the Daredevils Goodwill List finished with 77 off 43 balls.
Lesson learnt
At the other end, Karthik had not given Daredevils the slightest chance. He struck at a quicker rate than Raina as the pair counterpunched in response to being 10 for 2 by the second over to put on the Lions' highest partnership (133) in the IPL.
It was around this time, though, that Daredevils began learning an important lesson: when the batsman gives you a chance, convert it. Rabada caught Raina short at the non-strikers with a direct hit from backward point. Next over, Karthik fell to one of the catches of the season - Corey Anderson leaping backwards with an outstretched left hand at mid-off, before executing the perfect tumble to hold on. For good measure, Pant pouched a skier to dismiss Aaron Finch in the penultimate over.
A sixer here, a sixer there
After their successful chase in the last game, Nair revealed the plan had been to play like a young side - hit hard and have fun. And it was the youngest of them all who masterminded the chase. Pant's first scoring shot was a six on the up over cover. A shot like that was a sign that dew was making its presence felt, and of Pant's familiarity with his home pitch.
So when Raina decided that Pant's Delhi team-mate Pradeep Sangwan would bowl the next over, he was asking for trouble. Pant welcomed Sangwan with 16 off the first three balls and the Daredevils had breached 50 inside the fifth over. James Faulkner conceding five runs to end the Powerplay would be the last instance of the Lions being in the game. The next six overs went for 90 runs; each over contained at least one six, the 11th went for three.
When Samson - who hit seven sixes and no fours during his 31-ball 61 - was dismissed by Jadeja in the 14th over, Pant responded with a six and a four to bring the asking rate below run-a-ball. It was perhaps the perfect T20 innings. The only way it could have been better was if he had scored the three runs required to become IPL's youngest centurion.
When Pant was caught behind for 97, Raina, knowing he will not play an IPL playoff match for the first time in 10 years, still came up and hugged the young man. It seemed like the handing of a baton, the IPL's pre-eminent batsman heralding a new hero.
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43rd match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 138/7 (20/20 ov)
RCB 119 (19/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 19 runs
Setting a target or chasing one, Royal Challengers Bangalore have swung to the collapso beat through the season. Up against a relatively simple chase of 139, albeit on a slow surface, Royal Challengers slumped to 119, slipping to their fifth consecutive loss in completed games. Kings XI Punjab executed on all counts in the second innings - their seamers were accurate, the spinners were economical and the fielding wasn't conspicuous, all of which resulted in the lowest total defended at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in the IPL, drastically improving their chances of making the playoffs.
Axar Patel had another stellar day with bat and ball. He took 3 for 11, but his most important contribution came towards the closing stages of the first innings, with his cameo - 38 off 17 balls - pushing Kings XI to 138. Sandeep Sharma then took out Royal Challengers' best batsmen - Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers - in his opening spell to fatally weaken a brittle batting line-up.
Batsmen cheated by relaid pitch
In previous seasons, batsmen were allowed to do what they wanted at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. They had the backing of short boundaries if a shot was mis-timed and gradually developed a relationship of trust with a true, gorgeous surface.
This season, a relaid surface has not only belied that trust, but it has already begun an intimate affair with the bowlers. A slow pitch with variable bounce was evident from the outset, and Kings XI struggled to cope with an atypical IPL surface. The average Powerplay score, before this game, was 39.4 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in first innings' this season. Kings XI laboured to 35 and lost their openers - Hashim Amla and Martin Guptill - in the Powerplay. Royal Challengers claimed the early advantage and didn't let go.
Axar's finishing credentials
A wire-to-wire win - dominating from start to finish - is a rare entity in T20s, primarily because an over, or even a ball, can change the direction of momentum. Axar has added incredible clean-hitting ability to his repertoire this season: before this game, he had hammered 112 runs off 59 balls in the end overs this season at a strike rate of 189.67, clinically executing his role as finisher.
Against Royal Challengers, he simply planned well and executed - picking his areas and battering them. He ended with 38 off just 17 balls, including taking Shane Watson for 18 in the last over. Momentum, clichéd as it may be, was with Kings XI. Kohli, visibly displeased with the last over, knew it too.
Sandeep's biggest asset is not his speed - he is just about medium pace - but his accuracy and the ability to move the ball both ways. He is at his devastating best when he is able to find them both in perfect sync. He had one hooping away from Gayle to have him caught at point. Then, he got through Kohli's defence with an inswinger.
Aware that de Villiers was anticipating another inswinger, he bowled a couple of deliveries that moved away - one beat the bat, one took the edge. Sandeep, using his strengths, had opened up Royal Challengers' weakness.
Confidence affecting ability
Home or away, strong or not, Royal Challengers' batting has failed this season. Confidence is an abstract aspect that is almost always defined by results in sports. The confidence of success can positively influence tight games, but repeated failures can have a devastating effect mentally. Royal Challengers' middle order haven't found any answers - in intent, direction or approach - when their powerful top order has failed. Against a tight Kings XI attack, Royal Challengers' batsmen were found bereft of belief, not for the first time this season.
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44th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Rising Pune Supergiant
Rising Pune Supergiant 148/8 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad 136/9 (20/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 12 runs
Ben Stokes and Jaydev Unadkat have been pivotal to Rising Pune Supergiant's surge up the IPL points table, and their efforts on a dry, up-and-down pitch at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium led them to second with a 12-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was Sunrisers' first home defeat of the season.
Stokes energised a moribund Pune innings with 39 off 25 balls, and his innings, along with 31 off 21 from MS Dhoni, gave them a total of 148 and a fighting chance. Then, bowling cross-seam and extracting inconsistent bounce, Stokes took three key wickets - Shikhar Dhawan, Kane Williamson and David Warner - to ensure Sunrisers never took control of the chase.
They were never entirely out of it either, though, and when Unadkat began the last over, they needed 13 runs with four wickets in hand. Incredibly, Unadkat bowled a maiden and took a hat-trick to end with figures of 5 for 30.
Won't concede boundaries, won't take catches
The first big moment of the game was a bit of quality fielding. Rahul Tripathi, flicking Ashish Nehra to the left of short fine-leg, set off immediately. Perhaps he didn't factor in Bipul Sharma's left-handedness. Bipul moved quickly to the ball, took aim, and hit direct at the striker's end with Tripathi not even close to regaining his ground.
It was the only bit of quality fielding in the Powerplay, though; Bipul dropped a sitter at the same position to let off Steven Smith, Siddarth Kaul did not move at mid-on when Ajinkya Rahane spooned a possible catch towards him, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, diving to his left at short fine leg, gave Smith a second life.
Maybe it was deliberate from Sunrisers, for apart from a Rahane six over long-on, off Moises Henriques, there were no boundaries in the first 10 overs. There was little attacking intent as well, with Rahane and Smith content to milk leg-side singles for most part. After 10 overs, Rising Pune were 51 for 2.
Stokes, Dhoni and the power difference
Smith ended up facing 39 balls without hitting a four or a six. At the post-match presentation, he noted the difficulty of timing the ball, and praised the contributions of his team's "stronger boys". Stokes was one of them - he hit three sixes in his 39 - and MS Dhoni the other.
Before this game, against the quicker bowlers, Dhoni had scored 75 off 35 balls when they had pitched it full or short, but only 43 off 52 balls off the in-between lengths. Initially, the Sunrisers seamers kept pitching it on a good length or just short of a good length, and Dhoni was batting on 10 off 14 balls at the 18-overs mark. Uncharacteristically, it was Bhuvneshwar Kumar who lost his length, feeding him two short balls and an overpitched wide ball in the 19th over, and Dhoni spanked them for 4, 6 and 6.
The cross-seam masterclass
When Stokes came into the attack, Sunrisers were 25 for 0 after two expensive overs from Unadkat, who kept providing width to Dhawan and Warner, and two quiet overs from Washington Sundar, who kept denying them width. Stokes struck with his first ball and his third, both legcutters. One, bowled cross-seam, hit the shiny side, skidded low, and bowled Dhawan. The other, hitting the seam, bounced extra and kissed Williamson's glove.
Giving himself room against Washington in the next over, Warner hit the offspinner for three fours, but Stokes made sure Sunrisers wouldn't claw things back too quickly, only conceding two off his second over.
Unadkat ends Sunrisers fightback
Taking Stokes' cue, Shardul Thakur and Daniel Christian mixed up slower balls with cross-seam deliveries, and in tandem with Imran Tahir kept Warner and Yuvraj Singh relatively quiet, with the odd boundary keeping the teams neck-and-neck. Stokes returned in the 13th over and derived extra bounce again; Warner failing to keep down a slash, picked out sweeper cover. When Tahir bowled Henriques with a googly, Sunrisers needed 53 from 36.
By the time Unadkat came back to bowl the 18th over, the equation read 32 off 18, with Yuvraj on 47. Both Yuvraj and Naman Ojha fell in that over, caught by sweeper cover, failing to generate enough power against Unadkat's slower ball.
Three twos in Stokes' final over left Sunrisers needing 13 off 6. They would end up getting 0 for 3 off those six balls, their lower order finding no way of dealing with Unadkat's slower ball. He kept pitching them at a length that was too short to hit down the ground and not short enough to pull. Bipul Sharma, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all holed out, one after another, getting far more elevation and far less distance than they desired, and what should have been a tense final over turned into a rout.
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45th match - Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians 212/3 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 66 (13.4/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians won by 146 runs
Mumbai Indians made a mockery of Delhi Daredevils' superlative chase of 209 on Thursday, shooting them out for 66 after setting them 213 on the same ground. The 146-run win margin was the largest in IPL history.
They dismantled Daredevils with bowling changes that relied on the head-to-head records of their pacers against the top order, removing half their side inside the Powerplay just like they had in the previous encounter between the two teams. Spinners Harbhajan Singh and Karn Sharma did the clean-up job and put the match to bed with six wickets between them.
Earlier, Zaheer Khan had put them in after returning from a hamstring injury. A four-pronged pace attack couldn't contain either Lendl Simmons or the promoted Kieron Pollard. The West Indian pair supplied the respective touches at the start and end of the innings to lift Mumbai to 212 for 3.
Caribbean carnage, Part 1
Lendl Simmons has IPL numbers that should earn him the status of a legend. Before tonight, he had made ten 50+ scores in 22 matches. He'd also been involved in nine 50+ stands in 22 matches. Yet, it was only his first game of the season when he replaced Jos Buttler tonight.
His start was more reflective of his recent outings though - he had got scores of 1, 1, 4* and 1 in four T20Is against Pakistan just over a month ago. Zaheer Khan, returning after three matches on the sidelines, tied him down in particular during the first half of the Powerplay. But the shackles seemed to break the moment he pulled Kagiso Rabada for six in front of square. Daredevils peppered him with a mix of back-of-a-length deliveries and short ones, but it hardly bothered him. He got, both, on top of the bounce, and under it in good measure - only one of his nine boundaries came off a full-ish delivery.
During his 66, he took apart Delhi's famed fast-bowling attack and counterbalanced Parthiv Patel's sedate 25. Mumbai's 79 for the opening stand on a small ground was the perfect start.
Caribbean carnage, Part 2
They seemed to know it too. Kieron Pollard was pushed up to No. 3. For a brief period after he came in, Amit Mishra had put a stop to Mumbai's momentum. And for that brief period, Daredevils' decision to play a fourth seamer in place of Shahbaz Nadeem could justifiably be questioned.
Pollard hit that hypothesis out of the park, along with four of Mishra's deliveries. This included denting Zaheer's plan of bowling Mishra out at a stretch. His two sixes off Mishra's third over forced Zaheer to give him a change of ends. The two overs needed to make that switch went for 25, and when Mishra returned, Pollard hit him for two more sixes. That was the start of Mumbai's slog-overs push. Pollard saw it through with an unbeaten 63.
Daredevils come a full circle
A target of 213, mere days after achieving their highest successful chase, didn't trouble the Daredevils - for as long as they were in the dugout. Once they came onto the field they realised that the Mumbai bowling attack was well-manned and well-marshalled.
Mitchell McCleneghan had removed Sanju Samson three times in nine balls before today. After the first ball of the chase, the head-to-head was adjusted to four wickets in 10 balls.
Bumrah had removed Pant twice in six balls. He was brought in for the fourth over and got the batsman out for a duck.
Harbhajan had knocked Karun Nair over three times in 19 balls. So naturally he was brought on to bowl to his bunny and the battle ended with a catch to midwicket. These were all signs of a team being well-informed of their own strengths, the opposition's weaknesses, and exploiting them all perfectly.
Meanwhile, Daredevils had updated their lowest score twice in the space of six days, while also pulling off their best chase in the period.
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46th match - Royal Challengers Bangalore v Kolkata Knight Riders
RCB 158/6 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 159/4 (15.1/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders won by 6 wickets (with 29 balls remaining)
Facing up against Kolkata Knight Riders can be a frightening prospect and Sunil Narine has contributed to that image immensely. But, even as his bowling was being worked out, he has found a new way to send shivers down the opposition's spine. He has, get this, fashioned himself into an opening batsman and has had such freakish success that he now holds the record for the fastest fifty in IPL history.
On the back of that breathtaking innings, KKR recorded the highest score in the Powerplay - 105 runs in 36 balls. The target of 157 never even stood a chance.
KKRyptonite
Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers recorded their lowest aggregate in a match two weeks ago. They matched it on Sunday. Knight Riders were the bowling team both times. At Eden Gardens, they exploited a pitch that offered pace, bounce and movement. In Bengaluru, they adapted to a slow and dry pitch.
Gayle fell for a golden duck in his 100th IPL match, undone by a back of a length delivery from Umesh Yadav that stopped on him. Kohli slogged across the line to a legcutter and was lbw a ball after he was dropped. De Villiers was bowled sweeping a knuckle ball from Narine. His average against spin this season has been 13.75.
The huffing and puffing
Considering the men with the most firepower were cooling off in the dressing room, Mandeep Singh and Travis Head were left to do three jobs at the same time. Remedy the slide at the top, lay a foundation through the middle and lead the charge at the end. One man hadn't scored a fifty since May 2015. The other had never scored one in the IPL. But they showed nuances far beyond those numbers in putting on 71 runs in 63 balls. Forty-nine of them came the hard way - by sprinting between the wickets, by doing what their more established colleagues needed to do, and failed.
Having defied the team that had claimed the most wickets between the seventh and 14th overs, this year, Head turned his attention to doing what he is best known for. Six-hitting. He has T20 centuries in the BBL. He is a crowd favourite at the Adelaide Oval. And his 75 off 47 balls enabled RCB to snag 43 runs in the last three overs.
RCBroken
Full tosses. Length balls. Wide balls. Knight Riders batsmen were supplied with a veritable buffet and Narine dined out in style. He began with a hat-trick of sixes - picking the googly from Samuel Badree twice and belting them both over long-off. The next one that went out of the park brought up his fifty, off only 15 balls. There were 19 boundaries in the Powerplay. That's a four or six every 1.89 deliveries. RCB, in their entire innings, managed only 17.
There were perhaps some mitigating factors the bowlers could hide behind. Twenty minutes of rain could conceivably have helped the pitch become better for strokeplay. But it certainly wasn't to blame for two of the biggest power hitters in the tournament being fed ball after ball after ball to leverage over the top with only two men allowed outside the circle.
Chris Lynn loves bowling of this variety. His captain at Brisbane Heat, Brendon McCullum, had warned bowlers not to let him unleash his "baseball-like swing". But nobody seems to be listening, which meant a batsman coming back from a shoulder injury got to smash five fours, four sixes and finish up with 50 off 22 balls.
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47th match - Kings XI Punjab v Gujarat Lions
Kings XI Punjab 189/3 (20/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions 192/4 (19.4/20 ov)
Gujarat Lions won by 6 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
Hashim Amla scored his second century of the tournament, only the third player to do so in an IPL season, but Kings XI Punjab's playoff chances were dented with their sixth loss in 11 matches. Staying fifth on the table, the gap between them and fourth-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad remained three points. Amla's first century - against Mumbai Indians - had also gone in vain when Kings XI could not defend 198, and on Sunday night, they failed to defend 189 against Gujarat Lions.
Not in contention for the playoffs, Lions were depleted without international recruits Andrew Tye, Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Bravo and Jason Roy (on national duty), and played only three against Kings XI - Dwayne Smith, Aaron Finch and James Faulkner. Smith's power-packed 74 off 39 balls gave their chase a rollicking start and threw Kings XI's plans off track: none of their first three bowlers - Sandeep Sharma, Mohit Sharma and Varun Aaron - struck in their first spells. When Smith departed in the 12th over, they needed 70 off 52 balls, and even though Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik did not finish it off smoothly, Karthik stayed till the end to seal a nervy last-over win.
The openers' muscle
The top order of both sides came to the fore to score over 380 runs on a slowish Mohali pitch. When Kings XI were asked to bat, their innings was set up by a second-wicket century stand between Amla and Shaun Marsh. Amla was the more aggressive of the two, after he took off against Pradeep Sangwan in the third over with consecutive fours and relied on boundaries towards the end for the late surge his team needed. He used his supple wrists and crisp drives to mainly score in front of square, bringing up his half-century off 35 balls. His partnership of 125 with Marsh set the tone for a brisk finish, which included 66 runs off the last five overs.
Smith, Amla's counterpart, had not scored a fifty in 10 IPL innings and, before this game, had managed only 103 runs in nine innings this season, with single-digit scores in his last six innings. This time, he used his powerful arms to smash eight fours in the Powerplay, scoring 43 out of the team's 58. He targeted the region in the 'V' down the ground and was even more aggressive once the spinners, Axar Patel and Glenn Maxwell, came on. He had lost his partner Ishan Kishan at the halfway mark but had brought the equation down to 87 from 60 with his 28-ball half-century.
Left-handed second fiddles
In the first innings, Marsh had been middling strokes from his first ball but was unable to find gaps. His role, since Amla was scoring easily, was merely to stick around and rotate the strike. Marsh's cue to score briskly came when he faced two spinners - Ravindra Jadeja and Ankit Soni - as both brought the ball into him. He milked runs on the leg side, showcased his trademark cuts square of the pitch and scored a useful 58 off 43.
During the chase, Kishan had a similar role to play. Once Smith started using his flashy bat-swings to collect boundaries, Kishan made sure he took those singles, scored at more than run-a-ball and saw off the opening bowlers. A left-hander just like Marsh, he also took off once the spinners came on. Facing Maxwell in the eighth over, Kishan pulled and cut to collect 12 from the over with Smith's help. Kishan's 29 off 24 was not quite a match-winning knock but did the job the team needed with Smith firing.
Dropping those sitters
Whether you spot any other trend in this IPL or not, the spate of dropped catches is unmissable. The first catch that went down on Sunday was the toughest - Jadeja's leaping attempt from backward point with Amla on 12 - but the ones that followed made only one team look shabby: Kings XI.
The simplest of those proved the costliest. David Miller had enough time to circle the ground and still get under a Smith skier in the sixth over but he put it down with the batsman on 42. Two overs later, Smith smashed one down the ground towards Gurkeerat, who did well to dive forward but could not hold on. Smith was on 51. Lions were soon cruising with Raina and Karthik in a stable partnership, but the Lions captain offered Kings XI a chance too, in the 17th over. He miscued a drive to Gurkeerat's right at long-off and the fielder got his hands under the ball this time but out it popped again. "The bowlers and fielders let us down, we dropped three crucial catches," Maxwell bluntly stated later.
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48th match - Sunrisers Hyderabad v Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians 138/7 (20/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad 140/3 (18.2/20 ov)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 7 wickets (with 10 balls remaining)
Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on a counter-attacking second-wicket partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques to outplay Mumbai Indians and keep their playoff chances alive. Dhawan and Henriques walloped a stand of 91 that came off just 11 overs as Sunrisers razed a target of 139 with 10 balls to spare and maintained their stronghold at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium with their sixth win in seven matches at the ground.
The win was set up as their bowlers exploited a sluggish pitch to stifle Mumbai. That the visiting team was able to recover to 138 was down to their captain Rohit Sharma, who played an innings of class and poise to give his team a chance.
Sunrisers' position on the table remained unchanged, but they stayed afloat as the race to the playoffs got tighter. The win also brought the curtains down on Delhi Daredevils who do not stand to qualify for the final four anymore.
Switched on, switched off
Sunrisers oscillated between sharp and lax in the early exchanges. Their bowlers made good use of a slow surface where shot-making wasn't at its easiest. Bhuvneshwar Kumar set the tone with a tight first over. And with Mohammad Nabi following suit, it took 10 deliveries for Mumbai to crack. Lendl Simmons lost his middle stump, swinging wildly and missing a quicker, non-turning offbreak from Nabi. Mumbai were 4 for 1 after two overs.
Mohammed Siraj undid some of that good work next over, when Parthiv Patel and Nitish Rana capitalised on poor lines and lengths to punish him for 16. The surge, however, was short-lived. While Nabi got a few to stop and turn, the odd ball kept the pacers interested as well. Siddarth Kaul got a shorter one to hurry on to Rana, who lobbed a catch to mid-off trying to fetch a pull. Kaul's next ball wasn't too dissimilar. This time Parthiv played the line, but couldn't keep the slap down, picking out point where Vijay Shankar let it burst through. Fortunately for Sunrisers, they weren't left to rue the chance, as Kaul took pace off and Parthiv chipped a knuckle ball to long-on two overs later.
Rohit bats on a different plane
Before Monday, Rohit had faced 37 balls of legspin and scored just 35 while perishing four times. On Monday, off the first ball he faced from Rashid Khan, he deftly used the width to guide him through third man for four. Then, with Mumbai having limped to 59 for 3 at the halfway stage, Rohit broke the shackles by going against the spin of Rashid, launching him over long-on for six. Overall, he collected 16 runs off the 11 balls he faced from the legspinner.
Rohit then settled into a beautiful rhythm. That he rarely played across the line showed how well he had read the pace of the surface. His three fours off Moises Henriques in the 14th over further demonstrated his class. When Henriques took pace off, Rohit picked it early and pierced the cover region; when Henriques banged it in at pace, Rohit calmly opened the face to steer it into the gap.
Unlike Rohit, the rest of Mumbai's batsmen struggled against Rashid. Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard, especially, hardly picked him. Hardik, who had helped Rohit stitch together 60 for the fourth wicket, tried to slog his way out and skewed a top-edge to cover. But Rohit continued to pinch singles and find the boundary. By the time he fell, he had struck over 50% of his team's runs. Following his dismissal, Mumbai added just 12 more off 11 balls and lost two wickets.
Big loss, big hitting
With Sunrisers desperately in search of a win, Mitchell McClenaghan pinging the back pad of David Warner first ball of the second over, meant pressure on. But Mumbai conceded the early advantage through poor bowling. They hardly made an effort to take pace off the ball. To Mumbai's misfortune, the pitch did ease up in the second innings. It compounded the shorter lengths they tried out as Dhawan and Henriques relished the pace and picked their areas.
Dhawan's sixes over long-on off Karn Sharma - a muscular heave to a fuller one from outside the crease and a flat-batted shovel to a shorter one - showed how well he had sussed out the pace of the surface. Henriques, likewise, played well off either foot. Successive fours off Malinga in the 11th over - to a full toss and a shorter one - exposed the predictability of Mumbai's bowling.
When Henriques fell to a slower offcutter from Bumrah, shortly after Harbhajan had put down a return catch, Sunrisers were left with 41 to get off 47. And though Yuvraj Singh struggled with an injured finger, Dhawan closed out the game without undue risks.
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49th match - Kings XI Punjab v Kolkata Knight Riders
Kings XI Punjab 167/6 (20/20 ov)
Kolkata Knight Riders 153/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 14 runs
A sensational display of end-overs bowling from Mohit Sharma and strangulation by legspin from Rahul Tewatia, playing his first game this season, helped apply the choke on Kolkata Knight Riders. By securing one of three wins they needed, Kings XI lived to fight another day.
In what was an engaging last five overs off which Knight Riders needed just 50, Mohit brought out all his slower variations - the knuckleball, back-of-the-hand slower deliveries and offcutters - and delivered them with precision to deny Chris Lynn, who wiped out half of Knight Riders' 168-run target off just 52 balls, and Manish Pandey. The pair's dismissal off successive deliveries off the 18th over helped close out a tight game, with the Sharmas - Mohit and Sandeep - defending 29 off the 12 deliveries to ensure three Playoff spots were still up for grabs.
Knight Riders' productive first six
Kings XI made four changes, two of those being forced. One of them - Hashim Amla - had just smashed a 60-ball 104, his second century of the season, in the previous game. Even so, the rest of the batsmen stuttered as they finished with just 189 when they should've posted 210. Now, without Amla, who along with David Miller was unavailable because of national duty, Kings XI needed a robust beginning from the openers. Manan Vohra, who had earlier in the tournament shunted up and down the order to accommodate both Shaun Marsh and Martin Guptill, sparkled briefly, but his dismissal brought about a restrained approach. The first six overs fetched just 41 for the loss of the openers. Knight Riders had begun well.
Maxwell, Saha keep the innings alive
On a surface where the ball was deviating just about enough to keep the medium-pacers interested, Chris Woakes and Colin de Grandhomme bowled six overs in tandem, conceding just 22 off the first four immediately after the Powerplay. Kings XI limped to 63 for 3 in the first half. They went 17 deliveries without a boundary after Shaun Marsh's dismissal in the ninth over, before Maxwell cut loose - hitting de Grandhomme for two successive sixes off legitimate deliveries to trigger a surge. Maxwell's picking of lengths was impressive as he played the pull effectively against the pacers. Wriddhiman Saha, on 10 off 17 at one stage, pinched crucial boundaries to move to a run-a-ball 26. At 115 for 3 with five to play, Kings XI needed big back five overs. But they were denied.
Kuldeep Yadav, returning in place of Piyush Chawla, was rewarded for his willingness to flight the ball as he had Maxwell caught at wide long-off in an attempt to hit him for a third successive six. In his next over, he had Saha stumped after being biffed across the line one ball earlier. A cameo from Rahul Tewatia lifted them to 167, not underwhelming but not match-winning either.
Narine tees off, Lynn consolidates
Two quiet men, who don't believe in intimidating opponents with words, let their blades talk. Sunil Narine's no-frills approach fetched him a four fours in a 10-ball 18. Chris Lynn, playing in only his second game after returning from a shoulder injury that kept him out for three weeks, didn't show signs of "not being a 100 percent" as he revealed during a flash interview during play. Time and again, he was tested against the short ball, only for the deep midwicket and wide long-on boundaries to be peppered with regularity.
The best shot of his knock - a flat-batted swat off Matt Henry which he fetched from outside off - showed how brutally effective he can be even if not at full tilt. Yet, this wasn't as brutal a knock as the one against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Yet, by bringing up a half-century off just 29 deliveries, Lynn ensured Gautam Gambhir's struggle against spin - he scratched around 17 deliveries for 8 before mistiming a slog to deep midwicket - didn't deeply disturb the asking rate.
Tewatia spins web
Two balls after sending back Gambhir, Rahul Tewatia, playing his first game this season, saw off Robin Uthappa, but to not give any credit to Axar Patel would be doing injustice to his efforts. Running around from wide long-off, he covered quick ground before putting in a dive to catch the dipping slog sweep inches from the ground at deep midwicket. Now, the choke was on. Axar followed it up by conceding just three in his next over. The spinners - Tewatia along with Axar Patel and Swapnil Singh - at that stage had combined figures of 2 for 29 off six overs. Knight Riders needed 86 off 54 balls.
Maxwell punt on Mohit pays off
By leaving two overs of Mohit in the last five, Maxwell gambled. With the form Lynn was in , it was a tough proposition. But the pressure applied by the spinners left Knight Riders with a steep task against a bowler, who justified the INR 6.5 crore investment, at a crunch moment with the game on the line to keep his side alive. That he bowled just three overs may have been a decision Kings XI could have rued, but on the night, it was his experience that prevailed.
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50th match - Gujarat Lions v Delhi Daredevils
Gujarat Lions 195/5 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 197/8 (19.4/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils won by 2 wickets (with 2 balls remaining)
Before Wednesday, Gujarat Lions had only won one match while batting first in the IPL, in 12 attempts. The last time they had played Delhi Daredevils, they had failed to defend 208. Now, sent in to bat, they made 195, and ended up on the losing side yet again, their bowling falling apart at critical moments.
Daredevils' match-winner, yet again, came from their group of young, sometimes inconsistent, but undoubtedly gifted Indian batsmen. At the Feroz Shah Kotla, Daredevils had romped home with 15 balls to spare, after Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson added 143 in 63 balls.
Here, at Green Park, they had to pull off a different sort of big chase, where they kept losing wickets right through. Shreyas Iyer's 96 was a different sort of innings to Pant's 97. Daredevils were 121 for 6 at one point, with only the lower order left to give Iyer company.
Then, out of the blue, came some of this season's most exhilarating batting, as Iyer and Pat Cummins plundered 52 from three overs. Suddenly, Daredevils only needed 23 off 18 balls.
There would, of course, be some late tension. Cummins holed out when he may not have needed to hit in the air. Iyer fell in the last over, leaving Nos. 9 and 10 seven to get off four balls. Amit Mishra, though, kept his head, pulling off two ice-cool fours off successive balls to haul Delhi over the line with two balls to spare.
Finch, Karthik lift Lions out of early trouble
Green Park provided a flat batting pitch for its first game of the IPL season, and Lions, despite losing their top three inside the first seven overs, kept scoring at a healthy rate. A lot of this was down to the bowling; in this game, Daredevils' bowlers seemed to have caught the contagion of bowling too straight - and often too short - and leaked runs behind square on the leg side.
In all, they would concede 52 runs, and 10 boundaries (out of 26 overall), in that region. Mohammed Shami provided an early instance of this, bowling one ball full and leg-stumpish and another short and leg-stumpish to Ishan Kishan in the fourth over - with fine leg and square leg both inside the circle - giving away six and four.
Still, Lions had to fight from 56 for 3, and they did so via a 92-run stand, in 58 balls, between Aaron Finch and Dinesh Karthik. Both batsmen played some eye-catching shots, the highlights including a straight six by Karthik off Shami and some ruthless pulls from Finch, who finished with 69 off 39.
Run-outs imperil Daredevils chase
Sanju Samson hit two sumptuous fours through the covers before dragging a pull onto his stumps in the second over of the chase. Then Rishabh Pant, having sauntered absentmindedly out of his crease after surviving an lbw appeal from Pradeep Sangwan, was caught out by a direct hit from Suresh Raina at slip.
That left Daredevils 15 for 2. Iyer then put on the first of his two substantial stands, 57 off 34 balls, with Karun Nair. Right from the start, Iyer's placement stood out - he kept finding gaps in the infield, particularly through the off side, and particularly through or behind point. Then Nair, having just hit three successive fours off Dwayne Smith's slow-medium long-hops and reverse-lapped Ravindra Jadeja for another four, miscued a James Faulkner slower ball.
Then came two run-outs, both from direct hits powered by Jadeja's priceless left arm. First, Marlon Samuels was slow responding to Iyer's call for a single after a push towards point. Mistake. Then Corey Anderson wandered out of his crease after bunting Basil Thampi towards backward point. Another mistake. When Carlos Brathwaite fell to a short ball from Dhawal Kulkarni in the 14th over, Daredevils were sinking. They needed 75 from 37 balls at that point, with only four wickets in hand.
Iyer, Cummins blast off
Daredevils didn't have time for a slow-burning comeback. They duly hit four fours in the next over, two each by Iyer and Cummins, all of them hit along the ground, into off-side gaps. Then Iyer drove and flicked three successive fours off Kulkarni. The biggest over, though, was still to come. It would come - as it has more often than he'd like to admit - against Faulkner. Cummins, expecting and getting the slower, length ball first up, clouted him over long-on. Then Iyer lifted Faulkner over long-off before drilling a drive between the bowler and mid-off.To recap Daredevils smashed 17, 14 and 21 runs off the 15th, 16th and 17th overs.
Mishra the finisher
When Cummins picked out long-on in the 19th over, Daredevils needed 14 off 10 balls. When Iyer played all around a Basil Thampi yorker in the final over, they needed 7 off 4. In walked Mishra, a vastly improved long-format batsman, but not one counted among T20's most dangerous lower-order hitters.
Mishra knows the game inside-out, though, and probably guessed that Thampi would bowl a yorker first up. Down the track he went, surprising the bowler into a full-toss, which he flicked nonchalantly past midwicket. Then, with three to get off three balls, he walked across his stumps, with the knowledge that fine leg was stationed rather square. Thampi's slower ball may have surprised some batsmen, but not Mishra. He waited, kept his shape, waited some more, and unfurled a deft little scoop. The fielder chased hard, dived, got his body behind the ball, but couldn't help deflecting it into the rope.
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51st match - Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 230/3 (20/20 ov)
Mumbai Indians 223/6 (20/20 ov)
Kings XI Punjab won by 7 runs
Kings XI Punjab just about defended 230 to stay in the hunt for the Playoffs courtesy Mohit Sharma's end-overs accuracy. A 453-run slugfest - the second-highest aggregate in IPL history - was decided in the final over.
Mohit recovered from a nightmarish first three overs in which he leaked 49 runs, and defended 15 in a dream last over to deny a rampaging Kieron Pollard.
The odds were stacked against Mohit. Mumbai were within touching distance of achieving the highest successful chase in the IPL with Pollard is prime striking form. Kings XI's fielding wilted under pressure with Glenn Maxwell, one of their best fielders, palming the ball over long-on to reprieve Karn Sharma on 5. Sandeep Sharma then conceded just seven off the penultimate over. Maxwell could have chosen one of Ishant or Mohit. He went with his tried-and-tested end-overs specialist, and he delivered.
The first ball was belted to long-on, and Pollard hared across for the second, but replays indicated that Pollard did not slide his bat inside the crease at the non-striker's end. It was called one short, but Pollard still had the strike. Mohit then unfurled the slower knuckle ball and watched it disappear into the boundary behind midwicket. It was down to nine off four balls. Mohit nailed three pinpoint yorkers and a dipping knuckle ball, which Pollard did not pick, to seal the deal.
The opening salvo
No Hashim Amla? No problem. Manan Vohra has been successful at the top for Kings XI this season, but the management took a punt by sending Wriddhiman Saha to open with Martin Guptill. Before today, Saha had opened in only six out of 163 T20s for 126 runs. He might not have all the shots, but has the smarts. Remember his hundred in the 2014 IPL final?
Saha used the pace of Mumbai to his advantage and picked his areas to hit four fours in his first seven balls. Guptill provided a fine counterpoint to Saha's finesse by forcing the ball through the line. This meant Kings XI zoomed to fifty in 3.4 overs - the second fastest this season behind Kolkata Knight Riders, who got there in 3.3 overs against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The middle-overs salvo
If Mumbai had thought Karn Sharma's dismissal of Guptill in the last over of the Powerplay would slow Kings XI down, they were wrong. Maxwell, promoted to No. 3, and Saha pillaged 50 off the next three overs. The highlights included Saha's dexterous paddle sweep off Mitchell McClenaghan for four and Maxwell's monstrous clubs over the leg-side boundary off Harbhajan Singh.
End-overs salvo diffused
Desperate for the wicket, Rohit turned to Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah. It was Bumrah who bowled Maxwell for 47 off 21 balls with a skiddy delivery. On a night when he colleagues leaked over 10 runs an over, Bumrah stood out with figures of 1 for 24 in his four overs. In all, Saha managed just 10 off 13 balls against Bumrah.
Saha, though, stepped out of his comfort zone and started carting the ball. A Malinga slower ball was launched over his head, a McClenaghan slower ball was swatted over midwicket. Shaun Marsh and Axar Patel, though, could not find the boundary as regularly. Kings XI, ultimately, scored only 40 off the last four.
Fighting fire with fire
Given the enormity of the task, Mumbai's openers showed intent from the first ball. Lendl Simmons, preferred again over Jos Buttler, led the charge smashing 44 of the 68 runs Mumbai hit in the first six overs. Kings XI's seamers fed his strengths by bowling too straight, and Simmons duly picked them off. He also played some fluent strokes on the off side by staying leg side of the ball. Soon after the Powerplay, he brought up his second fifty in three matches, off 27 balls.
At the other end, Parthiv Patel had found his groove with a brace of cover-driven fours off Matt Henry. Parthiv then got stuck into Mohit, spanking a hat-trick of fours. But when he attempted a fourth, Mohit bounced him out.
Turning the game
In the next over, Simmons swung hard at a full-toss that was destined to sail over the long-on boundary….until Martin Guptill took flight and pulled off an incredible one-handed catch. Rahul Tewatia then struck in his first over to remove Rohit Sharma and leave Mumbai at 119 for 3 by the 12th over. It was the sixth time this season that Rohit had perished to legspin. Mumbai only added two runs before Axar Patel had Nitish Rana holing out with a 102kph dart.
Sharma+Sharma >Pollard+Pandya
When Pollard and Hardik Pandya got together, Mumbai needed 110 off 44 balls. What followed in the next three overs was carnage: 52 runs. With 56 needed off 24 balls, Maxwell recalled Sandeep. The seamer found Hardik's outside edge with Saha flying to his right and claiming a low catch. Pollard, aided by Karn, kept peppering the 'V' with clean strikes.
After being taken for hat-trick by boundaries in the 18th by Karn - one of which was palmed over by Maxwell - Mohit hit back to bowl him with a slower offcutter. Sandeep then executed barrage of wide yorkers in the 19th before Mohit followed suit and applied the finishing touches.
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52nd match - Delhi Daredevils v Rising Pune Supergiant
Delhi Daredevils 168 for 8 beat Rising Pune Supergiant 161 for 7 by seven runs
Delhi Daredevils have, over the years, perfected the art of the bizarre, and usually that leads them to lose unloseable matches. On Friday, however, they magicked a way to defend a total of 168 even though Steven Smith appeared in top form and Ben Stokes looked like he was one hit away from finishing the game.
Rising Pune Supergiant needed 91 off 60 balls with seven wickets in hand. They brought that down to 52 off the last five overs, and then, were just shut down. Only three boundaries came in the slog overs as a disciplined bowling attack led by the street-smart Zaheer Khan secured a memorable victory and left the opposition unsure of their place in the playoffs.
A Powerplay of two halves
At the toss, both captains said they wanted to bat, even though only once in four IPL seasons has that led to a victory at the Feroz Shah Kotla. Daredevils' efforts to defy those stats were off to a terrible start. Sanju Samson was run-out in the first over and Shreyas Iyer caught behind in the third. The score was 11 for 2.
Rising Pune then turned to Washington Sundar because he has the second-best economy rate (7.35) among the spinners to have bowled at least 50 balls in the Powerplay. But those numbers meant nothing to Karun Nair. All he knew was he was a superb sweeper of the ball and fine leg was up inside the circle. That was the first of nine boundaries in 18 balls.
Rishabh Pant, too, received preferential treatment from the bowlers. He had come into the match making 190 of his 321 runs this season on the leg side and that's exactly where he found 32 of his 36 runs on Sunday, including four fours and two sixes.
The squeeze
While Nair and Pant were together, the lowest a full over went for was nine runs. But once the 74-run partnership was broken, Rising Pune regained control. The new batsman Marlon Samuels could make only three runs in his first 10 balls. He fell top-edging to MS Dhoni, who had to run back, jump up, extend his right hand as far as it could go. Such acrobatics weren't necessary to stump Corey Anderson; just fast hands and a sixth sense for when the batsman's back foot lifted up as he toppled over.
All the while the set batsman Nair could only watch from the other end. He faced only 11 deliveries in five overs between the 12th and the 16th. He finished 64 off 45. His team-mates 97 off 75.
The Supergiant's supergiant
If Stokes raised eyebrows by becoming the auction's costliest buy, his performance is making them disappear beyond people's hairlines. Case in point was the catch he took in the final over. The ball was soaring over his head at midwicket, but he positioned himself on the edge of the boundary, leapt back, caught it in mid-air and threw it back up because he was going over the ropes and then came back to take the rebound.
Aside from such remarkable athleticism, there is his power hitting. At 92 for 3, he ran at Daredevils' fastest bowler Pat Cummins and pummeled a one-bounce four to midwicket, launched Marlon Samuels' third ball of the match over long-on and nonchalantly flicked Mohammed Shami for a six over deep square leg.
Peak Daredevilry
It was amid this carnage that a scorching yorker arrived. So good was it that Stokes, despite putting bat to it, had to worry about not being bowled. The next ball changed the game.
Shami ran in looking for the blockhole again. Stokes took a shimmy down the pitch and was surprised by a low full toss. The bat turned in his hand as his loft ended up in long-off's hands.
By the time Dhoni was taking guard for his second delivery the required rate was 12. And before he could get set, he was caught short of his ground by a direct hit. It was only the seventh time in 141 IPL innings that he was run-out.
As badly as Rising Pune choked, the Daredevils bowlers were remarkable. They bowled straight, gave no room and nailed the yorkers. The inherent risk in this plan is if the ball doesn't land where it is supposed to, it can be launched halfway around the world. But the big-hitters were gone, and Manoj Tiwary, as well as he had played for his fifty, wasn't really a threatening presence.
He managed two sixes to start the last over to tempt the Pune fans, but Cummins closed the game out with a slew of 145 kph yorkers.
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53rd match - Gujarat Lions v Sunrisers Hyderabad
Sunrisers Hyderabad 158 for 2 beat Gujarat Lions 154 by 8 wickets
It seemed Royal Challengers Bangalore's slide to 47 all out would take some undoing, but in their last match as a franchise Gujarat Lions managed the worst IPL collapse of all time: from 111 for 0 to 154 all out after they had looked like they could get to a defendable score on a flat pitch and a small ground. After the collapse, though, Sunrisers chased with ease to make it 5-0 against Lions, and took the two points that gave them a chance of finishing in the top two, which comes with two bites at the playoff cherry. With 17 points from their 14 games, they now needed Kolkata Knight Riders and Rising Pune Supergiant to lose their respective last matches.
For the first 10.4 overs of the match, it seemed it would take a big chase from Sunrisers. Ishan Kishan and Dwayne Smith got Lions off to a flying start, which showed no signs of slowing down even after the Powerplay, but Rashid Khan and Mohammed Siraj broke the back of the Lions top and middle order. Six batsmen were bowled - second-most in an IPL innings - which spoke both of the bowlers' accuracy and reckless batting. Praveen Kumar took two early wickets to create some interest, but David Warner and Vijay Shankar denied any further drama.
Kishan and Smith run away
It looked like stick cricket, really. The Sunrisers quicks bowled a touch too short, and Kishan kept getting inside the line to help some pulls along their way. Even if he didn't get the best of connections, the pulled-in ropes made sure he kept clearing them. Mohammed Nabi conceded just two runs in the fourth over, but Smith accounted for him in the sixth, slogging him for a six and following it up with an off-driven four. Nabi remained the only bowler to bowl a boundary-less over in the first 10, doing it again in the eighth. Even Rashid went for two sixes and a four, again bowling short and getting pulled away by both batsmen.
11th over, 111 runs, 1st wicket
Outside the short balls in the first 10.4 overs, Sunrisers had conceded at just 8.2 an over. The 13 short balls, though, had gone for 42 runs to leave them looking at a 200-plus chase to ensure qualification. Ironically, it was the short ball that turned it around. Rashid got one to skid under Smith's pull and hit him on the back foot in front of middle. 111 for 1 after 11.
Turn it from left to right
Siraj came back in the 13th over, Rashid continued, and Lions slumped. Siraj primarily bowled slower offcutters, and Rashid wrong'uns. Kishan dragged a length ball from outside off for an easy catch. Suresh Raina did the same to one on the pads. At the other end, Dinesh Karthik lobbed a gentle full toss - a wrong'un - to deep midwicket. Aaron Finch, who had been a victim of the Rashid googly in the previous matches between these two sides, picked the wrong'un this time but still missed with the slog sweep. Five wickets had fallen in 19 balls, and Lions now desperately needed to recalibrate.
Ravindra Jadeja and James Faulkner looked to do that with 19 off the next 17 balls, but the moment they went back to big hits, the quality of the Sunrisers attack shone through. Siraj, Siddarth Kaul and Bhuvneshwar Kumar kept hitting the stumps, and Jadeja was left stranded on 20 off 14 balls.
Praveen gives Lions hope
This was Lions' last IPL match with their contract as a franchise coming to an end. It seemed they were doing a nostalgia night when they picked Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel ahead of the younger Dhawal Kulkarni and Basil Thampi. The intensity dropped in the field, but Praveen showed canniness with the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques in the third over: Dhawan with the slower offcutter, Henriques with the outswinger. Sunrisers 25 for 3 after three.
Warner breaks away, and gets Sunrisers home
Both Warner and Shankar took time to get into their innings. At the end of the fifth over, Warner was on 7 off 12 and Shankar 2 off five. The asking rate had crossed eight. Lions needed to build on this, but they just didn't have the resources, playing as they were with only three overseas players. Warner got going with Faulkner's over - the sixth - and some lazy fielding meant the runs kept coming. The final chance for Lions came in the 10th over, when Ultra Edge showed Warner had edged legspinner Ankit Soni through to Karthik. Warner wasn't given, and he followed it up with two fours in the same over. Shankar, too, found his touch and went past Warner's strike rate as both notched up fifties to cap it off. It ended with another IPL record: the highest team score without a six.
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54th match - Kolkata Knight Riders v Mumbai Indians
Mumbai Indians 173 for 5 beat Kolkata Knight Riders 164 for 8 by nine runs
Mumbai Indians ended the league stage of the IPL with a table-topping 20 points after they beat Kolkata Knight Riders by nine runs at the Eden Gardens. The defeat meant Knight Riders, with 16 points, would not finish in the top two. Sunrisers Hyderabad, who had beaten Gujarat Lions in Saturday's afternoon game, had ended the league stage on 17.
Having made as many as six changes to their line-up in an effort to test their bench strength ahead of the playoffs, Mumbai posted 173 on the back of half-centuries from Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu. Knight Riders were in control of the required rate from the start, but kept losing wickets far too frequently.
As many as five Knight Riders batsmen got to 20, and yet their top-scorer only made 33. This proved decisive, in the end, as they fell short of their target by 10 runs. It was Knight Riders' first home defeat while chasing since 2013.
Rayudu fires to lift sluggish Mumbai
Lendl Simmons came into this game with an ordinary T20 record against left-arm pace - 503 runs off 492 balls, 20 dismissals - and he duly fell to a left-arm quick, flat-batting Trent Boult to mid-off in the third over of Mumbai's innings. Rohit Sharma, pulling and slog-sweeping crisply, then scored 27 off 20 before Ankit Rajpoot had him lbw with an offcutter. That left Mumbai at a healthy 69 for 2 in 8.2 overs.
From there, though, they slowed down. Tiwary and Rayudu were Mumbai's most productive pair in the 2010 season, and now, seven years on, they added 61 in 7.4 overs. Tiwary struggled to find the boundary once the Powerplay restrictions disappeared, scoring only 18 off 21 from the start of the seventh over before muscling Sunil Narine for successive fours in the 15th over to bring up his half-century. A comical mix-up - he stood unmoved at the non-striker's end when Rayudu called for a fairly regulation single - ended his innings at 52 off 43 - it was the second-slowest 50-plus score of the season.
The four other fifties in that top five (Mandeep Singh, Virat Kohli, Chris Morris and Manoj Tiwary) had all ended up in losing causes.
Rayudu, though, ensured Mumbai would post a challenging if not entirely massive total. He began fairly sedately, hitting only one boundary in his first 20 runs, but upped the pace by peppering the leg-side boundaries, the highlight of his innings a pick-up shot over the deep backward square-leg boundary off Boult to bring up his half-century. Despite Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya only scoring 14 off 14 between them, Rayudu's 63 off 37 ensured Knight Riders wouldn't run away with the game.
Slog on, regardless
Given that a team has ten wickets to exhaust over 20 overs, the "ideal" T20 innings would consist of batsmen going for big hits right through, with no pause for the rebuilding phases characteristic of 50-over cricket. That approach, however, requires a side that bats deep, with power hitters all the way down to Nos. 9, 10 and even 11.
Here, Knight Riders - in a chase of 174, where such an approach may not have been strictly necessary - seemed to be aiming for the platonic ideal of a T20 innings without having the line-up for it. Given that Chris Woakes was ruled out with an ankle injury, and that his replacement Boult is a classic No. 11, Knight Riders' serious batting only extended up to Colin de Grandhomme at No. 7.
Still, they kept going hard; they kept finding the boundaries, but they also kept losing wickets. By the end of the ninth over, they had hit seven fours and six sixes and lost five wickets. Chris Lynn, Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan fell in the 20s, and it felt as if one of them could have attempted to anchor Knight Riders and give them some stability to go with their scoring rate. Instead, all three were out going for big shots.
When Yusuf holed out against Vinay Kumar, Knight Riders needed 87 from 66 balls; a perfectly straightforward ask, but they already had their last recognised pair at the crease.
Pandey, de Grandhomme steady chase
Manish Pandey and de Grandhomme gave Knight Riders the partnership they needed, putting on 41 in 31 balls. De Grandhomme maintained Knight Riders' momentum, employing deftness rather than brawn to pick up his boundaries. He used Vinay Kumar's pace to steer him either side of short third man for three fours in the 11th over, before clubbing Hardik Pandya over the midwicket boundary in more characteristic fashion.
Umpire S Ravi missed an inside-edge from Pandey to wicketkeeper Rayudu in the 14th over, but Mumbai didn't have to wait too much longer for a breakthrough, Hardik nipping one back off the seam to bowl de Grandhomme at the start of the 15th. At that point, Knight Riders needed 46 from 35.
Knight Riders run out of batsmen
Pandey's run of luck continued - substitute fielder J Suchith put him down at deep midwicket when he pulled Tim Southee uppishly in the 17th over. The rest of that over continued to frustrate Mumbai. Kuldeep Yadav guided the next ball past short third man for four, and then escaped being run out while taking a non-existent single when Karn Sharma missed the stumps at the bowler's end. Then Southee was no-balled for bowling with only three fielders inside the circle. At the end of that over, Knight Riders only needed 25 off 18.
But they still only had one real batsman left, Pandey, and he pulled Hardik straight to deep midwicket off the first ball of the 18th over. Having now lost seven wickets, Knight Riders simply had no batsmen left with the skill to score 25 off 17 balls, particularly when umpire A Nanda Kishore gave Kuldeep caught-behind in the penultimate over when the ball missed his outside edge.
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55th match - Rising Pune Supergiant v Kings XI Punjab
Kings XI Punjab 73 (15.5/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant 78/1 (12/20 ov)
Rising Pune Supergiant won by 9 wickets (with 48 balls remaining)
Rising Pune Supergiant stormed into the playoffs, earning at least two more matches, and the opportunity for an IPL title before signing out of franchise cricket. They demolished Kings XI Punjab in a virtual knockout match at home to book a spot in the first qualifier against Mumbai Indians on Tuesday. Kolkata Knight Riders will take on defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Eliminator in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
The
Steven Smith made a mention of the moisture in the Pune pitch, and his bowlers made excellent use of it with cross-seamers that tempted the on-the-up drive. On a bare surface, those deliveries come on nicely and batsmen can hit through the line. On this one, offering more purchase, such shots were ill-advised. The ball zipped through or bounced extra, and Kings XI were 32 for 5 in the Powerplay. They were then all out for their lowest total in the IPL - 73.
The surprise strike-force
Jaydev Unadkat started it all, having the big-hitting Martin Guptill caught at short cover off the first ball of the game. He ran out Eoin Morgan with a direct hit from mid-on. A little later, he pulled off a smart, diving catch at short fine leg. Finally, he finished with 2 for 12, only four wickets behind Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the most successful bowler in IPL 2017, having played three fewer matches. Unadkat's strike-rate of 10.8 is the second-highest among anyone that has taken 10 wickets in the tournament.
The partner-in-crime
"My palms were sweating when I was in the bus," Shardul Thakur admitted in a mid-innings interview. But once he took a look at his workplace, he quickly perked up. "When we started, it [the ball] was sticking [in the pitch] a bit, and the cross-seamers worked."
He had Shaun Marsh spooning a drive to mid-off in his second over, forced Rahul Tewatia to top-edge a pull to the wicketkeeper, and finally had Glenn Maxwell flicking a leg-stump half-volley into the hands of long leg. The Kings XI captain, who had pushed himself down to No. 6, finished IPL 2017 having played only 18 balls in the Powerplay and lost his wicket thrice.
A little batting practice
Prior to Sunday, Ajinkya Rahane averaged 19.07, his lowest in a season since 2008, when he played only two matches. A target of 74, whilst being too little for a batsman to sink his teeth into, can still give him the opportunity to spend time at the crease. Rahane made sure to last the entirety of the chase, and hit the winning runs too, a six over long-on. Pune will want as many of their gun players in form to fill the hole that will be left by Ben Stokes - 316 runs and 12 wickets in 12 matches - who leaves for England tonight.
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56th match - Delhi Daredevils v Royal Challengers Bangalore
RCB 161/6 (20/20 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 151 (20/20 ov)
Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 10 runs
They might have had heady highs and lowly lows in between but Delhi Daredevils ended their season as they began it: let down by their mercurial batsmen after the bowlers kept Royal Challengers Bangalore down to a middling total. In their first fixture, Daredevils failed to chase down 157; here they came short going after 161. On both occasions, Rishabh Pant was left without any support from the other end, out for 45 off 33 in the 17th over. Like in Bangalore, Pawan Negi bowled the last over to take out Daredevil's last hope, Mohammed Shami, who had scored 21 off nine balls.
Winning their first match in their last eight attempts, Royal Challengers managed to get off just two wins, which would the joint-worst return for any team in any IPL. They did have their usual failings, though. On a pitch that Virat Kohli expected to offer a lot of turn, he and Chris Gayle laid a platform, but both fell for middling strike rates of 128.88 and 126.31. The rest didn't contribute much as Pat Cummins, Zaheer Khan and Shahbaz Nadeem pulled things back.
In response, though, Daredevils' batsmen made more mistakes. Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer got themselves in on a pitch that lived up partially to Kohli's expectations but got themselves out before they could pay the team back for the 22 and 30 balls they faced for a strike rate of 118.18 and 106.67. The soft dismissals left Pant with all to do, which once again proved too much.
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