CSK vs KKR and MI vs RCB – The super clash of Super stars !
Double header Sunday was all about the 2 major contests between the league’s most popular teams. In the afternoon affair, Chennai Super Kings took on the Kolkata Knight Riders in Abu Dhabi whereas night in Dubai belonged to the game between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians.
In the afternoon game, Eoin Morgan won the toss and decided to bat first and the decision turned out to be a questionable one as both the openers couldn’t do much damage at the top but a breezy innings from Rahul Tripathi and the onslaught from Dinesh Karthik at the back end powered the Knights to a competitive total of 171/6 in 20 overs.
Chasing 172, openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (40) and Faf du Plessis (43) gave CSK a brisk start reaching 63/0 in seven overs. However, KKR pulled things back with a flurry of wickets but CSK had other plans. With 12 needed off the last 12 balls and captain MS Dhoni back in the dugout, Ravindra Jadeja took the onus of finishing and hit two sixes and a four in three consecutive balls against Prasidh Krishna in the penultimate over to bring down the equation for CSK to four runs in the final six balls.
Everyone thought the match was over for KKR but that’s not all. Backed by skipper Eoin Morgan, Sunil Narine, gave a single off the first ball of the final over before running Sam Curran out in the next. Shardul Thakur ran three of the fourth ball before Narine caught Jadeja plumb in front with 1 needed off 1 delivery and 2, wickets in hand, that’s when Deepak Chahar walked in and scored the winning run off the final delivery.
Watch : CSK vs KKR highlights
The evening game was an important one for both sides as it wasn’t only about two Titans- Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma up against each but it was an important clash for both teams as they were yet to win a game in this leg of IPL. Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to field against the Kohli-led RCB team and even after a false start RCB managed to set Mumbai Indians a target of 166 in 120 overs riding on the fifties from skipper Kohli and Glenn Maxwell.
In a chase of 166, MI were given a perfect start by openers Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock, as the duo brought up their 50-run stand in quick time to take the side to 56/0 at the end of the Powerplay. However, wickets fell in the middle overs as MI’s middle order again failed to rise up for the challenge as Yuzvendra Chahal and Glenn Maxwell spun the spin web to bring the required rate up.
The climax of this game was to be written by the purple cap holder- Harshal Patel who earlier in the season took a five-fer against the same opposition. Harshal picked up four of the last five wickets of MI, including a hat-trick to guide RCB to a convincing win, their second against MI this season to claim two crucial points and to stay at number three in the points table.
Watch : RCB vs MI highlights
What was assumed to be a thriller of a day in IPL indeed saw a lot of celebratory moments in the span of few hours. The emotional ride for the fans doesn’t end here. The way the 2nd phase of IPL has been so far, we are definitely in for a lot of drama and nail biting end to the games!!
~Vaibhav Tripathi (Guest Author)
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