IPL 2020 | MI vs KKR: Hits and Flops as de Kock and Rahul Chahar lead Mumbai to a comprehensive win

Mumbai Indians seem to have found the number of the Kolkata Knight Riders as they once again defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by a huge margin of eight wickets with 19 balls remaining in the 32nd match of the Indian Premier League 2020. The game in Abu Dhabi had come under the limelight way before its started thanks to all the controversy built around the change team’s leadership from Dinesh Karthik to Eoin Morgan.

In the match though, the outside changes didn’t turn any fortunes for the Kolkata-based side as they lost two in two big games. Morgan decided to bat first after winning the toss didn’t help the team’s cause as wickets fell at regular intervals to make things worse for the team. Had it not been for Pat Cummins and his blistering knock at the end of KKR innings in Abu Dhabi, chances were that the match would have ended way earlier than it did.

If Cummins was a bright spot for Kolkata, Rahul Chahar and Quinton de Kock stood out for the Mumbai Indians. On that note, let’s look at the Hits and Flops of the game.

Hits:

#1 Quinton de Kock

While many thought that the match was heading for a thriller, especially after the way KKR finished with the bat and also because of the past reputation KKR had made this season by defending low scores. But the South African captain had other ideas as he went into the attack mode right from the word go.

De Kock made 78* off 44 balls with nine fours and three sixes at the strike rate of more than 177. He made sure that no chance of reprieve was given to the KKR at any moment. For his efforts and contributions, he was rightfully adjudged Man of the Match.

#2 Rahul Chahar

The Mumbai Indians seem to be building towards its perfect team as more and more youngsters are producing match-winning performances. Rahul Chahar is one of those youngsters. When the leggie came to bowl in, he not only took wickets but stemmed the flow of runs of the opposition, building even more pressure on the batsmen.

It was this ploy of his that made him bowl excellently as can be seen from the figure of 2/18 in his quota of four overs. The two wickets that Chahal took were off consecutive deliveries as he got Shubman Gill caught in the deep while Dinesh Karthik got out LBW.

#3 Pat Cummins

Although from the losing team and he did give away runs during his bowling, it is Pat Cummins with the first fifty of his IPL career saved the KKR innings. Coming to bat at a time when all big guns of the team had returned to the pavilion, Pat Cummins showed splendid courage to take all the blowers to the cleaners. In his innings of 53 runs off 36 balls, there were two sixes and five fours.

From struggling at 61/5 in 10.4 overs to getting up to 148 in the next 9.2 overs was courtesy of the 87 runs partnership between Morgan and Cummins in which Cummins was the aggressor.

Flops

#1 Dinesh Karthik

In the news due to handing over his captaincy terms to Eoin Morgan, Karthik looked like a lost cause. Instead of firing on all cylinders, Karthik looked hesitant on the ground. It reflected in his batting too as the former KKR captain could only manage to hit one four of the eight deliveries he faced.

The intent was lacking and so was the fire. It is exactly the right time for Karthik to show it to the people that he deserved to remain captain of the team.

#2 Andre Russell

Senior cricket journalist Boria Majumdar pointed how Russell has not been able to win even a single game for the KKR this season with his bat and how he was playing only on his reputation. Today also he played without any proper plan or approach and got out of just 12 from 9 balls. In the bowling department too, he wasn’t able to do much and gave away 15 runs from two overs without picking any wicket.

While KKR would battle it out against Sunrisers Hyderabad to save their campaign in their next game, Mumbai would take on Kings XI Punjab to seal their positions in the playoff phase.

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IPL 2020 | MI vs KKR: De Kock dazzles as Mumbai best Kolkata once again

Brief scores: Kolkata Knight Riders 148/5 in 20 overs (Pat Cummins 53*; Rahul Chahar 2-18) lost to Mumbai Indians 149/2 in 16.5 overs (Quinton de Kock 78*) by eight wickets. Kolkata Knight Riders suffered yet another crushing loss at the hands of their bogey team, Mumbai Indians in the 32nd match of the Indian Premier League 2020. Don't jump the gun on KKR's 148. For, it was scraped from thin air purely on the grounds of Pat Cummins' resolute 36-ball 53 after a humiliating batting implosion. Quinton de Kock's unbeaten 78 fit the bill nicely in response as MI usurped Delhi Capitals to the crest of the points table on Friday, October 16 at Abu Dhabi. Morgan the new cook to KKR's broth KKR skipper Dinesh Karthik had sent ripples through the cricketing fraternity by relinquishing the leadership duties for Eoin Morgan to assume charge, basically with an aim to focus on contributing with the bat. The World Cup winning talisman roped in Shivam Mavi and Chris Green as Tom Banton and Kamlesh Nagarkoti ferried electrolytes. Nathan Coulter-Nile registered his season debut for MI as James Pattinson was rested owing to workload management. Mumbai keep their rivals under the thumb The freshly-anointed captain would have only just donned the thinking cap when he had to rush for his batting gear, as KKR's top-order fell flat on its face. Rahul Tripathi, levied back to the comfort zone of the opening slot, smashed the leather off Trent Boult's wide tempter but Suryakumar Yadav at backward point yielded a glorious interception, reverse cupping the waft advancing at supersonic speed. Shubman Gill perished to an uncharacteristic heave while Nitish Rana scruffed a glove behind to his short ball bugbear. Karthik's premeditated paddle defeated the solitary purpose behind him stepping down from the job, as an ungainly ricochet trimmed the bails off. Andre Russell hammering a six and a four rekindled the glimmer of hope, though it was snuffed out pretty quickly by Jasprit Bumrah who exploited his pet peeve with a well-directed bumper, leaving KKR devoid of any sort of fizz at 61/5 around the halfway juncture. Uber-cool Cummins saves KKR's neck However, Pat Cummins and Eoin Morgan refused to throw in the towel, patching together a counterattack worth 87 to shepherd the men in maroon to presentable waters in terms of the scoreline. The all-rounder enjoyed the luxury of the time to get his eye in, trading singles to begin with before engaging in some calculated risk-reward ploys. Common wisdom would hint towards Morgan torch-bearing the surge, but it was Cummins instead, glazing a barbaric pull off Boult and notching his maiden IPL fifty with a slingshot to the cover fence off Coulter-Nile. Though Morgan leveraged profit in the right-arm's 20th, dumping two massive strikes to relic his bowling economy to a shambolic 4-0-51-1. Rohit-de Kock stand wins half the battle While the majority of KKR's swashbucklers came a cropper, the brash left-right combo of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock hummed a different tune. The futile adventures of hurling chin music were bonked promptly over the square leg fence besides an assortment of drives and punches whooshing through the carpet. Interspersed between the eloquent strokeplay was a goof-up from the southpaw, but Varun Chakravarthy shelled the immensely tough chance scampering backwards from short fine. The equation had stunted to a low-key 59 off the last ten when pacer Shivam Mavi allowed KKR a little foot in the door, nicking behind Sharma for almost a run-a-ball 35. Hardik adds a dollop of splendour Suryakumar Yadav gift-wrapped his wicket with a silver ribbon and extended it to KKR, picking the wrong ball to sweep and having his stumps tonged. Albeit Hardik Pandya held in store an exquisite garland, as fragnant as it possibly can be, comprising a couple of gun-barrel straight lofts and a bewitching whip off Pat Cummins, whose wicket-drought now stands elongated to five matches. The formalities were done and dusted with a rather anti-climatic nurdle along the turf, bristling MI to their 21st win over KKR in IPL history. Where next from here? Though Pat Cummins delivered the goods with his lesser-known skill tonight, its high time he does justice to the price tag with the ball in the first place. It wouldn't be a cakewalk though, for sure, as browbeaters David Warner and Jonny Bairstow from Sunrisers Hyderabad await KKR in the first of Sunday's doubleheader. MI's juggernaut is operating on rocket fuel and deems potent enough to tyrannize bottom-dwellers Kings XI Punjab later in the evening.

Want Delhi Capitals to play the best cricket in the second half of IPL 2020 - Ricky Ponting

Delhi Capitals are in touching distance for a playoffs berth in the Indian Premier League 2020. Shreyas Iyer’s men have bagged 12 points so far from 8 outings. Head coach Ricky Ponting believes performing well in the second half of the league would be even more challenging as the wickets will get slower as the tournament progresses. Ponting has urged his team to play well in the second half of the tournament. Ahead of Delhi’s encounter against Chennai Super Kings, Ponting said, “One thing I have been telling the boys right from the start of this tournament is that I want us playing our best cricket in the back half of the tournament, not necessarily in the front half of the tournament.” Ponting said Rajasthan Royals struggled to chase a competitive score of 160-odd last Wednesday due to the slow nature of the track. The former Australia skipper also stated that batting first was comparatively easier during the first leg of the tournament. The coach is confident of his team doing well in the business end of the tournament but he insists that the team have their feet firmly on the ground as things could change drastically in the IPL.

IPL 2020: Tweet sparks captaincy speculation at Rajasthan Royals

On a day that saw a captain of an IPL side stepping aside for someone else to take over, a Twitter post from Rajasthan Royals sparked a huge speculation about Steve Smith handing over the reins of Royals to Jos Buttler. The official Twitter handle of the franchise published a photograph of Jos Buttler calling him ‘Boss.’ The tweet led to people flooding the micro-blogging site with different takes while others wondered about the authenticity of the development. Cricket commentator Harsha Bhogole first tweets about the development in the Royals’ camp before pulling his tweet back for the lack of clarity on it. He explained his deleted tweet as a measure to be ‘doubly sure’ about the scenario of Royals’ captaincy change. Smoke social media users went far too ahead and also started quoting what looked like an ideal quote of Steve Smith while discussing the captaincy transfer with the Rajasthan Royals management. However, when the team management got the sense of the furore its post about Buttle has created on Twitter, the official handle blamed the admin for ringing false alarm albeit in a cheeky manner. Ultimately, the Rajasthan Royals management enabled Twitter to have too much fun today.

IPL 2020 | RR vs RCB: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

The ongoing season of the Indian Premier League is entering into a crucial phase when all matches hold special importance where the fortune of teams hinges on outcome in every match or every ball. The tournament is heading to the end of the fourth week and while some teams have found their best XI whereas others are yet to find the combinations that serve them in the best manner. In the first match of the third weekend with doubleheaders, the Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore will go head to head as battle lines will be drawn between arguably the world’s best two batsmen. The Royal Challengers have shed off their past reputation in the history of the IPL and have shown enough depth in all the departments to get the IPL 2020 campaign on a much better note than previous editions while Royals have shown signs of a muddled team which is being led by management that is not quite sure of the best players who can lead the side in long and consuming tournaments such as the IPL. Both these teams committed a handful of mistakes in their last game and were punished by the opposition. The Royal Challengers are coming to this game after a hammering at hands of KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, and Chris Gayle after the team management held back AB de Villiers against an exaggerated threat of leg spinners while the Rajasthan Royals' could not match up the firepower of Delhi Capitals and were beaten hands down in all the departments. The Royal Challengers will walk on the field to face the Royals with a real sense of purpose after a day when the strategy did not go well for them against Kings XI while Steve Smith’s side has a lot to ponder over the outlook of the side. The inclusion of Ben Stokes has not been able to revive the Royals’ campaign and a lot of the blame has to go to captain Steve Smith and coach Andrew McDonald. Before Stokes’ arrival in the tournament, Smith was opening the inning - a strategy that made the team a top-heavy side with no batsmen capable of turning things around. It was widely believed that Stokes’ entry would make the middle order stronger and the English all-rounder will play the role of a finisher for the Royals. However, they had other ideas and in a bizarre move asked Stokes to open and Smith moved to his slot of number three. The Royals have shown signs of spark and the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad was one of those games when the team had pulled off a miraculous set of performances to clinch the game in their favour but the team had lacked a sustained period of brilliance with the bat or ball. Steve Smith’s struggle with the bat has not helped the case and the Aussie star would hope to turn things around albeit the challenge in front of him in Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini is nothing short of monumental. Steve Smith, like he has done in his international career, needs to rise through it to guide the Royals on the path towards playoff. On contrary, Virat Kohli and company need to regroup after a dismal performance against the Kings XI Punjab when there were signs of the old RCB coming back with both on-field performances and off-field tactics. Virat Kohli needs to remind his troops that momentum slips away very quickly in IPL and that they need to be wary of being complacent and not winning games when in good form. Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: Match Details Match Number- 33 Date: 17th October 2020, at 3:30 PM IST, 02.30 PM Local, 10.00 AM GMT Venue: Dubai Broadcast: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch and Weather report A fresh pitch will be used for the game between the Royals and the Royal Challengers and it will give batsmen the freedom to go for quick runs in the power play. Dubai has appeared to be producing pitches that support stroke playing this season and the match between these two sides can be a run feast if batsmen on both sides can make the most of the conditions that are likely to be on offer. Fielding in the sun is never easy and it will be no different when the captains will walk out for the toss. It’s almost certain that the captain winning the toss will bat first and put the runs on board. Weather conditions during day time will be tough on players with humidity likely to be on a higher side will make players, especially those who will be fielding in the sun, sweat it out for every bit of effort. Team News Rajasthan Royals The Rajasthan Royals have made a lot of shuffling in the playing XI and it has not paid off well both for the team and the players who have been in and out of the side. The team should give players who fielded in the last game a longer rope after they pulled off a brilliant chase just a game before the last one. But, if the team feels like they need to chop and change just one player, the could potentially field Varun Aaron in place of Jayadev Unadkat, who picked up two wickets last game but gave away over 10 rpo. There were rumours about Steve Smith stepping aside and handing over the captaincy to Jos Buttler but there is no official word from either the franchise or Smith himself. Expected XI Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Steven Smith (c), Sanju Samson, Robin Uthappa, Riyan Parag, Rahul Tewatia, Jofra Archer, Shreyas Gopal, Jaydev Unadkat/Varun Aaron, Kartik Tyagi Royal Challengers Bangalore After years of turbulence in the team selection and a lot of chopping and changing, the Royal Challengers have shown the maturity of a good and developing team by backing the players to come good even with some minor blip in form. Keeping their IPL 2020 track record in mind, it’s unlikely they will bring any changes to the playing XI but an alarm bell must have started ringing for Mohammed Siraj who had two bad games in a row. Expected XI Devdutt Padikkal, Aaron Finch, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Isuru Udana, Navdeep Saini, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore: Dream11 team and suggestions AB de Villiers, Jos Buttler, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Riyan Parag, Chris Morris, Ben Stokes, Yuzvendra Chahal, Navdeep Saini, Jofra Archer, Kartik Tyagi Captain: AB de Villiers Vice-captain: Jos Buttler