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Ipl 2020 Rr Vs Kxip Rajasthan Alive And Kicking Courtesy Stokes Samson

IPL 2020 | RR vs KXIP: Rajasthan alive and kicking courtesy Stokes, Samson

Brief scores:

Kings XI Punjab 185/4 in 20 overs (KL Rahul 46, Chris Gayle 99; Jofra Archer 2-26, Ben Stokes 2-32)

lost to

Rajasthan Royals 186/3 in 17.3 overs (Ben Stokes 50, Sanju Samson 48) by seven wickets.

Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson, some rotten luck and a lot of dew cast a shadow on Kings XI Punjab's fairytale as Rajasthan Royals brave-hearted a 186-run chase in the 50th clash of the Indian Premier League. Chris Gayle's six-studded 99 didn't bear fruit as KXIP now rest at the mercy of fellow contenders, their five-match winning streak now vanquished. The comprehensive victory nudged the pink brigade to fifth in the points table besides keeping them in fine fettle for the playoff race, given the NRR dynamics.

Stokes lends Rajasthan a shot in the arm

Ben Stokes struck like greased lightning during the PowerPlay, helping RR to 21 off the first two overs. Caught napping, KL Rahul pigeonholed spin into the fray in the fourth to jam the brakes on. Albeit to no avail as Murugan Ashwin leaked 16, with Stokes exploring each nook and crevice of the ground. There was no respect whatsoever for his national teammate, Chris Jordan as well with Stokes sending a half-volley sailing over long-off with a languid extension of his arms. It could have been the most hunky-dory PowerPlay but Stokes bit the dust on the verge, yanking an off-cutter to mid-off.

Sanju relays the baton forward

Robin Uthappa and Sanju Samson kept the wheels rolling with a steady accumulation of boundaries, walloping RR to a robust 103/1 at the halfway stage. But a double whammy spiced things up for good measure. While Uthappa's bellicose sweep found mid-wicket's palms, Jagdeesha Suchith produced a sidearm flick to nab Samson a yard short of his crease. Notwithstanding the hiccups on the road, RR weren't losing sleep with just 40 needed off 30 deliveries. Senior pros Jos Buttler and Steve Smith made a whoopee as Mohammed Shami splurged 19 off the 17th over, a mighty expensive over which quashed any notions of a bottle job storyline.

Gayle-Rahul cut loose after Mandeep bags golden duck

No prizes for guessing who was RR's spearhead in drawing early blood. The man who's breathing fire with speeds north of 145 clicks an hour, Jofra Archer. A vicious bouncer crept all over Mandeep Singh like a rash as Ben Stokes plunged from backward point to grab hold of the spliced edge inches from the turf. Chris Gayle served a harsh notice to Kartik Tyagi dictating that he's still wet behind the ears, raiding 14 off his first over.

Varun Aaron, who replaced counterpart Ankit Rajpoot in the eleven, did hurry the southpaw on the pull but Riyan Parag let slip the swirler at deep square leg. Fortune smiled upon him once more just after he accomplished the half-century landmark, with a miscued shovel somehow steering clear of bowler Rahul Tewatia's back-pedalling dash. Gayle's conversion rate this season has been sensational, cruising on to acquire three fifties in six appearances so far.

Gayle-Pooran beat KXIP's drum

The ball holding a tad bit in the surface meant a persistent struggle for timing. While Gayle's mishits had enough sting in them to clear the ropes, Rahul isn't cut from the same cloth. He perished trying to force the issue in the 15th off Ben Stokes, but only after contributing 46 to a humongous 120-run alliance. Nicholas Pooran trumpeted his arrival with a couple of devastating sixes before digging out Tyagi's near-perfect yorker to fetch a six over long-off. KXIP must have heaved a huge sigh of relief when the left-handed typhoon exited for a 10-ball 22, Tewatia reverse cupping the flat jab on the long leg boundary.

Gayle brought the hammer down on Tyagi's lifter to mow a maximum over cow corner, not only zapping his figures to 47/0 but also reserving an elusive milestone of thousand sixes in T20 cricket in the process. He'd ricochet an Archer missile onto his stumps to fall a whisker short of a richly-deserved ton, even throwing his bat across in sheer agony. The Universe Boss might be in for a cup of coffee in the match referee's cabin.

What's next in store?

Save the bag-packing for another day. For, both teams still own a puncher's chance of qualification. RR play their last league game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, while KXIP battle Chennai Super Kings later in the evening.

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IPL: Chris Gayle hits 1,000 T20 sixes, marches miles ahead of the rest

Chris Gayle is arguably the best batsmen to have ever played in the T20 format and he added yet another feather to his cap by hitting 1,000 sixes in the T20 formats across international and franchise cricket. He has now become the world's first batsman to achieve the milestone and has an unmatched lead over other prolific six hitters in world cricket. He is followed by Kieron Pollard who has 690 sixes to his name and Brendon McCullum with 485 sixes. He also possesses the record for the leading run-scorer in the format, having amassed 13,572 runs, out of which 10,170 runs have come only through sixes and fours. He is miles ahead of other batsmen on the list of leading run-scorers such as Kieron Pollard who has 10,425 runs to his name, followed by Shoaib Malik with 10,145 runs and Brendon McCullum with 9,922 runs. Gayle achieved the feat in tonight’s match between the Kings XI Punjab and the Rajasthan Royals where he was at his absolute best and batted with full authority to take the Kings XI Punjab to a fighting total. Gayle finished after a searing yorker finished his inning one short of a spectacular century. Albeit Gayle achieved a truly remarkable feat of 1,000 sixes but he was denied the chance to set another record of being the oldest player to score a T20 century. He was threatening to beat Paul Collingwood's record of scoring a century in the cricket’s shortest format at the age of 41 years, 65 days. He showed his emotions after getting dismissed on 99 by Archer and threw his bat away. However, he was not violating the spirit of the game and shook hands with Archer to calm the nerves on the field.

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

As the tournament is coming near to its climax, the road to the playoffs is getting more interesting and exciting. The next game in the league between the two Deccan rivals will be an ultimate clash as both the teams would be looking to enter the playoffs. While Sunrisers would be looking to gain another two points to boost their chances of qualifying, RCB would be looking to straightway enter the Playoffs with a win. SRH’s balance looking solid The Hyderabad team for the first time looked balance as they played both David Warner and Kane Williamson in one game and at the same time had an all-rounder in Jason Holder as well. Along with this, they preferred to play an extra spinner with Rashid Khan in the form of Shahbaz Nadeem. With Wridhiman Saha opening the innings, the scope playing Vijay Shankar and Holder down the order as specialist finishers also make the team look dangerous in the death. Worrying signs for RCB as it starts looking like the old self The Royal Challengers Bangalore have started to falter at the business end of the tournament, giving signs that it is getting back to its much-known version of choking at the important phases. In the last two games, it lost to Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians by huge margins. The team hasn’t found the solution of how to beat in the death if either de Villiers or Kohli get out and neither do they have a solution on how to bowl in the death if two set batsmen are batting. In Washington Sunder and Yuzvendra Chahal, they have two very good spinners no doubt, but they are rendered useless if the fast bowlers don’t capitalize on the players built by their economical spells. Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad: Details Match Number- 52 Date: 30th October 2020, at 7:30 PM IST, 06:00 PM Local, 2.00 PM GMT Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah Broadcast: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch Report The pitches all across the UAE have behaved in identical ways but in two phases. While in the first phase it was about high scores in the first innings and then the chasing team being unable to cross that in most cases. In the second phase, it has been about low scores in the first innings with dry pitches helping spinners and the dew helping the chasing team to cap off a win. Weather and Toss The weather in Sharjah would be good for cricket as humidity will be low and dew would be high, helping the chasing team. Also, the fact that the ground is too small, dew really becomes a huge factor. In such a scenario, the team winning the toss would look to bowl first. Team News Royal Challengers Bangalore The team is in dire need of changes. There is no clue as to why a winning combination in which Isuru Udana played the role of good fast bowlers and a lower-order hitter. Instead of playing him, the idea to play Moeen Ali or Dale Steyn could still not be fathomed by many. So the changes that can be seen in the next game are Udana coming into the team in place of Steyn. Expected XI Josh Philippe, Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli (c), AB de Villiers (wk), Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Shivam Dube, Chris Morris, Washington Sundar, Isuru Udana, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal Sunrisers Hyderabad The Hyderabadis look all settled finally and hence disturbing that combination would not be considered ideal. Left-arm spinner and leg spinner are the way to go against the likes of de Villiers and Kohli. Expected XI David Warner (c), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Jason Holder, Abdul Samad, Rashid Khan, Shahbaz Nadeem, Sandeep Sharma, T Natarajan Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad Dream 11 and team suggestions David Warner (c), Devdutt Padikkal (vc), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Abdul Samad, Jason Holder, Washington Sundar, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Isuru Udana Captain: David Warner Vice-captain: Devdutt Padikkal

Aakash Chopra draws analogy to defend KL Rahul's place in Indian Test team

The selection of KL Rahul into the Indian Test team for the tour of Australia has not gone too well for some fans and experts and like all the issues of nowadays, it has polarized the cricketing world too. His selection has been termed as prioritizing IPL performances and overlooking recent records in the longest format by his critics while the others have supported the move by the selectors to back Rahul’s pedigree on a supposedly tough tour of Australia. Analysts finding his selection correct are justifying the selectors' position by taking factors such as the experience of Rahul who has been on two tours of Australia in the past and the absence of Rohit Sharma from the squad but few like Aakash Chopra has some direct and rational anecdotes to justify Rahul's place in the squad to take on Australia. In a column written for the ESPNcricinfo, Aakash Chopra has argued the move taken by the Sunil Joshi-led selection panel is a right one because KL Rahul is a special player and that he needs to be invested upon like the selectors have been doing with other players such as Virender Shewag, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli who went on to become the undisputed legends of the modern-day cricket. Recalling a similar time before the tour of Australia in 2007-08, Aakash Chopra wrote that he along with Gautam Gambhir and Wasim Jaffer were included in the 21- member provisional squad for the tour and it was certain that one of him or Gautam Gambhir would take the flight to Australia as the second opener as Virender Sehwag was out of favour following his dismal show with the bat in a year leading up that time. An effort to regain form and knock selectors’ gate also failed as Sehwag could not get going in a couple of matches before the squad was to be finalised. Outlining the honesty and pragmatism of Virender Sehwag, Chopra wrote that the opener stepped up to the selectors and asked for his omission from the tour as he was not feeling good about his form. Interestingly, Chopra pointed out that the selection committee in consultation decided to back Sehwag for the tour only for him to not look back again as he cemented his position on the back of a dismissive hundred in Adelaide in the fourth match of the series. Chopra also drew the comparison to the amount of backing Rohit Sharma got after failing as a middle-order batsman in the Indian team and the level of confidence that was shown on Virat Kohli after a disastrous England tour in 2014 to justify the selection of KL Rahul in the Test team for Australia and said that there are many instances that prove special players need investment to blossom and KL Rahul is indeed special in Chopra’s eyes. Notably, KL Rahul has been in a top-notch form in the white-ball games both for India and the Kings XI Punjab in the last 18 months and it was a tempting option for the selectors to not waste his good form on the tour of Australia. Rahul is way ahead of the race for the Orange Cup in the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League with 595 runs from 12 games. He has also shown admirable leadership qualities by leading the team to five wins on the trot that revived the Kings XI Punjab’s journey in the IPL 2020 and he has been rewarded for that quality as the selectors have made the Vice-captain the limited over the side for the tour of Australia in the absence of Rohit Sharma.

IPL 2020 | DC vs MI: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

The Delhi Capitals will be men on a mission when they meet the Mumbai Indians in their next encounter in order to cement their playoffs berth. The last time the sides met was midway through the Indian Premier League this season when marching into the playoff round was a mere formality for both the sides. However, when Shreyas Iyer will walk on to field for the round two of the clashes between the sides, he will have tough questions hovering in his head and while he has shown impressive qualities of being an able leader and not letting his teammates feel the heat of the competition, he can't recuse himself from the feeling the pressure of facing two games of as much value as of knockout games against the two best sides of the league so far. The Capitals were showing signs of weakness and vulnerability with too many batsmen failing to make good use of the starts they had got in the initial phase of the tournament but the return of Shikhar Dhawan to his belligerence best at the top of the order and few cameos by the likes of captain Shreyas Iyer, Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer had overshadowed the cracks in the batting line-up. The presence of a bowling line-up that turned out to be one of the best in the tournament also helped Iyer to negate the shortcoming in the batting department. But, in the last three games, the bowling department too, had off days and that left the batting line-up and all its frailties wide open for the teams to exploit. After a long streak of poor scores, Shaw was dropped for the stability that Ajinkya Rahane had to offer but the promises have not been transformed into runs for the team and the Capitals have been left to do a lot of hard work in the middle phase after stuttery innings that Rahahne have played in his five outings. To be fair to the Capitals, their plans were marred by injury setbacks to key players such as Rishabh Pant, having said that, Pant has not looked his best after his comeback from the injury and it plagues the Delhi’s batting line up. Captain Shreyas Iyer has not looked terrible with the bat and has amassed 389 runs from 12 outings in the season but he has not looked that dominating either that is the signature of his batting and has not quite won the Capitals a lot of games this season. Iyer and Pant have been the driving force of the Delhi Capitals’ engine in the past few seasons and they will need all the elements to work in a perfect manner as they plan to up the ante against the best in the league this year. On the other hand, even the Virat Kohli’s team combined with a lengthy spell of sledging could not prevent the juggernaut of Mumbai Indians in the last game. The team looks daunting in all departments and has been a revelation in the season with every batsman showing impeccable resistance to defensive batting or bowling. Irrespective of conditions and situations of the game, someone or the other stands up tall to win them the games with towering performances. In the last game against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, Suryakumar Yadav stood his ground against the quality bowling of Yuzvendra Chahal and Chris Morris with an aggressive ploy of Virat Kohli to rattle him. In matches before the last game, the likes of Pandya brothers, Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan have sucked the life out of the opposition bowling line up. Whatever was left by the batsmen, were drained down by the ferocious spells of bowling by the trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult and James Pattinson. The spinners in Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya have played the role of silent killers magnificently and have not allowed teams to take a breather after facing the pace trio with the new ball. The Mumbai Indians have played this season like a side worthy of the title of 4-time champions and although the side is without the regular captain Rohit Sharma, Kieron Pollard had made sure that the side remains focussed with the ultimate goal of stamping their supremacy in the IPL history. Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians: Match details Match Number- 51 Date: 31st October 2020, at 3:30 PM IST, 02:00 PM Local, 10.00 AM GMT Venue: Dubai Broadcast: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch and weather A new pitch will be used for this game and that should offer a balanced contest between bat and ball at least with the new ball. Both the sides are full of natural strikers of the ball and a new pitch will assist their stroke-making as the ball will come nicely onto their bats. However, the likes of Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje from the Capitals side and Trent boult, Pattinson and Bumrah will look forward to making the new ball talk and either side which will begin on a high against the new ball will start the game with a slight upper hand. This will be an afternoon game and hence it should be no brainer to bat first after winning the toss. Yes, the side opting to bat first may bring impressive new-ball bowlers on either side into play but there will be plenty of run on offer against the new ball and both the sides will be tempted to feast on it. Team News Delhi Capitals The Delhi Capitals don’t have any especially grave concerns to ponder about at this moment in terms of the team selection but the team management will expect better returns from Ajinkya Rahane and will bank on experience to come good for the team as they walk into the territory of must-win games. Kagiso Rabada had a horrible run of form in the last game and was taken to the cleaners by David Warner in the powerplay and the team could never come back from the initial assault. The young pacer would like to put that game out of his mind and focus to team up with Anrich Nortje to run riots like they were doing at the start and the middle of the IPL 2020. The team management has already stated that Prithvi Shaw was provided ample opportunities before the team had to drop him and it’s unlikely he will be trusted given his recent track record of throwing his wicket away in crucial games like these. Expected XI The Capitals are unlikely to change their playing XI however the alarm bells must have rung for Shimron Hetmyer after the last loss against the Sunrisers. Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Rishabh Pant (wk), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Tushar Deshpande Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are running like a full-fledged bank which has all its departments such as loans, deposits and recovery working at the full potential while the manager has the job of nothing more than but overseeing the situations that may become precarious and taking preemptive measures to avoid such situations. Ishan Kishan has blossomed at the top and the swagger and flair he has displayed at the top of the order can make the likes of Virender Sehwag very proud while the bat swing will impress none other than Yuvraj Singh. He, as all the good players do, has grabbed the opportunity by the scruff of the neck and now the team should look to just cement its spot in the top two positions of the points table. The uncertainty around the nature and the status of Rohit Sharma’s injury remains and the star batsman is likely to sit out for the game against the Capitals as well. Expected XI The Mumbai Indians have no reason whatsoever to change the playing XI that won them the game against a challenging RCB in the last encounter. Ishan Kishan, Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Saurabh Tiwary, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard (c), Krunal Pandya, James Pattinson, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians: Dream 11 team and suggestion Rishabh Pant, Quinton de Kock, Shreyas Iyer, Shikhar Dhawan, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Krunal Pandya, Anrich Nortje, Tushar Deshpande, Kagiso Rabada, Jasprit Bumrah Captain: Shreyas Iyer Vice-captain: Hardik Pandya