IPL 2021 | I thought he would do something magical: Balaji lavishes praise on improved Jadeja

IPL 2021 | Harshal Patel takes hat-trick against Mumbai Indians

Harshal Patel dismissed Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Rahul Chahar on consecutive deliveries to take a match-winning hattrick against the Mumbai Indians in Dubai. He became the third player from the Royal Challengers Bangalore side to take a hattrick in the history of the Indian Premier League.

IPL 2021 | KKR vs CSK: Hits & Flops as ‘Sir’ Jadeja, ‘Lord’ Shardul foster Super Kings’ dream run

The Kolkata Knight Riders presented some tough challenges with shades of their best, but poor play in crunch moments did not mount a defeating challenge for the in-form side that is the Chennai Super Kings. There were many key moments in the game and at the end of the day, it was the Super Kings who were at the top on most occasions than their opponents. However, the Knight Riders will be thoroughly disappointed of letting a match in their grasp go as Ravindra Jadeja single-handedly took the game away from them. Sunil Narine tried all his magic but fell short of rescuing the Knight Riders while defending just four runs in the last over. Here, we’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the day that turned the tide towards one side or the other. Hits Ravindra Jadeja Team needing a bowler to dry things up to create pressure and opportunity at the other end— he will do it. Team needing him to give control through the middle overs of the limited-overs games— he will do it without conceding too many free balls to hit. There are not many cricketers in the world who have improved so much in their game over the course of the last few years than Ravindra Jadeja has and both the Super Kings and India are reaping rich rewards of investment and perseverance with him. On the day against the Knight Riders, he was on the top of his game with both bat and ball and led them to a close win to establish their dominance in the season. When he walked out to bat, the Super Kings were in a precarious position, needing 27 runs off 13 balls and all specialist batsmen back in the dugout. He had no time to settle and neither did he need any of that as Prasidh Krishan was readying to bowl the penultimate over of the game. The first two balls yielded only two runs and the Super Kings were desperate position with 24 needing the last 10 balls. The situation demanded sixes and on cue, as he has been doing for the sides he plays for in the recent past, deposited Krishna over long leg and long on consecutive occasions to bring the game to equilibrium. Krishna was wrong in executing both line and length to give Jadeja space to hit over the fence and he needed to correct both aspects. Jadeja was switched on and he too knew what Krishna was trying to do. The next two deliveries were bowled at the right line but the bowler faltered with the length and an awake Jadeja plummeted another two consecutive boundaries to almost seal the game for the Super Kings. He could not sustain his magic in the last over bowled by Sunil Narine as he outfoxed him with his variations. But, that the equation had gone to just one run needed off the last three balls was down to his blitzkrieg and Jadeja, the batsman is justifying the hype and expectations on him with each passing game. Earlier, he was tasked with the tough task of containing Eoin Morgan who never shies away from taking the game to spinners, let alone of the left arm kind. On the other side, Rahul Tripathi was going all guns blazing. His line of attack was immaculate and he did not concede even one boundary in his first 12 balls and that is some feat with the kind of batting at the crease. His first 18 balls conceded just 17 runs and Dhoni’s plan of squeezing the Knight Riders was underway in a grand manner. He put an icing on the cake with the big wicket of Tripathi, who was batting like a dream along with a sluggish Morgan. That wicket derailed Knight Riders’ momentum and only remarkable momentum-shifting innings from Dinesh Karthik, in the end, could people them past the 170-run mark which they had earmarked as “winning total”. Shardul Thakur If the last few years have been brilliant for ‘Sir’ Jadeja, the year looks to be going Shardul Thakur’s way in almost the same manner. He can do no wrong either with the bat or ball irrespective of the formats. He appears an innocuous bowler who does not bring any sort of X-factor to the table for MS Dhoni but his portfolio is rich in big wickets and that provide X-factor to the team. The Knight Riders were on a roll as Venkatesh Iyer was carrying on his merry way and allowing the others to go for glory at the end. Then, in walked Shardul with the ball in hand and the first ball produced an outside edge that Dhoni accepted gleefully. If Iyer’s wicket was not enough to dent the Knight Riders, he came back in the end overs and sent their biggest X-factor in Andre Russell. He conceded just 20 runs from his quota of four overs and took the two huge wickets of Russell and Iyer, and formed an unbeatable combo with Jadeja to keep the Super Kings ahead in the game. Like Jadeja, he too was instrumental with the bat as he nudged Sunil Narine behind the wicket for a vital three to almost seal the game. His confidence to attempt that shot against the variations of Narine was proof of his coming to his own on the big stage with the bat, and why not after all his heroics with the willow in England and Australia. Dinesh Karthik The year 2021 has been a topsy-turvy ride for Dinesh Karthik, who donned many hats in the year. He was a pundit decoding India’s game in India and England in between donning the Knight Riders jersey to finish the games for them. He came to the UAE before the scheduled final Test of the series between India and England right from the Sky Sports studio but all the active time away from the field did not affect his mindset and capability one bit. When he walked out to bat, the Knight Riders had underachieved with just 125 odd runs on the board and three overs to go. He had no time to waste and neither did he miss and walloped Sam Curran to all parts of the ground for a 19-run over. Another big over followed as the final over of the innings and Karthik, in the company of Nitish Rana, had carried the Knight Riders beyond the point they were looking to achieve midway through the innings. Karthik has been an excellent fighter for the Knight Riders and his exclusion from India’s T20 side has always sparked heated debate and disappointment in fans. Whatever happens to him in the near future, Karthik’s finishing game is well and truly intact and albeit India are not willing to use it to their advantage, the Knight Riders are loving the prospect of his flourishing end. Flops Moeen Ali Moeen Ali was bought by the Super Kings to provide the off-spinning variety to the bowling attack and aggression to the top order which was found wanting in the last season. He has justified the promotion to the number three slot in place of highly successful Suresh Raina and it was quite a pragmatic decision on the part of the CSK team management to ask Moeen to bat freely at number three. However, he was jaded in mind and could not play the fearless cricket against the Knight Riders today. He was given a luxurious platform of 74 runs by Ruturaj Gaikwad and Faf du Plessis in quick time and his job was fairly easy at the start. He had to ensure the Super Kings did not go off the track to chase the 172 runs target. However, he was proven inefficient and the lack of imagination and improvisation from his side did not provide any momentum to the Super Kings in the middle phase of the game. It was his lacklustre innings that made what was appearing a smooth chase a monumental equation to achieve in the final few overs. Eoin Morgan There was a lot of similarities between the Knight Riders and the Super Kings in today’s game and one of the prominent ones was the abysmal batting form of their captains. Morgan has been struggling this year and the trend has not stopped in the IPL as well. He has managed to amass only 107 runs across 10 matches this season and the record has started so unbecoming for a batsman of Morgan’s reputation and credentials. On the day against the Super Kings, he was struggling to get the ball off the square albeit the other batsmen at the other end—Rahul Tripathi was going with full freedom and establishing there were no demons in the pitch. Irrespective of the form, Morgan can be relied upon to take the attack to the opposition camp but Dhoni could bowl a four-over spell of Jadeja when he was batting showcased nothing but his lack of confidence. There was also a blunder in decision making from Morgan the captain as he preferred Krishna to bowl the penultimate over and Narine to finish the job in the 20th over. It should be treated as a rule that the best bowler who has the best defending skills should bowl the 19th over of the chase to allow the cushion to the bowler bowling a high-pressure final over. The decision looks a lot more ridiculous when one will see it through the prism of experience. Krishna is highly inexperienced to execute his best deliveries in pressure situations while Narine has been a seasoned campaigner to pull off such heists. The Super Kings surged to the top of the table with another win over the Knight Riders while the men in purple and gold could not advance beyond the fourth position on the points table.

IPL 2021 | CSK vs KKR: What Experts Said as Chennai win see-saw battle against Knight Riders

It wasn’t a beautiful finish for a game that deserved it, but the finish was nonetheless more entertaining than most matches. The match see-sawed throughout its duration and at no point seemed like finished, and even if it did, it was either the brilliance of one man or stupidity of many that made it go right down to the wire. In the end, Deepak Chahar hit a single off the last ball of the 20th over to win the match, even as Chennai Super Kings needed only four to complete a chase of 172. However, it wasn’t as easy as just getting four from the last over, rather, the yellow army needed 26 from the last two overs as they lost three wickets in five balls to complicate the matters. In the last five overs, CSK needed only 44 runs to win with seven wickets in hand, but a brilliant 15th over Venkatesh Iyer in which he gave only five runs shifted the momentum towards KKR nad thus they took the target to 26 from two before Sir Jadeja lashed on the wayward bowling fo Prasidh Krishna and hit 22 off the 19th over to make it four off the last over. Captains' Viewpoint Speaking after the third victory in a row, CSK skipper MS Dhoni said that it was nice to get the win, even as he did not play really well. “It's a nice victory to have. At times you play good cricket and you lose. It is enjoyable when you don't do so well and still win. It was good cricket from both sides and a pleasure for the spectators.” Talking about the bowling, which was good in patches, especially with Shardul Thakur, Dhoni said, “We bowled well in patches. It's not easy for the fast bowlers. We tried to give them short spells. 170 was a par score, I felt.” Chennai had a brilliant start towards the chase with their openers putting up 74 for the first wicket and then with another 28 runs with the second wicket mean that the men in yellow were cruising to the total. However, KKR made a comeback which was good enough to scare the Whistlepodu fans that their team might just lose it as well. “The way we started, KKR deserve some applause for making a game out of it. We were also worried about how the wicket will be,” said the CSK skipper. Eoin Morgan, the KKR skipper wasn’t bummed with the loss too much, especially after two back to back wins that his team has gathered. He refused to find fault in his team and considered it just as not ‘their day’. “Both sides batted well. Both bowled really well. Can't fault anything from our side. The second half of the tournament has been a lot of positives for our side. We just have to give ourselves the best chance,” said the 34-year-old. There were certain decisions that turned out really well and one such was holding back Varun Chakravarthy to get him to face MS Dhoni. While there were others like not bowling Sunil Narine in the 19th over and bringing him in the 20th, that didn’t really click. Talking about them, Morgan said that holding back Varun was ‘All about matchups.’ and that ‘Your bowlers need to bowl well enough to execute that.’ While on Narine bowling the 20th instead of the 19th, he said, “Sunil takes the responsibility.” Andre Russell, one of the key players of KKR was seen limping away to the dugout after injuring himself fielding on the boundary line, talking about him, Morgan said, “I hope Dre [Russell] is ok.” “When Jadeja plays like that, similar to Sam Curran for England, I don't think there's a lot to do,” Morgan finally conceded about the loss with a sly smile. Expert Opinion While Captains had their opinion on the game, the cricket experts were busy nibbling away their fingers on their Twitter accounts, writing about this game. Chloe Amanda-Bailey, a cricket journalist from Australia was in awe of Jadeja after the ‘Sir’ snatched away a victory off the jaws of defeat. Ayaz Memon, a senior cricket journalist from India was hugely impressed by KKR spinner Sunil Narine who got two wickets in the last over and almost defended four runs to get the match to the Super Over. Harsha Bhogle, a senior cricket commentator and analyst was also in praise of the prince from Jamnagar. Gaurav Kalra, one of the senior sports journalists, mostly known for his witty comments was at it this time again, digging into Dinesh Karthik after he scored a quickfire 27 off just 11 balls, hammering the CSK bowlers. Kalra brought in the reference of Karthik commentating in England this summer. And in the end, cricketer turned commentator turned cricket pundit, Aakash Chopra was in full praise of Shardul Thakur, who bowled four overs and gave away just 20 runs to pick two crucial wickets of Andre Russell and Venkatesh Iyer. With this win at Abu Dhabi, CSK have now reached the top of the table with the same number of points as the Delhi Capitals, but a better run rate. KKR on the other hand remained at number four with eight points from 10 games.

IPL 2021 | MI vs RCB: Virat Kohli becomes first Indian to reach 10k runs in T20 cricket

With a six to square leg off a Jasprit Bumrah bouncer, Riyal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli entered into the elite list of batsmen with 10,000 runs in T20 cricket. He achieved this milestone while playing against Mumbai Indians in the 39th match of IPL 2021. Kohli is also only the first Indian to reach 10 thousand runs Other players in the list include West Indians Chris Gayle (14,275), Kieron Pollard (11,195), Pakistan’s Shoaib Malik (10808) and Australian David Warner (10019). Kohli, who made his T20 debut in 2007 playing for Delhi in a match against Himachal Prades in Dharmasahala, has 3159 runs in international games of the shortest format while 6165 runs of his total runs have come in the Indian Premier League. The 32-year-old Indian skipper has so far played 314 T20 games and with an average of more than 41, has notched up five centuries and 73 fifties at a strike rate of 133. As far as the game is concerned, RCB, after losing the toss were put in to bat first and by the time writing this copy, they had reached 62-1 in the eighth over. Both MI and RCB have lost their last two games and thus it is an important clash for both sides.