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IPL 2021: What Experts said as DC makes light work of a stiff target

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Riding on a sensational knock from Shikhar Dhawan, the Delhi Capitals never felt threatened by the big total and made light work of the target of 196 runs to stroll home by 6 wickets with as many as 10 deliveries to spare. The win was a sort of coming back after an excruciating loss in the last game against the Rajasthan Royals. 

The target could well have been a tricky task but the pitches at the Wankhede Stadium have produced big batting efforts and hence there was no let-up from the star-studded Capitals batting line up.

Prithvi Shaw was back to his dominating best after a failure in the last game and got his team off to a flying start in the powerplay. His domination set the tone for the rest of the innings and when the right-hander departed, his partner Shikhar Dhawan then took the onus on himself to lead his team to a position of real strength.

Dhawan was quite exceptional in his strokeplay and never allowed the Punjab Kings bowlers to get back in the game by finding boundaries on a consistent basis. The southpaw flayed his way to a 91 before perishing on a brilliant Jhye Richardson slower delivery. 

However, by then, the job was almost done and despite his dismissal, the Punjab Kings didn’t manage to sneak through. 

A horrible 17th over by Mohammed Shami totally tilted the scales in favour of the Capitals and there was no way back from there. Marcus Stoinis justified his position as a finisher and blazed his way to 27 of 12 deliveries. Some of them were freebies, but still, you have to be at your best in mind to execute big shots in crunch situations of a game. Eventually, a boundary from Lalit Yadav finished off proceedings with 10 deliveries left. 

Earlier in the day, it was Rishabh Pant who won the toss and opted to field. Punjab Kings blazed away to a rollicking start courtesy of a sublime opening stand between Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul. Mayank Agarwal smashed his way to a breezy knock of 69 which came in just 36 deliveries. 

However his partner KL Rahul wasn’t at his fluent best and his strike-rate concerns from the previous seasons still lingered. He scored 61 of 51 deliveries in hope of turning the tide in the last overs. However, he could not finish strong and departed just when his team needed him the most. Run scoring is important but the impact is more important and KL Rahul should look to find a way to get it right. 

Deepak Hooda smashed a few lusty blows towards the end and eventually the designated finisher, Shahrukh Khan did finish well as he remained unbeaten on 15 of just 5 deliveries. However, a substantial score of 195 didn’t prove to be enough in the end. 

Captain’s Viewpoints 

Punjab Kings skipper KL Rahul, the birthday boy was disappointed that he couldn’t get a victory on his birthday. However, he sounded optimistic with the fact that there are several games left and they can still make a comeback. He felt that a score of 180-190 would have been a difficult one to chase down but he lamented the fact that Dhawan made full use of the dew which backtracked the Punjab Kings bowlers. 

“Victory would've been sweet on my birthday. Slightly disappointing but we've still got a lot of games left. In the end, when you look at it, it does look 10-15 short. But I felt batting in the middle 196 was really good. 

In the first half, Mayank and I were saying the same, that we'd be good if we got 180-190. But obviously, at Wankhede, there's dew and credit to Dhawan. Dew did sway things, bowling second's always a challenge at Wankhede,” Rahul said. 

However, he said that the team prepares for such a situation but it really gets difficult against a quality batting line-up. 

“It does get difficult against these quality batters. I'm not saying that because I'm on the losing side. Bowlers try to bowl with the wet ball, but it's always difficult to do that. I asked the umpires to change the ball a couple of times (as it was wet), but the rule book doesn't allow that,” Rahul added. 

Meanwhile DC captain Rishabh Pant sounded confident after the victory and said that he has already started enjoying the captaincy tenure despite being under pressure for some part of the game. 

“I've already started enjoying the captaincy but we were under pressure at the start because the wicket was not doing much and they had a good start. Good job by our bowlers to keep them to 190,” Pant said. 

Pant also lauded the efforts of Shikhar Dhawan who has been an integral part of the DC outfit in the last few years. He was stunning at UAE and he is continuing his rich vein of form in IPL even this year. 

“There are many things you can talk to with Shikhar but at the end of the day what he's given to the team is commendable. I like to keep the environment light so that people enjoy their cricket and make the most of their opportunities,” Pant added. 

Experts Viewpoints 

Regarded as the Voice of Cricket, Harsha Bhogle was delighted to see Shikhar Dhawan take his game to a whole new level. The southpaw never bludgeoned his way to a 91 but played proper cricketing shots maintaining a wonderful strike rate. 

He also added that the Punjab Kings have to find ways to defend big totals.

Referring to the match against Rajasthan Royals where they sneaked through in the last ball-thriller, Bhogle said that the dew was not the only factor that resulted in the Punjab Kings going down yet again.

Renowned journalist Sambit Bal had predicted at the halfway mark that Punjab could be short of a match-winning total and it turned out exactly like that.

Ben Jones, who has emerged as one of the finest brains in the modern-day game where data plays a crucial role argued that KL Rahul’s approach is just not working for his team and he needs to change his tactics in the upcoming games. 

Staying true to his data game, Jones backed his argument with a set of data and said that six of Rahul’s last 15 fifty-plus scores in the IPL have had a negative impact on the result.

Cricketer turned analyst Aakash Chopra felt that Moises Henriques can be picked for future games in place of Riley Meredith if these out and out fast bowlers cannot get their team through in high scoring clashes. The Punjab Kings spend hefty sums to buy both Riley Meredith and Jhye Richardson and they have not lived up to their reputation. 

Chopra also lauded Shikhar Dhawan for reinventing his T20 game in the back end of his career. He also signified the fact that learning never stops at any level. 

Chopra also hailed Mayank Agarwal for his whirlwind knock and said that he will be the first man a captain will want in the team. 


The Delhi Capitals will be delighted to get back to the winning ways after losing a game they should have won against the Rajasthan Royals. More than the win, the Rishabh Pant-Ricky Ponting led think tank would be pleased with the manner of their chase of a target.

On the other hand, the Punjab Kings need to find a balanced playing XI that can produce a clinical team performance. 

They have produced two outstanding performances with the bat where they were let down by their bowlers while the batsmen failed miserably on the remaining one matches and the bowler showed promise. 

Now, KL Rahul and Anil Kumble need to find a balanced team to avert these contrasting performances in two consecutive matches and bring consistency in performances and accountability in players.

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IPL 2021 | RCB vs KKR - What Experts Said as RCB coast to a convincing victory

Royal Challengers Bangalore continued their winning juggernaut in Vivo IPL 2021 as they won their third straight match of the competition beating Kolkata Knight Riders in the 10th match of the tournament by 36 runs. It was a brilliant all-round show by RCB right from the toss when Virat Kohli didn’t have any hesitations batting first after winning the toss. The target of 205 was always going to be a huge ask for the Kolkata Knight Riders. They needed a flying start and that was provided by Shubman Gill. He literally smashed his way to 21 before pershing in an attempt to find the boundary once again. Rahul Tripathi began with a boundary as KKR raced off to 27/1 in the first two overs. However, the tides turned as the RCB bowlers stormed their way back into the game by delivering some exceptional middle overs. Yuzvendra Chahal got some good purchase from the surface and the KKR middle order was found out. Nitish Rana who came into the crease on the back of consecutive half-centuries had to depart in an attempt to keep in pace with the required rate. Dinesh Karthik also departed early and it seemed a huge task ahead of Eoin Morgan and Shakib Al Hasan. The ball was not coming onto the bat and batting became more and more difficult. Glenn maxwell’s introduction in the attack saw Morgan taking him apart for three sixes in two overs. However, the medium pacers which included the Hero of the match from the opening encounter, Harshal Patel continued their good work and it became an almost impossible job from thereon. Andre Russell came onto the crease and gave a few glimpses of his old self but the target proved to be way too big in the end. Russell’s refusal of singles in the penultimate over to Harbhajan Singh who can hit the long ball could be questioned and his fitness levels still look below-par. Earlier in the day RCB skipper, Virat Kohli won the toss and had no hesitations to bat first given the history of the ground in this tournament so far. Eoin Morgan missed a trick early by not giving an extra over to Chakravarthy against Maxwell when he was going through a dream spell. He had bamboozled Kohli and Patidar in his very first over to put RCB on the backfoot. With RCB being pushed to the corner, Maxwell and Devdutt Padikkal resurrected the innings. While Padikkal could never get going and found stroke-making very difficult, Maxwell went along his merry way and smashed the KKR bowlers all around the MA Chidambaram Stadium. He looked like batting in a completely different pitch to what Padikkal was batting. Eventually, Padikkal’s dismissal actually worked in favour of RCB as it brought AB de Villiers in the crease. Like so many times AB de Villiers yet again showed why he is regarded as one of the finest batsmen of all time. If Maxwell made batting look ridiculously easy, ABD took it to a whole new level. On a pitch where stroke-making has never been easy, ABD literally toyed with the KKR bowlers and blazed his way to a knock of 76 of 34 deliveries which were studded with 9 fours and 3 sixes. His magical knock took RCB over the 200 mark and it eventually proved way too much. Captain’s Viewpoints Kolkata Knight Riders skipper Eoin Morgan felt that the day totally belonged to the RCB batsmen as a score of 204 was always going to be a tall task to chase down especially on a Chennai surface. He also backed his decision to not give Chakravarthy that extra over when he had picked two wickets in his first over. Certainly RCB's day with the bat on a rocket-hot afternoon game. It [The Chennai pitch] certainly has stumped me, and I can't gauge the wicket. Everyone who batted on this wicket felt it played better but RCB played better. When asked if he could have given that extra over to Chakravarthy, Morgan said, “Probably not to be honest. Maxwell is a fine player, but to bowl, to AB you need to have that [option]. Yeah, yeah, we struggled to kick on and got us into a position where only Andre could do it. Different wicket [in Mumbai], dew, and we have been watching those games.” Meanwhile, RCB skipper Virat Kohli lauded his bowlers for a sensational effort. He reserved praise for Mohammed Siraj who bowled a magnificent penultimate over giving away just a single. He bowled the yorkers to perfection and Rusell didn’t manage to get under it on any occasion. “Especially Siraj's over to Russell [was good] - he has had some history against Russell. He's a different bowler after the Australia tour and he shut the game out. Harshal has so much clarity in the end and I think Jamieson also bowled well. That's the reason why we have three out of three,” Kohli said. To be fair, on a pitch like Chennai, you probably have a bit more space to make an error on the longer boundary. It has to be on the offside and not on side. Siraj did miss on the full-toss, but he has two men on the boundary. The execution was spot-on. Kohli felt that the pitch was not that easy to bat on and that it was just the sheer brilliance of Maxwell and ABD which got them over the 200 mark. “We played in Wankhede, Kolkata and Ahmedabad where the margin of error keeps getting smaller. Well, I said at the halfway mark we have 200 because of two genius innings back-to-back. Maxwell was outstanding and AB to follow. When he gets in with that kind of form and flow, it's impossible to stop him. We got 40 extra runs on that pitch which slowed down. Maxi has taken to this team like duck to water. AB loves the team and they were the difference today. There are areas we can work on. We're not getting ahead of ourselves and not getting over-excited,” Kohli added. Expert’s Opinion A popular face in world cricket, Harsha Bhogle felt that South Africa have to find a way to include AB de Villiers in the national squad for the T20 World Cup slated to be played in India later this year. Bhogle on the other hand criticised KKR's bowling approach after the Morgan-led side failed to use their resources well and were forced to bowl Harbhajan Singh in the penultimate over. Referring to Maxwell's breezy knock, Harsha Bhogle gave a witty reply to Housing. com saying that Maxwell has finally found his home in Bangalore. Renowned journalist Sambit Bal also lauded the likes of Glenn Maxwell and AB de Villiers for making batting look ridiculously easy during the middle and the death overs. Meanwhile, when Chakravarthy bagged the wicket of Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar in his opening over, Bal said that it will be sweeter for Chakravarthy after not getting his opportunity in the national colours owing to his failure in the yo-yo test. Ayaz Menon lauded Mohammed Siraj for bowling an incredible penultimate over and had a special mention for ABD whose knock actually proved to be the difference between the two teams. Both teams were going on at the same rate but it was ABD’s heroics in the final few overs which resulted in RCB going past the 200-mark. Trying to make sense of Yuzvendra Chahal's exceptional bowling on the night where he picked two crucial wickets of Nitish Rana and Dinesh Karthik, Cricviz pointed out how successfully Chahal had used his variations on the night. Scribe Ben Jones predicted like many others that there was no way that ABD would be dropped from the SA national team who are scheduled to play the T20 WC in subcontinental conditions. KKR and Eoin Morgan after their loss tonight will surely be pondering if they are going to play their next match, scheduled to be hosted in Wankhede with the same combination. 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