The restart of the Indian Premier League (IPL) doesn’t feel like a restart at all. It does not feel like the second half of a tournament of two (forced) halves. But like a different tournament altogether, an un-hyped sequel, a related but different product altogether, without the narrative arcs of catharsis and escapism that had prefaced the prequel.
The first part is a hazy memory, made to look more distant by the intervening sport-filled five months. In this span, India lost the one-off World Test Championship final, reset and prevailed in a nail-biting Test series in England, and if you veer away from cricket, clasped their first-ever Olympic gold medal in athletics. The time-lapse of 144 days looks longer than it is. (Read Full Preview)
He says he would like to give credit to the bowlers who bowled in the powerplay for the discipline. "There wasn't much in the pitch. Wasn't much spin on offer so I had to keep it on the stumps. I thought it was out (the hattrick ball) but just saw the replay that there was an inside edge. Definitely made me feel better." 'I started very late in my career. Now getting picked for India gives me a sense of acceptance.'
monthly limit of free stories.
with an Express account.
"It was important to get a good partnership on this surface. We didn't expect that much dew to kick in so early, we couldn't have predicted that. We were 42-odd for one and then lost about five wickets within 20 runs from there, which is a very difficult situation to come back from. Bit of a collapse there for us, bit of a wake-up call and might as well have this at the start of the second leg so that we know exactly what we need to work on."
"We were determined to make a comeback and we did well in all departments. Hope we go forward and qualify for the playoffs. It was a bold statement. It was a plan to get the net run-rate going. Iyer was batting well in the practice games as well, and to make a debut and perform so well, it was very pleasing to watch. It felt good, except the way I got out, but I'll get to my fifty next match"
87 MI v KKR Mumbai 2008
76 KTK v RR Indore 2011
73 PBKS v DC Mohali 2017
71 RCB v PBKS Indore 2018
60 KKR v RCB Abu Dhabi 2021 *
Venkatesh Iyer hits back to back fours to take Knight Riders to victory. What a debut!!! He completes the hammering by nailing a pull through midwicket.
The partnership is finally broken as Chahal takes Shubman Gill. He gets caught by Siraj. Gill slices this high up in the air. No mistake from Siraj coming in from the long-off boundary. KKR 82/1 after 9.1 overs
The target seems near now as Venkatesh Iyer goes reverse and swats it over backward point for a 4. Worked out well for him because it was the googly that was pretty shot. KKR 75/0 after 8 overs
Another cracking 6 by Gill as RCB bowlers don't have any idea on how to break this partnership. KKR 70/0 after 7.4 overs
Iyer and Gill have got a steady partnership going with 62 off 43 balls. Kolkata Knight Riders need 31 runs in 78 balls. KKR 62/0 after 7 overs
Excitement makes Varun Chakravarthy wide-eyed. That’s probably the only piece of discernible emotion in a calm exterior, sometimes veering towards unassuming even. The mystery spinner had a valid reason to be excited. First he took the mickey out of Glenn Maxwell by flicking his fingers over the ball, and then made short work of debutant Wanindu Hasaranga. On a hat-trick, Varun thought he had Kyle Jamieson out leg-before; convinced enough to readily ask for a review. He proposed, his captain disposed. Eoin Morgan was rather convinced about an inside edge and the pleading fell on deaf ears. Varun’s emotional overload needed Morgan’s indifference to neuter and the skipper was right. In the grand scheme of things, the 30-year-old could well be India’s trump card in the T20 World Cup next month. That’s though with a rider; he needs to stay fit.
KKR crosses 50 runs as he hits Chahal for a four. Away-drift and turn in from India's premier leg-spinner, and Shubman Gill plants his foot and launch a slog-sweep away towards long-on for four! KKR 56/0 after four overs
Jamieson gets hit for a 4 by Gill to long-off. He charges down once again and cross-bats this flat to the long-off boundary. A free hit in the same over gets hit for another 4. Venkatesh Iyer hits a 6 in the last ball of the over. KKR 45/0 after 5 overs.
Debutant Hasaranga gets hit for a four as Iyer slams it to deep extra cover. 7 off the over. Kolkata Knight Riders 29/0 after 4 overs
Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer start toying with RCB bowlers as soon as the innings started. The debutant Iyer has hit 2 fours while Gill has hit one. Two back to back wides in the second over. KKR 20 after 2 overs
Lowest totals for RCB in IPL:
49 v KKR Kolkata 2017
70 v RR Abu Dhabi 2014
70 v CSK Chennai 2019
82 v KKR Bengaluru 2008
87 v CSK Port Elizabeth 2009
92 v KKR Abu Dhabi 2021 *
"It was a very disciplined bowling performance. I'm happy to do whatever the coach and the captain want me to do, be it bowling the first over or come back later. We did work a lot even during the last phase, credit goes to the team management. The plan was to attack the stumps, the ball was doing a bit initially, now it has flattened, so we just stuck to our plans."
Andre Russell back in attack. Takes out Siraj. Low full toss, Siraj shuffles and scoops. Makes decent contact with his premeditative stroke but ends up hitting it straight down fine leg's throat. RCB 92 all out in 19 overs
Ferguson bowls out Harshal Patel. Off-pace yorker was the leg-cutter. Patel backed away, cleared his front leg and tried to squeeze it away. Only managed an under-edge as the ball deflected onto his stumps. RCB 83/9
Varun Chakravarthy's figures in an impressive 4-0-13-3. He has taken Hasaranga, Sachin Baby and Jamieson
Jamieson is run out. As Harshal Patel drills the ball down the pitch, Chakravarthy deflects the ball onto the stumps as he dives to his right in an attempt to stop it. Jamieson can't get back in time. RCB 77/8 after 15.3 overs.
Harshal Patel hits a boundary after a long time! He hurriedly cuts and the ball trims the toe end before dribbling away past the fielder in the 14.3 overs. RCB struggling at 75/7 after 15 overs.
KKR are going for the jugular as Chakravarthy takes Sachin Baby. Flighted ball, fuller and wider, further spins away from the left-hander and Baby decided to swing over the on-side. Slices it in the air off the outer edge and it's a sitter for Rana. RCB 68/7 after 14 overs.
Chakravarthy was on a hattrick. Loud appeal for lbw as another RCB batsman is beaten on the inside edge by the in-turner. The impact was probably outside off. Morgan decides against the review. Replays show that there was an inside edge. RCB 63/6 after 12 overs
Until that ball, Andre Russell hadn’t bowled anything really full, forget a yorker. In the lingo of the IPL comms, he was bowling ‘hard lengths’, hitting the deck short of length. Sometimes, Russell can give an impression as if he is just going through the motions with the ball. Not today. And when AB de Villiers came on to bat, Russell decided to test him with a pretty decent yorker. It was on the leg stumpish line and perhaps de Villiers was surprised at the choice of weapon, he almost stumbled and lost balance trying to flick the ball. It was too quick and ricocheted off his left leg and fell on the stumps. Off Russell ran to nowhere in particular and leaped in joy. One by one his team-mates came over to envelop him with a celebratory hug.
How not to play an upper cut? Devdutt Padikkal can tell us. Everything was wrong about his attempted upper cut off Lockie Ferguson. The ball wasn’t short enough. The ball wasn’t fast enough. The ball didn’t bounce enough. And poor Padikkal must have realised he was in a soup as soon as he started to bend his knees and lowered himself. Down plunged the tall man but so did the ball. But he was so committed to the shot by then that he couldn’t pull out of it. And so he tried an upper cut to a ball barely above the bails and self-destructed by edging it to the wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. Padikkal does love playing that shot but that’s how it rolls sometimes.
It's a big wicket as Maxwell walks. He is out bowled by Chakravarthy. A tossed up ball, drops on the batsman as it spins in, Maxwell clears his front leg for a massive slog over mid-wicket. Moved leg-side and was a shot played in frustration. . Hasaranga comes on and he's also gone. On IPL debut, Hasaranga bags a golden duck! He thinks about reviewing, but RCB don't have any left. Another in-turner, on a length. RCB 63/6 after 12 overs
Much has been discussed on the recent tour of England about Virat Kohli’s propensity to edge behind but lbw is one dismissal that has hovered over his career. It wasn’t a surprise then that Prasidh Krishna, who possesses a good nip-backer, tested him early in the piece in his 200th IPL game. As soon as it began its inward movement, Kohli looked in trouble, with his head tipping outside the line and forcing him to play across the line. Unsurprisingly, the ball missed the wood and rammed into the pad, triggering a pump of fist and a roar from Krishna. He had to wait a touch to legally claim the wicket as Kohli pressed for DRS. No luck though, and as he began to walk away from his partner, Kohli shook his head and trudged off.
Ferguson bowls a no ball in the last ball of the 11th over. It was a pretty uneventful over till then. Free hit time. And no runs off it. RCB 60/4 after 11 overs.
Russell magic again as he takes de Villiers for a duck. The yorker was on spot and got the better of ABD. Royal Challengers Bangalore in a spot of bother. RCB 52/4 after 8.4 overs
KKR have been spot-on with the ball. It isn't a high scoring ground and Royal Challengers Bangalore need Maxwell, AB and the rest to play some sensible cricket
RCB 3 wickets down as Srikar Bharat is caught by Shubman Gill. Bharat was searching for a boundary - rocks back on the pull, doesn't get anywhere near the middle of the bat and spoons it in the air towards deep mid-wicket. RCB 51/3 after 8.1 overs
Maxwell facing Narine. 50 up for RCB in this over. RCB 50/2 after 7.3 overs
Andre Russell comes into the attack with Glenn Maxwell on the crease. A quiet over. Just 6 off it. RCB 47/2 after 7 overs
Devdutt Padikkal caught by Karthik on the last ball of the Powerplay. On the first ball of the new over, Ferguson was hit for a four to deep backward point by Padikkal. Sweet revenge. RCB 41/2 after 6 overs
Sunil Narine comes into the attack. Srikar Bharat hits a four to deep extra cover in the last ball. RCB 35/1 after 5 overs
Prasidh bowls to Srikar Bharat. 3 dot balls in a row. The 4th ball is also a dot but it's a No ball. Another no ball. And that's a four from the second free hit. That's a handy boundary, another pretty high full-toss, on the hips and it's whipped away one-handed, over backward square leg and rolls away to the ropes. RCB 27/1 after 3.4 overs
Kohli was given OUT LBW and he goes for the review. A long wait for the ball tracking and it finally works and it is three reds and that means Kohli has to walk back. Prasidh Krishna is delighted. What a response from him after being hit for a boundary. Bowled it slightly fuller and it came back just enough to strike Kohli on the pads. RCB - 10/1 after 1.4 ovs
FOUR! Virat Kohli picks up the first boundary of the innings! He has punched that through the cover region for a four. Exactly the start Banglaore would have wanted. RCB 10/0 in 1.3 overs
Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal are at the crease. Kohli is on strike. Varun Chakravarthy will open the attack! HERE WE GO!
Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan(c), Andre Russell, Dinesh Karthik(w), Sunil Narine, Venkatesh Iyer, Lockie Ferguson, Varun Chakravarthy, Prasidh Krishna
Virat Kohli(c), Devdutt Padikkal, Srikar Bharat, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers(w), Wanindu Hasaranga, Sachin Baby, Kyle Jamieson, Mohammed Siraj, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal
Royal Challengers Bangalore have won the toss and have opted to bat. Virat Kohli - 'We will bat first. Looks like a good pitch, the grass will hold it together, will slow down as the game progresses. This one's special, we promised back in May that we'll play for the Covid warriors, here it is - we'll auction this uniform and the proceeds will go to them. Two debutants for us - KS Bharat and Wanindu Hasranga'
Temperature is around 40 degrees and the pitch has a greenish tinge over it. But it will have a tennis ball bounce and a little bit of movement might be on offer, feels Matthew Hayden. 166 is the number to reach for the side batting first as teams who have breached this mark have won 11 times out of 22.
After Kohli announced on Sunday that he will step down as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain after the ongoing season of the Indian Premier League, there's a big spotlight on his performance in this match.
'This will be my last IPL as captain of RCB. I'll continue to be an RCB player till I play my last IPL game. I thank all the RCB fans for believing in me and supporting me,' the 32-year-old flamboyant batsman said in a video released by RCB.
AB de Villiers is one of the most lethal hitters in the shortest format of the game and it will be interesting to see when he goes up against Andre Russell in the middle-overs which holds the key to this tie. It's quite a one-sided rivalry with the former South African captain getting the better of Russell on most occasions. Russel will look to pay him back by kind this time around.
In our second match since the restart, Royal Challengers Bangalore will take on Kolkata Knight Riders in a much anticipated contest at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. KKR who have had a torrid time in this season's IPL will look to turn around their faltering form against a RCB side who want to win the tournament for the first time ever. All eyes will be on Virat Kohli who has said he will leave the RCB skipper's role after this tournament.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore jersey will have “My COVID Heroes” written on through the IPL to pay tribute to frontline workers in the battle against the pandemic.
It will be a hot and humid evening at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. It is tough to predict a favourite but the Knight Riders have five wins out of seven at this venue. Unfortunately, they were also bowled out by RCB for a paltry 84/8 at the same ground. KKR scored 84/8 in their 20 overs, the lowest score in IPL history for a team without having been bowled out. They lost their top order for virtually nothing as RCB were helped to a blitz of a start by Mohammad Siraj (3/8). So kind of mixed memories for KKR.
Here's how the last match between these two teams went:
Dinesh Karthik needs 54 runs to become the 7th Indian and 11th overall to slam 4000 runs in IPL. Karthik is two grabs away from becoming the wicketkeeper with most catches in IPL. While he has taken 113 catches so far, MS Dhoni (114) is ahead of him.
Virat Kohli will become the first player to play 200 IPL matches for a franchise. Overall, he’ll be the fifth to get the feat. He also needs 71 runs to become the first Indian and fifth overall player to complete 10,000 T20 runs.
In the Indian Premier League history so far, these two teams have played each other on 27 occasions. In these games, Knight Riders have a slight edge with 14 wins while RCB emerged victorious 13 times. Will RCB make it equal tonight? Only time will tell.
Losing their marquee signing, Pat Cummins, is a blow for Kolkata Knight Riders. Apart from his bowling on fresh UAE pitches, KKR would miss his lower-order batting as well. Tim Southee, his replacement, is fine exponent of swing bowling though.
Royal Challengers Bangalore have added depth for the second phase of the IPL. Yes, without Washington Sundar, they miss a spinner who can bowl in Powerplays, while Adam Zampa’s absence, too, could be a factor. But the franchise has brought in a smart replacement in Wanindu Hasaranga. George Garton was in excellent form in the Blast semifinal, both with bat and ball, playing for Sussex against Kent. The left-arm fast bowler could be a good addition for RCB going ahead. And Kyle Jamieson has taken to the tournament like a duck to water.
Has Virat Kohli's leadership stint at RCB brought the success to the franchise that the early signs of his leadership had promised?
Virat Kohli's eight-year tenure as the RCB skipper was of cringing underachieving, despite having some of the biggest names in the shortest format like AB de Villiers and Chris Gayle.