The IPL proceeds inexorably towards the knockout stages and it now seems to be getting clear as to who will make it and who won’t. Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Capitals continue to lead with 18 points while Royal Challengers Bangalore follows with 16. Kolkata Knight Riders is next with 12 points. Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians are next with 10 points each while Sun Risers Hyderabad is right at the bottom with just 4 points.
Winning the toss, CSK decided to bowl first. Wriddhiman Saha made 44 off 46 and SRH managed 134 for 7.
Openers Ruturaj Gaikwad (45 off 38) and Faf du Plessis (41 off 36) gave their team a solid start which ultimately helped the team win. CSK made 139 for 4 with two balls to spare.
Skipper M S Dhoni remained not out with 14 off 11 and finished with a flourish. Josh Hazlewood was player of the match for his bowling figures of 3/24.
PBSK won the toss at the Dubai international stadium and decided to bowl first. KKR made 165 for 7.
He top-scored for his team KKR with 67 off 49. In the end the total was insufficient to hold back PBSK
He played a skipper’s innings with 67 off 55 and steered PBSK to a win. He was also declared man of the match.
DC won the toss and put Mumbai in to bat. It was a modest score of 129 for 8 and the highest personal score was 33 off 26 from Suryakumar Yadav.
Delhi made 132 with five balls to spare, losing 6 wickets. Performance of the top order was fairly dismal. Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin made significant contributions.
Axar Patel was named player of the match for the 3 wickets he claimed and the 9 crucial runs he contributed.
RR won the toss and decided to bowl at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium. Ruturaj Gaikwad (MoM) made a brilliant 101 off 60 balls and helped take his team to a very respectable 189 for 4.
It was a great performance by the Rajasthan batsmen who got to 190/3 with 15 balls to spare.
Yashasvi Jaiswal made 50 off just 21 balls and Shivam Dube got 64 off 42 to steer RR to victory.
RCB won the toss and decided to bat first at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, making 164 while losing 7 wickets. Glenn Maxwell top-scored with 57 and was the man of the match.
They could only manage 158 for 6; losing by 6 runs. Yuzvendra Chahal took three wickets.
PBSK openers gave their team a good start but the others did not match up.
SRH won the toss and asked KKR to bowl first. SRH could only manage 115 off 8 however.
It wasn’t easy however they won with just two balls to spare in the end.
Shubham Gill was man of the match for his half-century. Right now, KKR's win is being lamented by other teams even more than it is being celebrated by fans.
It’s something like this at this stage of IPL 2021. SRH is out, having won just two out of their 12 matches. MI and RR have lost 7 out of their 12. Interesting times ahead.
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