It’s a tough being a fan of any IPL team these days. Teams are losing when everyone expects them to win. Chennai Super Kings lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad a few days ago, Royal Challengers Bangalore won against Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders have lost two games in a row at Eden Gardens, and yesterday Delhi Capitals lost to Mumbai Indians.
Rohit Sharma won the toss for MI and chose to bat first. Teams have preferred bowling first and chasing in the later part of the game due to dew factor. But the wicket at Kotla becomes slow during the second half and batting on such a wicket becomes a difficult job. Spinners play a vital role in this half of the game. MI had two spinners in their team because of this. While DC played with the same squad to maintain the momentum.
Till the 17th over of the game, MI was looking to settle for 140 odd runs but then Pandya brothers’ heroics made them post a fighting total of 168. Chasing 169 was not a big job for a team which had scored 213 runs against the same team in their first match. But goof-ups have happened in the past and surely it will happen in the future also.
Both Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw gave DC a good start. In the seventh over Dhawan got out followed by Shaw in the ninth over. After this, a series of collapses happened. Apart from Axar Patel and Chris Morris no other batsman had scored in double digits.
Apart from Pandya brothers, Rahul Chahar also had a good day at the office. He was brought in the second over of the game and he gave away 10 runs in that over. Right after the powerplay, he was again handed the ball. In the next 3 overs, he gave just 9 runs and took 3 wickets of Dhawan, Shaw, and Iyer.
In the end, Delhi Capitals scored 128 runs in 20 overs and lost the game by 40 runs.
MI is now 2nd on the points table after winning 6 matches and DC is on 3rd place after winning 5 matches.
Today Kolkata Knight Riders will take on Royal Challengers Bangalore at Eden Gardens. KKR have lost 3 straight games, two of these losses have come up in Eden Gardens only. RCB has won 1 game out of 8 games that they have played. Stay tuned for the match preview of this game.
Ankit
Part-time storyteller, part-time writer, part-time cricket analyst, and a full-time human being.
