Home
Cricket News
Ipl 2020 Dc Vs Csk Hits And Flops As Dhawan Axar Patel Trounce Dhonis Super Kings

IPL 2020 | DC vs CSK: Hits and Flops as Dhawan, Axar Patel trounce Dhoni's Super Kings

Of all the holes in the Chennai Super Kings’ ship Dhoni had talked about, death bowling was exposed in the night when Shikhar Dhawan and Axar Patel put on a show to defy all that men in yellow had to throw at them. Chasing 180 at the sluggish Sharjah stadium, the Delhi Capitals won the game by five wickets and rose to the top of the table dislodging Mumbai Indians.

Here we select the performances that tipped the balance towards either team.

Hits

Shikhar Dhawan

Dhawan batted through the innings and went off the field only after Delhi Capitals won the match in a resounding manner and conquered the top of the table. He completed his century in 57 balls and was brilliant against every bowler that MS Dhoni tried against him.

Dhawan was aggressive on anything that was full bowled to him and especially the six he hit in the 17th over off Sam Curran was reminiscent of what he is capable of doing with the bat. Dhawan has been batting fluently at the top of the order and if Prithvi Shaw can get back to his touch Delhi Capitals are a team to beat in the IPL 2020.

Dhawan showed immaculate precision in picking gaps and adjusted his batting stances every now and then to send the balls into unmanned zones. Chennai Super Kings did not help themselves by dropping as many as four catches off him when he was batting at 25, 27, 50, 79, and Dhawan, like all good players do, made sure that the Super Kings paid for their mistakes.

Axar Patel

When Axar Patel walked into bat in the 19th over, Shikhar Dhawan was timing the strike brilliantly at the other end and by the time he was on the strike in the last over, the match was hanging in balance. With Delhi needing 15 runs off the last four balls of the over bowled by Ravindra Jadeja, Axar belted three sixes off the next four balls and snatched the victory away from the Chennai Super Kings’ hands.

Axar Patel has been a critical element of Delhi's success in the current edition and has stepped up his game after Amit Mishra was ruled out due to an injury. He has performed well with both bat and ball and has shone in crunch situations when the captain has called on him.

Earlier in the night, Axar was superb with the ball as well and squeezed the Super Kings’ batsmen for runs. He was at his usual best of hitting tricky lengths aiming at stumps. Albeit he could not take any wickets, he was miserly in his four overs and yielded only 23 runs.

Ambati Rayudu

When Ambati Rayudu came to bat in the 12th over, the CSK were in an all too familiar position of not having enough runs on the board and the batting pair before him could not hit boundaries at will. Rayudu, too, could not get going from the ball one but a sweep shot in the 14th over bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin got him going.

Rayudu never looked back and started timing the ball brilliantly as the innings progressed. He displayed his range of shots and the six he hit over the extra cover boundary off Anrich Nortje, who has been one of the best death bowlers in the ongoing season of the IPL was nothing short of breathtaking.

Rayudu found an able partner in Ravindra Jadeja and the duo combined to take on the Delhi’s bowlers and built a dominating partnership of 50 runs from just 21 balls and helped Cheanni surge past the 170-mark.

Flops

Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja holds the key in Chennai's success, as well as failures and sadly for him and for the men in yellow both aspects were clearly visible in the match against Delhi Capitals.

With the bat in hand, he was successful in hitting some lusty blows and guiding the team to a respectable total but a horrible last over where he produced all the five balls in the hitting zones of the batsmen, he also turned to be the villain of the game for the team.

With Bravo going out of the field due to discomfort, Dhoni trusted him to keep a check on Delhi’s hunt of 17 runs but Jadeja was abysmal to start with. He bowled the first ball wide and while Dhawan could take only a single off his next ball, Axar Patel made sure that Jadeja could not get away bowling length balls in the last over of the chase.

MS Dhoni

MS Dhoni’s miserable journey in the IPL 2020 seems to have no end as he is batting a two-front battle. First, he is failing regularly as a lead batsman of the side while his team has not been able to bring their best game so far in the IPL, barring a few games when they have shown the glimpses of their glorious past.

MS Dhoni came to the crease at the number five in the 15th over and while the team required him to go big from the ball one, Dhoni failed yet again to accelerate and left the team in limbo.

As a captain of the side, Dhoni seemed to be out of control and asked Jadeja to bowl the final over of the game despite not favouring him during the rest of the innings. Prior to the final over Jadeja was given just one over to bowl in the early part of the innings and then was asked to defend 17 runs in the last over of the chase. However, his call was forced due to an unfit Dwayne Bravo who had walked out of the pitch due to some discomfort and did not return. Hence Dhoni was left with the choice of either Jadeja or Karn Sharma for the final over. He would have earned the plaudits had Jadeja pulled it off and hence should be held responsible when the gamble did not pay off as well.

MS Dhoni’s CSK has not played this season like a side that has the legacy of winning three titles and reaching the playoffs and it seems that their days of survival in IPL 2020 are numbered. The team has silently walked into the dangerous territory of must-win games and from now onwards, there will be an additional test of the team’s character apart from the performances they put up in the IPL 2020.

Discover more

IPL 2020 | RCB vs RR: Hits and Flops as 'Superman' AB de Villiers powers RCB to win

A valiant fifty from captain Steve Smith and an aggressive start by Robin Uthappa could not prevent the Rajasthan Royals from slipping away with another loss in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League. The Royal Challengers Bangalore came out as the winners on the back of an unbeaten partnership between AB de Villiers and Gurkeerat Singh Mann. Here we decipher the performances that tilted the balance in the Royal Challengers Bangalore’s favour and took away all the advantage from the Rajasthan Royals. Hits AB de Villiers There are not too many players better than AB de Villiers to be on the pitch with the bat in hand when your team needs 35 runs from the last 12 balls. He was not to disappoint the fans as he exploded to showcase his range of ferocious shots and clobbered the Royals out of the game. De Villiers had come into bat when Devdutt Padikkal got out on the last ball of the 13th over and the team was in a precarious situation, needing more than 12 runs an over for the next seven overs to come. To add to it, he was put under immense pressure by the departure of Virat Kohli on the very next ball, after he was caught via an incredible effort from Rahul Tewatia in the deep mid-wicket. And it was left for de Villiers to take centre stage and fire all his cylinders if RCB were to take the two points from this game. The 19th over was the point that tipped the balance towards RCB when AB de Villiers when he took down Jaydev Unadkat for three consecutive sixes. Captain Steve Smith took a gamble off Unadkat and held back Jofra Archer for the last over and AB de Villiers showed great match awareness and made the most of Unadkat over and left too little to do from Jofra Archer’s over. It was fitting for AB de Villiers to hit the best bowler in Rajasthan Royals’ camp - Jofra Archer for a six to seal the game and RCB has come back on the winning way after having a bad game against Kings XI Punjab in their last match. Chris Morris The RCB management and Virat Kohli had waited for a long time for Chris Morris to debut in the IPL 2020 and the South African all-rounder put on performances match after match to prove the worthiness of a prolonged wait. Chris Morris was on song from his first over and got better of all the overseas star batsmen in the RR line up. After giving away only three runs in his first over, he returned with his second over in the sixth over of the innings and accounted for Ben Stokes by beating him with pace. Kohli has been very smart at using Morris’s prowess in the latter half of the innings and he brought Morris back in the 16th over and Morris did not disappoint his captain and scalped Jos Buttler who was beginning to cut loose on a short of a length delivery. By that time, he had broken the spine of the RR’s batting and also checked the momentum of the innings. Coming back to bowl his fourth over in the final over of the innings, he made sure that the RR do not run away with a flurry of boundaries and pile on score more than the RCB could afford to choose by dismissing a well-set Steve Smith on the first and Jofra Archer on the last ball of the over. Chris Morris is looking sharp with the ball and he is leading the Royal Challengers to a good position in the IPL 2020 and the distance the team will cover in this edition is highly reliant on the fortunes of Chris Morris. Yuzvendra Chahal Chahal has been in the RCB camp for a very long period of time now and captain Kohli backs him to produce match-winning performances regularly. He has been in terrific form in this edition and has taken wickets in the middle overs and at the same time check the flow of runs to provide control to Kohli. The Rajasthan Royals were off to a blistering start and Kohli introduced him the eighth over in search of quick wickets to check Robin Uthappa from running away with the game. Chahal, like he has been doing for many matches for the RCB played tricks and the match was back in Bangalore's grasp. He has the habit of luring batsmen with balls pitching outside off and he enticed Uthappa to go across the line over midwicket. Uthappa took the bet but could only manage a top edge. He was alert to the nature of Sanju Samson’s batting and flighted the next delivery above his eye line right after getting hit for a six and induced a false shot and the Royals were dented after an impressive start. Flops Jaydev Unadkat Jaydev Unadkat is an IPL enigma and it should be known to his captains by now. He has been bought for outrageous prices in the previous editions but has not been able to replicate the promises that justify the lofty pricetags, especially when it matters. With the RCB requiring 35 off the 12 balls, including the six of him, captain Smith took a punt on him to bowl the penultimate over and backed him to come good enough to give Archer something to bowl the 20th over. Smith’s calculations went horribly wrong and Unadkat was smashed for three sixes in a row on the first three balls of the over and RCB were back in the game. It was not an unprecedented situation for a bowler against AB de Villiers but the choice of lengths left a lot to be desired on Unadkat’s part. He gambled on a slower ball on the first ball of the over knowing if de Villiers could pick, he could send him over the boundary line. His misery was not finished there as he bowled waywardly to Gurkeet Singh as well and allowed him the room to cart the ball over the off side where not a lot of fielders were patrolling the boundary. Unadkat leaked 25 runs in that over and with that, the chance of Archer defending a mere 10 looked bleak and AB de Villiers stamped the end of Royals with a big six off Archer in the next over. Ben Stokes There was a wide range of expectations building up when Stokes had come back from New Zealand and the Rajasthan Royals looked stronger and a team with balanced firepower. Three matches into this season and Stokes has added a little to the Royals’ side and has not been able to translate the amount of hype his return has created into performance on the field. Today, Robin Uthappa was batting at superb tempo and he had to make sure that the Royals capitalise on Uthappa’s resurgence but he looked rusty and was ultimately done in by Chris Morris. To his defence, he has been asked to open the innings and bat with unfamiliar match situations but players like Stokes can be relied upon to adapt to different challenges thrown at them. It seems he does not enjoy batting at the top of the order but he will have to pull up his socks if the Royals have to even dare to make it into the playoffs of the IPL 2020. Winning six out of the nine matches they have played this season, the RCB have looked like a side hungry for wins and have brought their A-game in tough situations while the Royals have slid further in the standings on the points table after another slip up on the field.

IPL 2020 | RCB vs RR - AB's blitzkrieg helps RCB snatch a win from Royals' bag

Royal Challengers Bangalore climbed to 12 points in the Indian Premier League, courtesy a power-packed show by the mainstays in the 33rd match of the Indian Premier League 2020. AB de Villiers steadied the ship and brought impetus to the innings at a time when the Bangalore side lost two quick wickets in the chase. His six to wrap up a win also brought his fifty off just 22 balls on a track where most other batsmen struggled to get going. Skipper Virat Kohli made a 32-ball 43 while Devdutt Padikkal provided a good start yet again, thanks to his handy 35 off 37 balls. Uthappa flourishes in his favourite slot, Morris bags four-fer A target of 178 looked more than competitive. Robin Uthappa opened the innings for the first time and delivered with a 22-ball 41. However, he kept losing partners at the other end as the Royals were 69/3 at one stage. Steve Smith broke the duck by hitting a timely fifty and stitched a stand with Jos Buttler in the middle. Smith found the ropes on six occasions apart from hitting a six in his 36-ball 57 before Chris Morris sent him back to the hut. Morris was impressive as he returned with figures of 4/26 with a dozen of dot ball under his belt. Captain Steve Smith’s tactics under the scanner as RCB win big Rajasthan probably missed a trick by not closing on the match by bowling Jofra Archer in the 19th over. Jaydev Unadkat, who has the dubious reputation of being a run-leaker, didn’t help himself as he was smacked for three consecutive sixes by AB de Villiers. When Unadkat had finished with it, 25 runs had already been leaked off the19th over which essentially took the game away from the Royals. With 10 runs to wrap up the contest in the last over, Archer kept the game alive till the third ball before de Villiers tonked a maximum to provide a fitting finish to the game. It seemed like RCB learned from their mistake in the previous game and didn't hold back de Villiers which paid a rich dividend. Rajasthan ticked almost all the boxes and were favourites to pocket two points till the very end of the game. Smith defended the move by stating that he wanted to use Unadkat to the bigger boundary. With a sureshot win slipping out of their hands, Royals have a lot of thinking to do as the possibility of cementing a playoff berth is slipping away with every defeat in this crucial phase of the tournament.

IPL 2020 |MI vs KXIP: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

A rejuvenated Kings XI Punjab would take on the juggernaut called Mumbai Indians and would try and stop their winning momentum which has extended to five matches in this year’s Indian Premier League. This might be the battle of first versus last in the points table but MI can never take their opposition lightly, mostly because of the performances that the Kings have put in across the tournament. And especially the last one where they outrightly defeated the more fancied Royal Challengers Bangalore. Mumbai look ‘unassailable’ in Harsha Bhogle’s words and the team would like to maintain the same level when they take on the KL Rahul side. The bowling, batting, and the captaincy look all in sync for Mumbai and it looks like a side that other teams would envy for the right amount of balance. In their last meeting, the Kings were humbled by the Mumbai team by 43 runs and thus it would present them an opportunity to not only win the game and continue to harbour hopes for the playoffs but also exact revenge. Kings’ batting is brilliant and in the last game, their bowlers too did fantastically. With Chris Gayle making an impact in the game, it is likely that he would play the next game and can be a threat to Mumbai’s chances. For Punjab to progress, Gayle is the Key With Gayle’s entry into the side, the Punjab team was able to finish the game even after one among Mayank Agarwal and KL Rahul got out. This was exactly what was needed for the team. Although they found it a bit late in the tournament, it still isn’t too late as five wins in the next six games might take them to the playoffs, but six in six would surely seal the deal. This is why an in-form Gayle is a requirement for Punjab’s progress in the team. Mumbai need to take it easy Sometimes while trying to prove a point and in an attempt to make a statement, teams try too hard to win all games. In that case, they might just overburden the players. In such a scenario, it is best advised that once they reach the 16 point mark, or even before that, Mumbai might like to try their bench strength so that an injury, if at all that happens (mostly it does) during the playoffs, they are not caught lagging. Quality-wise, they are at their best with everybody clicking, and thus going through the routines is what is required. Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab: Match Details Match Number- 36 Date: 18th October 2020, at 7:30 PM IST, 06.30 PM Local, 2.00 PM GMT Venue: Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Dubai Broadcast: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch Report The Dubai wicket in the course of the tournament has changed a lot as now it is not about scoring big rather about defending small totals. In the last four games at the stadium, the total has generally been in the range of 160-180 and most of the time, the team batting first has defended those totals, clearly suggesting that the teams would look to put totals on the board and defend it. Weather and Toss The weather across the Emirates has been good for playing cricket so far. The humidity has drained down and the conditions have become soothing in the evening, sometimes also offering swing. Their dew is no problem in case of evening matches now and hence toss becomes important because teams would like to use the used wicket for their spinners to utilize it. Team News Mumbai Indians The team is totally fit and fine and performing in the best of their abilities. In such a case, changes in the team are hard to bring in. But if Rohit Sharma likes to experiment, we might see a Dhawal Kulkarni or Digvijay Deshmukh being given a chance to rest Bumrah for a game or two. Anukul Roy might also be given an opportunity at the place of Krunal Pandya. Expected XI Rohit Sharma (c), Quinton de Kock (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah Kings XI Punjab The Punjab team after finally finding a winning combination would obviously not like to disturb it until and unless there is some injury to any player. So in that case, we might expect the same XI that played against RCB for this match. Expected XI Chris Gayle, KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh Mumbai Indians v Kings XI Punjab: Dream11 team and suggestions Quinton de Kock (wk) (vc), Chris Gayle, Mayank Agarwal, Suryakumar Yadav, KL Rahul (c), Nicholas Pooran, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Nathan Coulter Nile, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah Captain: KL Rahul Vice-captain: Quinton de Kock

IPL 2020 | SRH vs KKR: Match Preview, Predicted XI & Dream11 Fantasy Picks

Kolkata Knight Riders are still coming to terms with the sudden change of guard in captaincy in the middle of the IPL 2020 season. Under Eoin Morgan, the two-time champions didn’t have an auspicious start as Mumbai Indians yet again got the better of the purple and gold brigade. KKR’s momentum went south after two consecutive drubbings. The top order failed to fire against Mumbai and at one stage they were restricted to 42/4 before Pat Cummins hit a fifty to bail the team out of trouble. Mumbai chased the modest target of 149 with more than three overs to spare, putting a major dent at KKR’s net run-rate. Their opponent for the next encounter - Sunrisers Hyderabad find themselves in a similar situation. While KKR has bagged eight points in as many games, Hyderabad has managed to pick six points and they would be eager to pocket a couple of points. Hyderabad will head into the contest on the back of two defeats. They miss pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar dearly but Sandeep Sharma and T Natarajan have been promising. The trump card of the pack - Rashid Khan has been phenomenal on most occasions, barring one odd off-days which have come against the Royals and CSK where he was taken to the cleaners. In the batting front, David Warner and Jonny Bairstow have yet again found themselves among runs while Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson make the top-order look solid on paper, but they have failed to click together as a unit. The Knight Riders will have to fix their batting woes. While Dinesh Karthik has been going up and down in the batting order, Andre Russel and Eoin Morgan are yet to make notable contributions. Opener Shubman Gill has been under the scanner for his approach as KKR have failed to make use of the powerplay overs. One good show will give them an ample amount of confidence. The young pace battery has done fairly well while Varun Chakravarthy has found himself among wickets. There is uncertainty over Sunil Narine’s availability as he is working overtime on getting his bowling action right. All in all, it should be a cracker of a contest as both the teams look to get closer to the playoff berth. Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders: Match Details Match Number - 35 Date: 18th October 2020, at 3:30 PM IST Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi Broadcast - Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch and Weather Report The wicket at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium has helped pacers extract movement while spinners have come handy. It gives an impression of a two-paced track where it gets difficult to score runs as the game progresses due to the slow nature of the pitch. The sun is likely to shine bright as sides have preferred cooling their heels in the dressing room and go out to bat at the stroke of sun-set. Both sides will look to win the toss and bat first. A total of anything around 165 should be defendable on the slowish track Expected XI: Sunrisers Hyderabad - David Warner (C), Jonny Bairstow (WK), Manish Pandey, Kane Williamson, Priyam Garg, Abhishek Sharma/Vijay Shankar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Rashid Khan, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma and Khaleel Ahmed Kolkata Knight Riders - Rahul Tripathi, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Dinesh Karthik (WK), Eoin Morgan (C), Andre Russell, Chris Green/Kuldeep Yadav, Shivam Mavi/Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Prasidh Krishna and Varun Chakravarthy. Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kolkata Knight Riders: Dream 11 team and suggestions Jonny Bairstow, Dinesh Karthik, David Warner, Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Priyam Garg, Andre Russell, Rashid Khan, Pat Cummins, Khaleel Ahmed and Varun Chakravarthy Captain: Jonny Bairstow Vice Captain: Pat Cummins Powered by Froala Editor