IPL 2021 | David Warner all but confirms end of the road with Sunrisers Hyderabad

IPL 2021 | RR vs SRH: Hits & Flops as Sunrisers rise from slumber to spoil Royals' party

The contest between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals had a completely different meaning for both sides. For the orange army, it was one attempt to salvage some pride after being positioned at the bottom of the table forever, while for the men in pink this game could have opened the door for the path upwards on the points table. Turned out, the Sunrisers proved to be a spoiler for the Royals who faced a heavy defeat and made life difficult for themselves in the IPL 2021. Here, we’ll analyse the best and worst of the performance of the night that turned the game in the favour of the Sunrisers and snatched the game away from the Royals. Hits Kane Williamson It must be very tough for the captain of a sinking ship to be calm and simplistic about his own process and routine, but if the name of the captain is Kane Williamson, all those qualities are given, as a matter of fact. If there are some qualities that he has established on his CV as an international cricketer over a decade, his ability to pick moments he wants to conquer and his ability to lift the tempo without breaking into any sweat are the two prominent ones. All of those qualities were on full-on display against the Royals as he batted with absolute calm and authority along with precision-guided strokes to take the Sunrisers home for the first time in the sixth game. The task of cutting the Royals’ score to size was already done by Jason Roy and Williamson needed to realise his stay at the crease was more essential for Sunrisers than his aggression and inevitably he chose his moments to inflict body blow to the opposition. He walked out to bat to replace Wriddhiman Saha who fell after giving a brilliant start with Roy and hit the winning runs. There was no fuss in his batting and the bowlers were milked into the gaps for runs to make the Royals look like a deflated unit who appeared to be only physically in the game. Williamson has taken over from David Warner and it is likely that he will have to oversee and script the resurface of the brand Sunrisers after two consecutive abysmal seasons and hence his stamp on the brand of cricket team plays was visible on the Sunriser’s approach. Jason Roy Since his emergence on the international stage for England, Jason Roy’s USP has been his ability to take the attack to the opposition camp from the word go, and the Sunrisers were in desperate need of all those qualities at the top of the order with David Warner going through a tumultuous phase in his career. However, he was overshadowed by Saha at the start of the innings before Mustafizur Rahman offered free run-scoring opportunities and he did not need a second invitation to capitalise and send the run-scoring soaring. A couple of boundaries against Mustafizur liberated him and an off-colour Chris Morris was too friendly with the full toss and half volleys and what looked like another sluggish innings by Sunriers batsmen was transformed into swashbuckling in a matter of two overs. Saha left him at the stroke of the end of the powerplay but he was snot finished and reached a deserving half-century that set up the platform for a convincing win for the Sunrisers. Sanju Samson Throughout the entire length of his career, Sanju Samson has never been a crowd pleaser except on the day when all is working for him. More often than not he frustrates his fans than giving them reasons to celebrate and a lot of those were contributed to his style of batting. He never used to care about losing his wicket in the process of maximising his potential of striking the ball but the method was too risky and he was getting more failures than succes. He vehemently rejected the idea of spending time at the crease in order to bring consistency saying it would be a “selfish” thought process. But, it has started to appear that he has finally accepted the mode of preservation over attacking to ensure more runs from the bat. In the ongoing edition of the league, Samson has scored 433 runs from 10 games at a stupendous average of 54.12 runs per innings, which is as much as 20 percentage points higher than his previous best of 34.20 in the 2019 edition. For all the talks around his inconsistency, he has quietly modelled his way of batting and he showcased all of that against the Sunrisers. He took as many as six balls to get off the mark and the first nine balls produced only six runs including a four that came off an invitational short and wide ball by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He was quite prepared to spend time at the other end while Yashasvi Jaiswal was going great guns from the other side of the pitch. However, he was not missing out on loose deliveries and hence his method can’t be deemed “defensive” or “negative”. Till the ninth over when Jaiswal got out, Samson was batting at a run a ball 25 and although he increased his tempo over the next 15 balls, his real shot of intent resembling his stylish best came in the 15th over when he danced down the wicket off Rashid Khan and deposited him over the long-off fence. Samson did not look back from that point and punished an indisciplined Siddarth Kaul for 20-run over in the 16th over. The ease at which he smashed him through the corners of the ground ratified his decision of preserving his wicket at the start. With the first run coming off the sixth ball and just 25 runs off the first 25 balls, Samson roared to a 56-ball 82 establishing the change in his batting style. It could well be argued if his aggression would have been more worthy for the Royals as they could have gone past the par score but Samson is now showing a willingness to change his batting and only time will tell how much do does it affect his personal and team’s overall performance. Flops Sandeep Sharma Sandeep Sharma has been an uncanny bowler in his IPL career and his exploits in the powerplay have been exemplary over the years. He was the underrated pillar of the Sunrisers’ success over the years but it seems he too has gone past his use-by date in terms of executing similar performances. He has taken a lot of wickets with the new ball but on the night against the Royals, he allowed Jaiswal to open his arms and the men in pink were up and running with 11 runs on the board in the first over itself. To his credit, the second boundary of the first over was a streaky shot but the right-arm offered him another couple of freebies in his next over and his first two overs accounted for a whopping 22 runs. He redeemed himself just a bit by picking the wicket of Jaiswal but not before he had given the Royals a perfect platform at the top of the order. Chris Morris Chris Morris is the most expansive player in the history of the IPL and like many costly players in the past, he too has been too expensive per wicket and runs scored compared to the load on the team’s purse. He was dropped from the last game after having a forgettable night against the Punjab Kings where he was taken to the cleaners for 47 runs in his four overs, but the Royals need his all-around ability and hence adopted hope on him as a strategy against the Sunrisers. Both the hope and Morris was not ready to please Samson and the all-rounder had another harrowing night against the Kane Williamson side. He was tasked to stop Jason Roy’s juggernaut as big players are generally assigned the task of executing grand tasks but he ended up offering freebies to the right-hander and he took the game away from the men in pink. All other four teams such as the RCB, KKR, MI and PBKS would have been very happy with the Sunrisers registering a much-awaited game as it complicate the path of qualification for the Royals. For the Sunrisers, the win meant a lot as it highlighted their willingness to accept that the glorious past will no longer work for them anymore as the trio of David Warner, Kedar Jadhav and Manish Pandey were shown the door for young players such as Priam Garg and Abdul Samad.

IPL 2021 | RR vs SRH - What Experts Said as Jason Roy storm hits Rajasthan

Sunrisers Hyderabad picked up an unlikely victory against the top-4 contenders Rajasthan Royals after SRH debutant Jason Roy smashed the Rajasthan attack all over the park. The Englishman hit a 60 ball 42 helping SRH chase down 164 runs in 18.3 overs, their highest runs while batting second this season. Batting with captain Kane Williamson who anchored the innings till the end, Roy launched an all out attack, something that the SRH have been wanting desperately from their openers throughout the season. Things got a little tricky after the aggressive right hander was dismissed in the final ball of the 12th over, but the calm of Kane Williamson shouldered the franchise to only their second victory this season. Earlier in the innings, Rajasthan were off to an awful start early in the innings, losing Evin Lewis in a wicket maiden that was smartly worked by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The deep fine leg was set for Evin Lewis’ pick up glance off the good length ball, and he got trapped off the same shot in the second over. Sanju Samson though played a breathtaking innings, first anchoring the innings in the early phase of the game and then putting pedal to the metal after playing 30 balls. He notched up yet another big score in this season and finished at 82 off just 57 balls. In the process, he has now become the orange cap holder as well. While Sanju and Mahipal Lomror kept scoring throughout the middle phases, it was the trifecta of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jason Holder and Siddharth Kaul made an incredible comeback to check the flow of runs in the final three. Rajasthan, who were scoring at 10 RPO, were able to just score 21 runs from 18 balls losing two wickets in that phase. Jason Roy for obvious reasons won the man of the match award. On that note, here are the Exerperts’ opinions from the game. Captain’s viewpoint Speaking after the game, Kane Williamson look relieved after having broken the 5-game losing streak. He spoke about how the group could build on this win and put their best foot forward in the remaining games. “Yeah its a good feeling. It was a much-improved performance. There was a clarity in the roles and it is nice to be on the right side after a long time. Hopefully as a group we could build on that and we have a few games to see that. Really critical, couple of players who played there which was significant. Sanju batted brilliantly but we closed out very well that gave us a chance. The start was brilliant for us. We tried to weather the storm in the middle and take it deep.” He further talked about Jason Roy and the injection of energy that he brought in the playing XI and that SRH will try to improve throughout the remainder of the tournament. “Look Jason is an injection of energy any team he plays for. He has been in the sideline for a long time but whenever he gets his chance he puts his foot forward. Look we have got a couple of days left before the next game. CSK comes next, top of the table. We have to worry about our cricket and try and improving throughout the backend of the tournament.” Opposition captain Sanju Samson said that they were short on runs and that the team needs to work on both departments given the margin of error is so less in the format. "Actually I think it was a decent score. The wicket was a bit sticky bounce. We could have got 10 or 20 runs more. Yeah you can say that. But the start which we got in the sticky wicket. I wanted to kept on going after the powerplay but we kept losing wickets so I wanted to stay deep and put up a respectable total. The wicket got better and they played very well. We have to work on both our batting and bowling and execute the plans better. The margin of error is so less in this format." Experts’ Opinions Right from the start, experts spotted the change of approach and style in Samson’s batting and talked about how this could be his best rendition yet. He started by anchoring the innings when wickets were falling and then took the attack to the opposition. He was striking at 107 SR from his first 30 balls and clocked 143.86 when he got out in the 20th over. Talks about his consistency were also put to rest (at least for now) and this would boost the Rajasthan camp’s confidence in their captain right ahead of the mega auction next season. The run of form would also be interesting from Indian context given how woefully Ishan Kishan has faltered in the UAE leg of the IPL. One of the features for today’s innings was how the Rajasthan batsmen were able to pull up their run-rate through the middle overs, something that has not been a feature of their game. Analysts looked at the same and praised the likes of Jaiswal who departed while looking for the big shot and trying to show good intent through a stuck phase of play. There was good reason for Rajasthan flying through the scoreboard because of some decent bowling from the SRH bowlers. While they did not squeeze out the line up, SRH did not let Rajasthan go over 7.5 RPO for most of the powerplay. If they would not have dropped the catch of Yashasvi Jaiswal, SRH could probably have done much better in the early phases. However, this did not stop Sandeep Sharma from becoming the joint highest wicket-taker in the powerplay phase and now he is tied with Zaheer Khan in that record. One of the interesting assessments tonight was the ‘Curious Case of Liam Livingstone’. After playing some magnificent cricket throughout the last year, Livingstone was supposed to light the IPL on fire in the second phase of the tournament. However, that hasn’t quite worked out well for the Jaipur based franchise. Amassing a total of just 30 runs from 3 games, Livingstone has found difficult to get a move on. Even today, while trying to clear a long-hop off Rashid Khan, he put up a simple catch in the hands of the deep midwicket fielder. Any other day, that would have been an assured 95m six from the English player who has been in the form of his life. Ben Jones of Cricviz pointed out that Livingstone has not quite teed off in the tournament before explaining why he went for that shot. Rashid vs Livingstone - In stats before this match However renowned English analyst Kieran pointed out that there might have been a logical flaw in Livingstone’s plan despite his record accumulations against Rashid Khan. Last but not the least it was obviously the night of Jason Roy who scored an incredible half century on debut. He took the attack to the opposition and reminded the fans of what they were missing the top of the batting order. CricViz put the effort in numbers and explained how SRH's intent in the middle overs did not let the game slip and how it helped them to win the game. With this win, SRH have upset the entire table of the Indian Premier League and now mathematically, still remain in contention to the playoffs spot. If they win their last three games and KKR, MI, RCB, PBKS and RR win just one of theirs, SRH can still make it to the points with 12 points to their name, something that did happen in 2019.

Cyclone Gulab delays start of Indian domestic season in most part of the country

The start of the next Indian domestic season has been delayed with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) asking seven of the 12 member associations to postpone the Under-19 Men and Women limited-overs tournaments scheduled to start from September 28 due to bad weather conditions across many parts of the country. The matches will now be played from September 30 as cyclone Gulab and subsequent has lashed the eastern and southern part of the country over the last couple of days. However, there has been no change made in the schedule of matches slotted in the northern and central parts of India such as in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Mohali, Jaipur and Ranchi. "Owing to the incessant rain and the cyclone alert issued by MET, the BCCI is compelled to postpone the start of the group stage from 28.09.2021 to 30.09.2021," Dhiraj Malhotra, BCCI’s general manager, Game Development, said in a letter to the host associations, as per Cricbuzz. The BCCI has clarified that after the new schedule is in place after postponement, there will be no rest days and that there will be matches consecutively from September 30. "Following this change in schedule, there will be no rest days and all matches will be played back-to-back from September 30 to October 4. There will be no change to the knockout stage and venues," the BCCI official wrote in his mail.

IPL 2021 | MI vs PBKS - It is 'do or die' for both Mumbai & Punjab in Abu Dhabi

Punjab Kings vs Mumbai Indians, scheduled to be played on Tuesday, 28 September will be the 42nd game of this edition of the Indian Premier League being hosted at the moment in the UAE. When you are playing the 42nd game in the 56-match-long season, there are no excuses to why you are not performing at the required level. In the immortal lines of Alfred Lord Tennyson, Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. It is indeed going to be a do or die game for both teams when they meet each other in Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. With Rajasthan (assuming that winning against SRH) and KKR (assuming accumulating an unlikely victory against ‘team-to-beat DC) both Mumbai and Punjab need to rise up to the occasion and grab a hold of those two crucial points that might just push them to the final playoff spot. Why do I say final? Because, there is no stopping the top two, CSK and DC, who have 16 points each and a healthy run rate. RCB have 12 points from 10 games and hence, it means that it will be a three way battle between MI, KKR and RR who will vie for the fourth spot in the table. At the time of writing, Rajasthan looked at a good position to win the game against SRH after scoring 164 runs in first innings. If they win their game, it will mean that the Samson-led franchisee will move up to the fourth spot, dismantling Kolkata Knight Riders. In that case, this becomes all the more crucial for these two teams. Recent form Both teams are coming off contrasting results in the final games. While Punjab finally got their campaign back on track against wooden spoon holders SRH, MI were wrapped up by a resilient RCB despite being ahead in the chase till the halfway point of the second innings. Chasing 166 runs in the Dubai International Stadium, MI were 79-1 even in the 10th over before the bizarre collapse struck the Rohit Sharma led team. After both openers went back in the hut, MI were bowled out by RCB for just 111 runs in 18.1 overs. Their last 7 wickets fell in a space of just 18 runs. Who has more at stake? Coming back from such defeats are difficult. The Mumbai team have not found themselves in these waters for a while now, but it will be wrong to say that they have not been here before. Back in 2015, Mumbai, under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma had just 2 points from their first six matches. At a time when most considered their season finished, they hit back with 5 wins on a trot (7 wins out of their last 8) managing to storm into the playoffs spot. They won that edition a in a final where they thoroughly dominating the Chennai Super Kings. So, Mumbai have done it before and they can do it again. The task will be cut out for them as they face DC, RR and SRH after this game, and two of those games have the potential to be a nail biter. For Punjab, it is a different story. They are better off than Mumbai only in terms of run rate and have three of the toughest oppositions to face in their final three games. This makes it all the more important to win this match against a struggling side so that they can carry some momentum going into the final three against KKR, RCB and CSK. Match Details Match no.: 42 Date and time: September 28, 7:30 PM IST Venue: Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi Pitch Report The stadium of Abu Dhabi has been a decent wicket to play on but with the tournament nearing the end, things have gotten very sticky in the UAE. However unlike Sharjah, this wicket does not turn and grip rapidly and nor does it swing wild in the early phase of the match like Abu Dhabi. In the last game played here in this ground between CSK and MI, the wicket was slow and it was dry. While the Kolkata spinners enjoyed their day out, it was actually Shardul Thakur who brought Chennai back in the game. Throughout the innings Shardul kept changing his lengths, which not only gave him a wicket maiden, but helped Chennai control the run rate as well. Shardul finished his 4 overs for 20 runs and a wicket. Considering that this is a night game, teams winning should opt to bowl first but the decision matters little as big change in pitch conditions is not expected. Team News Mumbai Indians Mumbai Indians are coming into the game after a horrendous loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore. Chasing 167, MI at a time were cruising at 75-1 after the ninth over of the game. However, disaster struck after Rohit Sharma got dismissed by Glenn Maxwell in the final ball of the 10th over and from there, Mumbai were wrapped up for just 111 runs in 18.1 overs. The form of Mumbai’s middle order is turning out to be a huge point of concern and it is possible that we might get see Krunal Pandya getting dropped for this game. They also need the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan to bat with clarity, something, that hasn’t been a feature since the restart of the tournament. Hardik Pandya also did not look at 100 per cent in the last game and did not bowl a single over against CSK. Hence there is potential for two changes, Anmolpreet Singh and Saurabh Tiwary coming in for the Pandya brothers. However, in a slow track, Krunal might just be given one more chance while Saurabh Tiwary might be brought in to strengthen the middle order. Probable XI Quinton de Kock (wk), Rohit Sharma (c), Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan, Saurabh Tiwary/Hardik Pandya, Kieron Pollard, Krunal Pandya, Adam Milne, Rahul Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah Punjab Kings The entire tournament Punjab Kings have been criticised for their inability to play with a consistent combination. Their last game against SRH was as perfect from the bowling department as it could have been and they should play with the same XI. The team though, is not free of problems. The management would be asking hard questions to the middle order who have not fired in most games. Punjab would want the likes of Nicholas Pooran to step up after the amount of trust they have shown in the Trinidadian. Probable XI KL Rahul (c/wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Aiden Markram, Nicholas Pooran, Deepak Hooda, Harpreet Brar, Nathan Ellis, Ravi Bishnoi, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh