Rohit Sharma surpasses MS Dhoni as leading Indian six-hitter in IPL history

Virat Kohli is an experienced and skilful leader: Kyle Jamieson

Royal Challengers Bangalore latest addition Kyle Jamieson has appreciated skipper Virat Kohli for his leadership skills and the way he approaches the game. "It has been so good so far. Virat is such an experienced and skillful leader. The way he approaches the game compliments the way I like to go about things. He is competitive, aggressive and he likes to take the game on and it is certainly what I like to adopt as well," said Jamieson during a virtual press conference on Saturday. The RCB team has played a couple of games in Chennai which has provided a relatively slow track so far. Talking about bowling on such pitches, Jamieson insisted that the skills required to bowl on such pitches is different. "It is about assessing the conditions, we have played on two slow pitches so far. The skill set required is probably different, teams are probably going harder in the first six overs because we have seen how tough it is to score at the back end,” he added. Jamieson has picked up a couple of wickets for RCB in the two matches that he has played for the franchise. RCB will play their third match against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday in Chennai. The Virat Kohl-led team is sitting at the helm in the points table so far with two wins in two consecutive matches.

IPL 2021 | DC vs PBKS: Wrecked sides seek redemption in another bout between young Indian captains

The Sunday night will offer a riveting contest between two sides hurting after a disastrous loss in their last game. The Delhi Capitals were submerged by poor death bowling while the Punjab Kings batsmen were blown up by a swinging Deepak Chahar in Mumbai. KL Rahul-led Kings will be more hurtful of their debacle with the bat against the Sunrisers as they could never get back in the game and the Super Kings defeated them comprehensively. On the other hand, the Delhi Capitals fought admirably with the ball and put the Rajasthan Royals under serious pressure before the Proteas duo David Miller and Chris Morris took the game away from them. But, the underlying issue that plagued the Capitals in their last game was their batting alone and hence when KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant walk down the pitch at the Wankhede Stadium tomorrow, they will look back towards their respective units with a hope that they will turn up leaving behind the debacle in the last game. The fearsome duo of Rabada-Nortje is back Misfortune of an apparent false Covid-19 test report delayed the return of South African pacer Anrich Nortje who along with his countryman was set to walk back in the XI. Both him and Rabada were superb throughout the tournament lasts season in the UAE and helped the Capitals’ campaign that ended only in the finals. Both Rabada and Nortje were was used as enforcers with the new ball last year before their role separating and Rabada was assigned the task of bowling at the death while Nortje was used as an enforced in the middle phase of the game. Rishabh Pant’s choices Rishabh Pant would be delighted with the return of Nortje in the camp, but it will equally test his leadership on the choices he will make just two days old into his captaincy in the IPL. In the last game, he dropped Shimron Hetmyer to play Kagiso Rabada and although Lalit Yadav arrested a collapse in the middle order, it could not match the value the West Indian left-hander could have brought with him. Hetmyer’s exclusion made the batting look a lot thinner with Chris Woakes and Tom Curran batting at seven, eighth position. Pant took a big punt on Tom Curran in order to maintain an incisive bowling attack. The move almost paid off well but another game for Curran seems unlikely with the return of Nortje. The left handed dasher also made a tactical blunder on the field in the last game by not bowling out R Ashwin for his complete quota of four overs. Coach Ricky Ponting conceded it was a mistake on the team’s tactical part. The captain who can’t do anything wrong this season with the bat will have to bring the best of his ideas to the forefront if the Capitals have to go a long way in this edition. Kings blowing hot and cold The Punjab Kings started their campaign on a dominating note with the likes of Deepak Hooda and the skipper Rahul himself going all guns blazing against the Royals. They also held their nerves to defend the target in the face of a brutal and magnificent counter-attacking innings from Sanju Samson. But, playing true to their legacy, Punjab imploded just in the very next game and were on the brink of a sub-hundred score against the Super Kings. Punjab were unlucky with one of the opener Mayank Agarwal getting an unplayable delivery from Deepak Chahar while Rahul paying the price of a crime Chris Gayle committed of risking a single against Ravindra Jadeja. The challenge will not be any simpler against the Capitals, and the top-heavy Kings will have to get their act together against the bowling attack comprised of Rabada, Nortje and Ravichandran Ashwin. The Kings have employed the tactics of going in with a thin batting line up with Jhye Richardson batting as high as number seven—a position he has never batted in his career. The move boomeranged on them in the last game where the lack of depth in batting was exposed brutally by the Super Kings. Delhi Capitals vs Punjab Kings: Match Details Match Number-11 Date and Time: April 18, 07:30 pm IST, 02: 00 pm GMT Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Broadcast and Live Stream: Star Sports and Hotstar Pitch and weather The pitches in the last two games have defied all the recent history of high-scoring games at the Wankhede Stadium. Both the last two games of these sides turned out to be low-scoring affairs, however, a proper contest between bat and ball would not be a matter of concerns for both the fans and the administrators. There was swing on offer for the new ball bowlers, especially at the start of the game between 7.30 PM to 8:00 PM period while as the ball got older, the surface started playing tricks and the bowler’s deception made batsmen paying for their mistakes of committing to strokes very early. The pitch in the game between the Capitals and the Kings is likely to be the same and so is the overhead conditions that aid swing bowling at the start. Both the sides have an impressive stock of pace bowlers to extract the best out of the surface and the air, and also quality batsmen in the top order to make it a contest to watch out for from the outset. Team News Delhi Capitals The Capitals will be rejoicing having Nortje back in the camp and most likely they will play both him and Rabada to get the best out of conditions in Mumbai. The move however will bring curtains to Tom Curran’s chances who was guilty of allowing Chris Morris to take the game away from the Capitals. However, the team management will be debating on who among the two of Shimron Hetmyer and Chris Woakes should be the fourth overseas player in the playing XI. Strongest XI Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Marcus Stoinis, Lalit Yadav, Chris Woakes, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan Punjab Kings The Punjab Kings need to relook their strategy of going in with specialists as it leaves them lacking in batting options in games where they have to endure collapse. Jhye Richardson should not be batting at the number seven position and they will have to make a choice on playing one of Riley Meredith or Jhye Richardson to bring someone like Moises Henriques who can bring a lot of balance in the playing XI. Strongest XI KL Rahul (c & wk), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Deepak Hooda, Nicholas Pooran, Shahrukh Khan, Moises Henriques, Jhye Richardson, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh DC vs PBKS: Dream XI fantasy team Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Chris Woakes, Marcus Stoinis, Avesh Khan, Mohammed Shami, Kagiso Rabada, Jhye Richardson Captain: KL Rahul Vice-captain: Rishabh Pant

IPL 2021 | Daniel Sams joins RCB bio-bubble after testing negative for Covid-19

Left-arm fast bowler Daniel Sams is out of the quarantine and has joined the RCB bio-bubble, the franchise confirmed on Saturday ahead of their match against Sunrisers Hyderabad which is slated to take place on Sunday in Chennai. “Daniel Sams is out of quarantine and has joined the RCB bio-bubble today with two consecutive negative reports for COVID-19,” RCB tweeted. The RCB medical team had been in constant touch with Sams and had declared him fit to join the team. “RCB medical team was in constant touch with Sams and has declared him fit to join the team after adhering to all the BCCI protocols,” the tweet further read. Sams was one of the two players apart from Harshal Patel who had been traded from Delhi Capitals earlier before the mini auctions that took place in February in Chennai. The left-arm pacer had tested positive for COVID-19. Sams had arrived in India on April 3 and had a negative report for the disease but the test conducted on April 7 came out to be positive. "His report from the second test on 7th April came positive. Sams is currently asymptomatic and he is currently in isolation at a designated medical facility," the RCB said then. The pacer had earlier played for Delhi Capitals in the previous edition of the IPL but failed to leave an impact. In three matches that Sams played, he didn’t pick up any wickets. Though, the left-arm fast bowler has been in decent touch in the recent past and has been picking up wickets consistently.

Despite consecutive defeats Sunrisers camp upbeat ahead of clash against Mumbai Indians

The Sunrisers Hyderabad have not had a start they would have wanted and opened their campaign in the 14th edition of the IPL with two back to back losses. But the mood in the camp has not been damning and the leadership group is standing right behind the players and backing them to better any team in the competition on their day. Speaking from a sideline of a practice session in a video posted by the franchise on its Twitter timeline, head coach Trevor Bayliss has shown confidence in players’ abilities ahead of the clash against the Mumbai Indians in Chennai. He also reiterated that the last time these sides met each other in the IPL, the men in orange had an upper hand against the men in blue who went on to become the champions of the tournament. “Last time we played Mumbai, we played well and won that match. Obviously, they can be a very difficult proposition. There are very good players there but on our day when we play well, we can beat anyone,” Bayliss said. The Sunrisers have been put up in Chennai and have played both their games at the MA Chidambaram Stadium where pitches have been on the slower side. They have batted second in both the game and have struggled to chase down scores on pitches where bowlers relied on cutters and slower balls. Having earned the experience of two games, both the Sunrisers batsmen and bowlers know what they need to correct going forward in the tournament, SRH assistant coach Brad Haddin said in the same video. He said that the bowlers have learnt the lengths they need to bowl on slower pitches while batsmen have learnt what they need to work upon to take the game with a foreword-looking approach ahead of the game against the Mumbai Indians. “Three games in now and I think we are using a similar wicket to what we did in the first game. So there will be no surprise. Guys have batted enough, bowled enough to know the lengths they have to bowl and what they need to work in the nets when it comes to batting on how to move the game. I think it’s an advantage that we have played here a couple of times,” Haddin added. The Sunrisers have been rated highly by the head coach of the Mumbai Indians Mahela Jayawardene as well who has called the men in orange a group of highly talented players. The Sunrisers will be desperate to get back to the winning ways after failing to chase down scores in both the two games they have played this season. Both the Mumbai and the Hyderabad camps don’t expect any changes in the nature of pitches, and conditions and hence, a decision to bat first after winning the toss can’t be ruled out completely.