IPL Enthusiast : IPL 2024 Insights and In-depth Analysis

Wow! What a match!! The crowd clamoured for Dhoni to come and hit. He obliged. Prithvi Shaw and David Warner had one of the best openings for DC in IPL 2024. Both played strongly and swiftly. They kept the scoreboard ticking hitting almost all bowlers all across the ground. Delhi will hope that Prithvi Shaw will continue this form throughout the tournament.  They both got out as they completed their half-centuries. From the 11 th over till the 15 th over, CSK bowlers were able to halt the run-fest. In the last 5 overs, Rishabh Pant accelerated the run rate and helped DC reach an impressive 191 runs off the 20 overs. Among the bowlers, Pathirana and Deshpande were impressive as they halted the run flow. Pathirana picked up 3 important wickets in the match.  The runs were more but not something which was difficult for CSK batting lineup. The DC bowlers were exemplary today as they picked up early wickets of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Rachin Ravindra wobbling the top order of CS...

GT played their natural game and won with ease against SRH.   It was a clinical performance from Gujarat Titans. In the first innings, their bowlers bowled superbly. No bowler had an economy rate of more than 9. They were accurate and straight and they frustrated the batters. They took wickets at regular intervals and did not allow SRH batsmen to settle down. SRH batting was mediocre today, to say the least. No batter scored above 30 runs. The top batting order started well and also hit some brilliant shots. But these shots were far and few. They consistently lost wickets at regular intervals. Mohit Sharma was superb with his economical bowling and taking big wickets. The bowling attack of GT was brilliant in pulling down the run rate in the last five overs of the SRH innings. GT started well. Both Saha and Gill seemed to be in great form. But both lost their wickets in the initial 10 overs. Sai Sudarshan, who came in as the Impact player, and David Miller played admirably and ...

In the thirteenth match being played at Vishakhapatnam today, we have five time champion and unbeaten in this IPL edition, CSK take on Delhi Capitals. CSK is one of the most successful teams in IPL forever. They hold the joint maximum number of title wins. They have not made playoffs only in two years of the sixteen years they have played IPL. This season they have won both their matches till now easily. DC has always had a mixed fortune in IPL. Doing brilliantly in a few seasons and worst performances in a few seasons. DC was rebranded in 2018. In their earlier avatar, they were Delhi Daredevils which was changed to Delhi Capitals. The name change did seem to bring about a fortune change for a few years. But last year they had an abysmal tournament. In IPL 2024, they have lost both their opening matches. Rishabh Pant has won the toss and DC has decided to bat first. The lineup of the two teams is as below: Delhi Capitals: Prithvi Shaw, David Warner*, Mitchell Marsh*, Rishabh P...

SRH played and won a scintillating encounter against MI. They come to this encounter with GT with great confidence. GT, on the other hand, lost the match against CSK comprehensively and may seem a little less confident. Today’s match is thus crucial to both of them. SRH needs to maintain their form and show that the last match was not just a fluke win. Travis Head is back in Ahmedabad after his match winning innings in the ODI World Cup final. Abhishek Sharam and Klassen would like to cement their positions as the top notch batting top order lineup in IPL 2024. GT won their first match against MI in a spectacular fashion. Then they lost the next match to CSK again in a spectacular fashion. The emotions are all see saw and everywhere. Their top batting order needs to rise to the occasion. Both Miller and Rashid Khan are overdue for a match winning performance. Pat Cummins has won the toss and SRH has decided to bat first. Are we in for another run fest? The lineup of the two teams is as...

At the end of the 11 th over in PBKS innings, the prospects looked bleak for LSG. PBKS was cruising at 102 for no loss and the target of 200 seemed within reach. Then debutante Mayank Yadav came for his second over and changed the game. He took 3 wickets for 27 runs in his 4 overs. He bowled at a speed of over 150 Kmph consistently. He destroyed the top order of PBKS and they were never the same again. LSG won the toss and chose to bat first. De Kock maintained his position and played as an anchor even when wickets kept falling at the other hand. De Kock and Pooran added useful runs to the LSG total. After De Kock, Krunal Pandya took over the mantle of straightening the innings and taking the score of the team to 199 runs. In the bowlers, Sam Curran and Harpreet Brar were impressive. The PBKS innings start was phenomenal and they were cruising easily. The three wickets by Mayank Yadav put a brake on PBKS's innings and never recovered. Shikhar Dhawan tried to anchor the innings...

Punjab Kings is one of the original eight franchises that has played in all the IPL seasons from 2008 till now. They have not had a very good run in the IPL. They reached the playoffs only once, in the debut year 2008, and were the runners-up in 2014 where they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders. In the last 5 years, PBKS has consistently finished in the bottom half of the league. Compared to that, Lucknow Super Giants have had a great run in their small journey in IPL. The team was formed in 2022 when the original eight teams were expanded to ten. In both 2022 and 2023, LSG made it to the playoffs. They were eliminated in the Eliminator stage. But it is an impressive record for the new franchise. LSG is coming in this match with one loss and PBKS with one win and one loss. Both teams would like to win this match to bolster their chances in IPL 2024. Nicholas Pooran has come for the toss in place of KL Rahul. Pooran wins the toss and LSG decides to bat . Pooran confirms that KL Rahul ...

The wait continues for RCB fans. It's been nine long years since RCB defeated KKR in Chinnaswamy Stadium. KKR batted, bowled, and fielded better than RCB. They completely outplayed RCB. The batting by RCB was atrociously bad. Kohli managed to make an unbeaten 84 runs off 59 balls but knowing his batting capability, one expected that Kohli would hit a century after being out there for all 20 overs of the innings. Barring Kohli, Green and Maxwell contributed a little but both did not seem comfortable at the crease. RCB needs to realise, that they cannot survive in the tournament based on one person’s performance. They need to buck up as a team and work on their performance. On the other hand, KKR played a great game. Their bowling was perfect, batting was perfect. Fielding not so perfect as they dropped some plum catches. It seemed at a time, they wanted RCB to play and the RCB batsmen were, I want to go back. In bowling, debutante Ankul Roy was phenomenal and so was Russell. I...

It all started on 18 th April 2008. In 2007, India defeated Pakistan in the final of the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup. The victory gave rise to the germ of an idea to build a T20 cricket league in India. This gave rise to the biggest league in the history of Cricket in the world. On April 18 th , 2008, RCB played their first match against KKR. The highlight of the match was 158 runs scored by Brendan McCullum of 73 balls and comprehensively defeating RCB. The rivalry has increased from strength to strength over the last 16 seasons. RCB has not defeated KKR in Bengaluru since 2015. Will today be the game changer for RCB? The streak of home teams winning the game, will it continue in Chinnaswamy today? Shreyas Iyer has won the toss and elected to field first. Let's get ready for the fireworks. The lineup of the two teams is as below: Royal Challengers Bangalore: Faf du Plessis* (Captain), Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glen Maxwell*, Cameroon Green*, Dinesh Karthi...

  Chinnaswamy Ground is a lucky ground for RCB. The crowd support has been phenomenal. But RCB has one of the worst records against KKR in this ground. Fun Facts RCB last won against KKR in Chinnasawmy on 2 nd May 2015: WHEN Gautam Gambhir was captain of KKR – Today he is the Mentor Virat Kohli was the captain of RCB- Today it is Faf Du Plessis Gayle and De Villiers were part of RCB – Today they are not Pat Cummins was one of the main bowlers of KKR – Today he is with SRH Surya Kumar Yadav was part of KKR – Today he is the mainstay of MI Main bowlers for RCB were Chahal and Harshal Patel – Both with other franchises now Most interestingly Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik played that day and will play today for RCB Andre Russell played that day and will play today MITCHELL STARC played for RCB that day and today will be playing for KKR

After the high octane match of yesterday, today’s match seems dull by comparison. Both teams are low profile by nature although they have some of the best emerging and existing talents amongst them. All eyes will be on young Jaiswal as the next big thing. But in RR, there are other batsmen to look forward to also like Sampson, Prayag, and Dhruv Jurel. Among the bowlers they are covered in both departments having fast bowlers like Boult, Sandeep Sharma and Avesh Khan and spinners like Ashwin and Chahal. Rishabh Pant is the star attraction of DC. His fitness is paramount for DC’s chances in this IPL 2024. Apart from him, they have a solid batting lineup in Warner (One of the most consistent batters of IPL of all times), Marsh, Bhui, and Stubbs. Their bowling lineup would benefit from the addition of Nortje today. Apart from Nortje, they have a solid Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed to round up their bowling attack. This is the 9 th match of IPL 2024. All previous 8 ma...

Spectacular, Magnificent, Stupendous, Marvelous, Grandiose, Fantabulous, Phenomenal, Superlative, Euphoric, Transcendent………….. The adjectives will end, but the feelings regarding today’s match will not. It was one of the best matches ever in the seventeen-year history of IPL. There were a lot of firsts in this match: Highest Team total ever in IPl Highest Second Innings total in an IPL match Highest number of Boundaries (6+4) in an IPL match Most Sixes in a Men’s T20 match and in an IPL game Highest aggregate ever in a Men’s T20 match and in an IPL game And a few others I may have missed out. What a match. At one point it seemed like MI would win the match. The best part about MI's innings was that they went all out to win the match. Many times when the first innings total has been similar to today, the team batting second just gives up. But Kudos to Ishan Kishan, Rohit Sharma, Tilak Verma, Naman Dheer and Tim David, it seemed like a miracle for MI was about to happen. ...

The first half of the match seems surreal now. The way SRH batted, there are no words to describe it. From Travis Head to Abhishek Sharma to Heinrich Klaasen to Aiden Markram, everybody joined the party. Mayank Agarwal would be feeling very left out. As a few comments on the internet mentioned, if Mayank had also played like his teammates, SRH would have crossed 300. 😊 The most perplexing part of the innings was why Bumrah bowled only one over in the first 10 overs. Bumrah is one of the best bowlers in the world in all formats of cricket but if the chance is not given to him what can he do. He came back when already 150 was on board in 10 overs. Kwena Maphaka did not have a good debut in IPL but he has a long way to go in cricket. More experienced bowlers than him like Coetzee and Chawla were also hit all over the ground. It is heartening for the batting side to see that almost all their top order have a strike rate of over 200%. Head set the stage by scoring 62 off 24 balls fol...

Match number 8 of the TATA IPL 2024, where the Mumbai Indians enter the home territory of the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Both the teams are coming in from nail biting matches that went down to the wire, but they were both unsuccessful in securing the win.   SRH have gone bold in their batting approach by removing their overseas all rounder Marco Jansen and have brought in the fierce Australian opener Travis Head. Leaving Pat Cummins as the only Overseas bowler. Jaydev Unadkat comes in for T Natarajan who has a bit of a niggle. MI have gone for only 3 overseas player in their opening 11 for fielding, which makes it certain that they will bring in Dewald Brevis as the impact player after his heroics from the Narendra Modi Stadium, last match.17 year old  Kwena Maphaka, the breakout South African bowler from this years under 21 team will be making his debut for the MI. Mumbai Indians win the toss and chose and to field The lineup of the two teams is as below: Mumbai Indians: Ishan Kish...

It was a clinical win for the CSK. Right from the time when Gaikwad and Rachindra walked out to the pitch, the match belonged to CSK. GT seemed completely rudderless and lost in the sea of Yellow at Chepauk. Ravin Rachindra is the find of the year. He showed us the class and the caliber in the ODI World Cup in late 2023 and he is reminding us in IPL, how he is one of the superstars of tomorrow in all forms of cricket. When he is on the crease, he completely dominates the opposition. It was unfortunate that he could not reach his 50 but I am sure he will be meeting the much higher milestones in the future. With Ravindra hitting at one end, the other end was steadied by Gaikwad. When Ravindra got out and Rahane also followed soon, enter Shivam Dube. His innings tonight would put him in contention of T20 World Cup hopefuls. He hit 51 off 23 balls with 5 impressive sixes and an impressive strike rate of above 200%. Good contributions by Mitchell and Rizvi helped CSK reach 206 for 6 in ...

  The last time GT played CSK was in Ahmedabad. It was the IPL 2023 final. CSK won the match on the last two balls with Jadeja hitting a six and a four helping CSK become a five-time champion. But today is a new day. It is a different ground and most importantly, there are new captains for both the franchises. Will GT be able to defeat CSK in Chennai or will CSK continue the tradition of beating GT. The spotlight will be Shubhman Gill and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Gill has the energy and exuberance of youngsters in his team. On the other hand, Gaikwad has experience and excellence in his team. Gaikwad has one ace up his sleeve in the form of Dhoni. Will Nehra become the ace in Gill’s pocket. Shubhman Gill wins the toss and elects to field. The lineup of the two teams is as below: Chennai Super Kings:: Ruturaj Gaikwad (Captain), Rachin Ravindra*, Ajinkya Rahane, Daryl Mitchell*, Shivam Dube, Ravindra Jadeja, Sameer Rizvi, MS Dhoni (Wicketkeeper), Deepak Chahar, Tushar Deshpande, Must...

  The most interesting first home match of IPL 2024 is here. RCB face at Punjab Kings  at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.  RCB coming after a loss will look to get their first win of the season in front of their home crowd. They will need to tread carefully as they are the only team where they do not have the concept of "Home Advantage". The only thing the home stadium offers to the team is the fan's undying and unwavering support. Interesting to see that RCB have gone with only 4 bowlers and not included Karn Sharma, So we can expect them to give more overs to Green and Maxwell, While further strengthening their batting in the chase with the impact player. Punjab Kings coming of a win in their last game will look to continue their form and secure another win. RCB wins the toss and chose and to field  The lineup of the two teams is as below: Royal Challengers Bengaluru:  Faf Du Plessis (Captain)*, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell*, Dinesh Karthik,...

 The final schedule of IPL 2024 is out now. BCCI had earlier released dates and venues of matches till 7 th April pending the announcement of General Election Dates in India. The election dates were announced last week.  Today the schedule of the remaining 54 matches (Including League matches, Qualifier, Eliminators, and Final) was announced. A new venue in Guwahati has been announced for two matches. The Qualifier and the first Eliminator will be played in Ahmedabad and the second Eliminator and the Final will be played in Chennai. The schedule is given below. FIXTURE DATE VENUE TIME (IST) CHENNAI SUPER KINGS VS KOLKATTA KNIGHT RIDERS APRIL 8 CHENNAI 7:30 PM PUNJAB SUPER KINGS VS SUNRISERS HYDERABAD APRIL 9 MOHALI 7:30 PM RAJASTHAN ROYALS VS GUJARAT TITANS APRIL 10 JAIPUR 7:30 PM MUMBAI INDIANS VS RO...