Category: IPL

There were instances scattered all over Monday night in Lucknow that would tell you why Chennai Super Kings are where they are on the points table this season. Two vital points were gained to put them on level with three teams above them, and that’s all that truly matters at this stage, but not all wrongs were righted along the way. Yet, CSK’s expectations of channelling all the hurt of the last two weeks into something meaningful was achieved through some switch-flicking moments and one-upping LSG in a few other passages of play to break their longest-ever rut in a season. The PowerPlay flip – Part I Rahul Tripathi spun around and tore across from cover-point in the first over as one pocket of the Ekana crowd, all yellow and expectant, willed him on, perhaps believing that their rising volume would add speed to his legs. They’d want to believe it did because he ate up ground in front of him, lunged forward and held onto a sensational catch. Aiden Markram, one of LSG’s batting architects this season, was snuffed out and with that moment, the burden of being poor catchers (13 drops before this game) lightened a touch. The reversal in PowerPlay fortunes took a real big turn in the fourth over, when Anshul Kamboj was confident he’d brought a premature end to the innings of the best batter of the season with an LBW. MS Dhoni signalled to his bowler that the ball could’ve gone down the leg side – usually the final word when it comes to a review. But Kamboj persisted for his conviction to override Dhoni’s instinct and came away with a massive prize – Nicholas Pooran’s exit for just eight runs. This went a long way in keeping LSG down to a sub-50 total in that phase. The Spinphony ft. Noor & Jadeja Ravichandran Ashwin’s match-up gains against left-handers was not considered worthy enough for him to stay in the XII in what has been a disappointing season for the offspinner. Ravindra Jadeja too has been rather middling with the ball, but stepped up in conditions where spinners across both teams treated themselves to miserly spells. In conditions CSK would love to have at home, Dhoni turned spin conductor again and Jadeja his obedient artist, sticking to the tunes and rhythms by the book. The wicket delivery to Mitchell Marsh came off muscle memory – bowled from round the stumps, skidding from length at pace to sneak under the horizontal bat and disturb the stumps. Noor Ahmad was a bigger menace from the other end. He preyed on Rishabh Pant’s spin vulnerabilities to bowl 10 of his 13 dots at the LSG captain. Every attempt to make room and cut Noor away through the off-side was futile as Pant repeatedly hit to the cover fielder or just flayed at air. Noor also tied down Mitchell Marsh and Ayush Badoni in a spell worth just 13 runs and no fours or sixes. Badoni resorted to premeditation against the other bowlers and became Jadeja’s second victim. “In a game like this, that [4-over spell for 13 runs] sets up a win in many ways,” CSK’s bowling consultant Eric Simmons said of Noor. “So, certainly from a bowling coach perspective, you recognise the fact that it’s not always wickets that you take, but it’s the wickets that you earn for your team, the role that you play. What I saw today was him bowling a lot more accurately. He bowled a little slower, which normally shows good confidence.” The PowerPlay flip – Part II The bigger demons in CSK’s closet have been their batting inefficiencies. Fleming didn’t subscribe to the need for specialist six-hitters in a tournament full of them, and a 20-year-old Shaik Rasheed offered him a vindication of sorts. Rasheed took Devon Conway’s spot at the top and gave a glimpse of the early intent that has been missing all season. He got the CSK faithful going in the chase with a gorgeous flick to the mid-wicket fence off Akash Deep, followed by expert field manipulation as he hit one straight over the bowler’s head. Rasheed ended the same over with a whip over mid-wicket once more. The flicks – and a cover drive – came out against Shardul Thakur too in what was CSK’s fastest start to an innings (37/0 in 3 overs). Rachin Ravindra matched his opening partner – the youngest-ever for CSK – shot-for-shot in a chase-setting PowerPlay. “I think he was ready about a year ago,” Simmons said of Rasheed. The Andhra batter has been in the CSK ranks since the 2023 season, but form and injuries have allowed CSK to roll the dice with him only in 2025. “He’s a wonderful player. A lot of guys talk about how he reminds them of a young Ruturaj. Just the way he plays, his shot making,” Simmons added. “I am very happy for him. We have a cap-handing ceremony, and the applause that he received was a testament to the popularity of the young guy. His work ethic in the nets… he’s always smiling. He hasn’t played for a few years, and he’s never stopped working, never stopped smiling, never stopped being a positive guy in the room.” The Dhoni crescendo A thick fog of anticipation hung in the air in Lucknow as Vijay Shankar exited after 15 overs of the chase. LSG players made a beeline towards Justin Langer on the side of the pitch and Shivam Dube waited. A couple of dramatic seconds later, Dhoni strode in. The 43-year-old’s hitting power – particularly against pace – has shown no signs of decline, even as his entry points have remained a talking point all season. LSG’s smart spin maneuvers through the middle gave them control going into the death overs, but the energy shifted with each step he took towards the centre. Fans quickly changed track from ‘CSK…CSK’ to ‘Dhoni… Dhoni’ after just one booming shot through extra cover. A cheeky dab to third man fence…

In their decisive 111-run stand, KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs had stuck to a formula that worked for them at the time they were in the crease. “He [KL Rahul] kept enforcing and reminding me to look straight. He kept saying it’s a really small straight, giving me confidence. The whole thing was look straight -spin, seam,” revealed Stubbs at the end of Delhi Capitals’ six-wicket win on Thursday. It was a plan that worked wonders for them. Together, the duo scored 63.5%, or two-thirds, of their runs between mid-wicket and long-off. By the time they got together, which was predominantly in the second-half of the chase, the conditions too had changed along the way. There had been a bit of a drizzle around, which also affected the play, soon after which the duo went on the offensive. The first 14 balls of their stand yielded only nine runs without a boundary. The situation, with DC having lost four with 58 on board, also called for that caution. The next 41 balls saw a steep upsurge with the duo scoring at over 15-an-over to finish it off in a canter. Stubbs revealed that at the halfway stage, the pitch had him stumped and wondering how he’d get a run there with the way DC’s spinners had fared. A chat with Faf du Plessis had led to a thought of taking the game deep and “scoring fifty in the last five overs”. Rahul, who later owned the ground saying – “This is my ground, this is my home. I know this better than anybody else,” – had made Stubbs’ life easier at the start of the innings before he got a hang of the conditions and went back to “old-school cricket”. Their partnership beggared belief that the pitch had any demons on it as the scorecard had suggested. And yet, it had been anything but straightforward right through the match. Assessments of the black-soil pitch from both the camps had consistently pointed to the challenges. Cross-batted shots across both teams had yielded only wicket clumps. “While wicketkeeping I figured that the ball sat in the wicket a little bit, but it was consistent throughout – it wasn’t two-paced, it was one-paced throughout,” said KL Rahul. “I knew what my shots are. Just wanted to get off to a good start, be aggressive initially and assess it from there. If I was trying to hit a big six, I knew what pockets to target. Wicketkeeping gave me a feeler for how the other batters played and where were they dismissed,” he’d add. RCB’s batting coach and mentor Dinesh Karthik also believed so. “Definitely, this is not a pitch that’s helping the batters too much. It’s a challenging pitch. So that has been the case so far in both the games that we have played. The first game, there was dew. So it got a lot better to bat on the second innings. Today, there was not as much dew, but it was right, it was really hard. Then, unluckily for us, a little bit of rain came. And then you could see the difference in the pitch. The shots that they played definitely wasn’t possible in the first innings.” With a second loss at home in a row and going past the record for most losses (45) at a home ground, RCB’s woes with the Chinnaswamy ground has been long-standing. It’s a problem area that they had tried to address in their auctions with a deeper batting line-up and an experienced set of bowlers across disciplines. And yet, they find themselves in a predicament that is not nearing a solution. Like a few other franchises in the tournament already, RCB too has a few reservations about the pitches being prepared, which Karthik hinted at. “I think the way T20 cricket is, the more runs are there, the better it is for the broadcaster, the better it is for the fans. They all like to see boundaries. But in the first two games, we have asked for good pitches. But it’s turned out in this way where it’s been challenging to bat on, for sure. So we try and do the best with whatever we get. That’s how the game goes,” he said. Asked further if there will be chats with the curator, Karthik said, “We will obviously have a chat with him. And we trust him to do his job. And we will try and do the best of what we can.” The push for a truer pitch aligns with RCB’s strengths of having in-form batters that can capitalise on those surfaces. But in the meantime, there would be a challenge of adapting to the conditions on offer. “I think with every pitch, we’ll try and understand what’s the best way to play. I don’t think we have one set template that this is how we want to go out there and play. It’s important to adapt and understand what the pitch is,” said Karthik. “There’s been a wobble when people have tried to stay out there and fight it out as well. It’s been hard to, at times, rotate strike. And the big shot has been really hard as well. So we have tried to control it. But at the end, it’s a T20. You have to play some shots. And that has gotten the wicket of a few batters. We’ll try our best to see what we can do better the next time we come back here,” he finished. RCB have a week before their next outing at home, and the much-awaited upcoming episode of ‘How to tame the Chinnaswamy pitch.’ And if it does turn up like the one today, they’d have some ready cues to take away, thanks to Rahul and Co.

Lucknow Super Giants edged Kolkata Knight Riders in a high-scoring thriller at Eden Gardens to seal their third win of IPL 2025 by four runs. In a match that yielded 472 runs and demanded both power and precision on a ground with a 57-metre boundary to one side, Mitchell Marsh (81 off 48) and Nicholas Pooran (87 off 36) powered LSG to a commanding 238/3. KKR responded with intent, with Ajinkya Rahane leading the charge with a blazing 61. But a late-innings collapse derailed their chase, leaving the defending champions agonisingly short despite Rinku Singh’s late flourish. Where was the game won? In the middle overs. KKR were way ahead of the game after whittling down 90 runs in the PowerPlay. But the nine overs in the middle brought just 83 and to make matters worse, they lost three quick wickets – Ajinkya Rahane, Ramandeep Singh and Angriksh Raghuvanshi – that arrested all the momentum that they’d built. The middle-overs difference: Parameter LSG KKR Score 105/1 83/4 Run Rate 11.67 9.22 4s/6s 9/5 9/1 LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS PowerPlay: Markram leads the charge Phase Score: 59/0 (RR: 9.83; 4s/6s: 3/4) Mitchell Marsh hit two sixes in the PowerPlay after LSG were asked to bat first, but it was Aiden Markram who took the lead with a brisk start racing to 36 off 19. The duo played watchfully against Vaibhav Arora, who extracted early swing, but targeted the other end. Spencer Johnson, returning to the XI, leaked 30 from his first two overs, while Harshit Rana conceded 16 in the sixth as LSG ended the PowerPlay strongly. Middle Overs: Marsh, Pooran take the baton and run with it Phase Score: 105/1 (RR: 11.67; 4s/6s: 9/5) Marsh surged ahead after the PowerPlay, smashing Narine for two fours and a six. Varun Chakaravarthy offered some control with two tight overs, and a bit of pressure finally paid off when Rana cleaned up Markram for 49 with a clever off-cutter, breaking a 99-run opening stand. But that breakthrough only unleashed more chaos. Pooran walked in, forming a left-right combo with Marsh that made defending the shorter boundary nearly impossible. The duo added 71 in just five overs, propelling LSG to 170/1 by the 15th over and setting up a launchpad for a 200+ total. Death Overs: Pooran tees off Phase Score: 68/2 (RR: 13.60; 4s/6s: 6/5) LSG’s surge to 238 was fuelled by a brutal assault from arguably the best T20 batter in the world right now. Pooran paid no heed to boundary dimensions, clearing his front leg and sending balls soaring across both sides of Eden Gardens. After Marsh fell for 81, Pooran blasted his way to a 21-ball fifty and finished unbeaten on 87 off 36, peppering the stands with eight sixes and seven fours. KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS PowerPlay: A 90-runs blitz Phase Score: 90/1 (RR: 15.00; 4s/6s: 9/6) KKR came out all guns blazing, smashing 90 in the PowerPlay – the second-highest of IPL 2025 and their second-best in the tournament’s history. Akash Deep’s 16-run opening over, which included five wides, set the tone. Rishabh Pant backed the Bengal seamer for three overs, but Deep was taken for 43, while Shardul Thakur leaked 30 from two. Despite losing Quinton de Kock to a sharp review, Rahane (35 off 15) and Narine (30 off 12) unleashed a boundary blitz, keeping the chase crackling with early intensity. Middle Overs: LSG find ways to stall the momentum Phase Score: 83/4 (RR: 9.22; 4s/6s: 9/1) KKR lost Narine (30 off 13) immediately after the PowerPlay to Digvesh Rathi, but captain Rahane and deputy Venkatesh Iyer kept the chase alive with a 71-run stand. However, LSG managed to create scoring slowdowns, especially between overs 7-10, which brought just 39 runs. Spinners Rathi and Bishnoi bowled smartly in tandem, defending the shorter boundary effectively. Rahane reached a 26-ball half-century as the equation came down to 90 off 48 – very gettable on this surface. But just as KKR looked set to surge, the momentum stalled. Pant received treatment for a suspected back niggle, before Shardul Thakur bowled five wides to start the 13th over – only to remove Rahane (61 off 35) with a full toss. Another delay followed in the next over as umpires reviewed a wide and a stumping call, eventually ending in Ramandeep Singh’s dismissal via Bishnoi. With just 11 runs coming from overs 14 and 15 and Avesh Khan dismissing Angkrish Raghuvanshi, KKR were left needing 66 from the final five. Death Overs: Rinku’s strikes not enough Phase Score: 61/3 (RR: 12.20; 4s/6s: 9/3) KKR’s chase, which once looked smooth, suddenly unraveled. Thakur removed Andre Russell with another deceptive full toss, rounding off a collapse where KKR lost 5 wickets for 23 runs in the space of 20 balls. The pressure mounted quickly as the impressive Digvesh Rathi followed it up with a stellar 18th over, conceding just seven. That left Rinku Singh needing 38 off the final 12 deliveries and 24 from the last over. He did what he does best, launching a late assault, and finished with a valiant unbeaten 38 off 15 balls. But the task was a touch too steep, and KKR fell agonisingly short by four runs. Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants 238/3 in 20 overs (Nicholas Pooran 87*, Mitchell Marsh 81; Harshit Rana 2-51) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 234/7 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 61, Venkatesh Iyer 45; Digvesh Rathi 1-33) by 4 runs. What’s next for the teams? KKR will head to the scene of their first and latest IPL triumph – Chennai – to face CSK on April 11. LSG will head back home to take on the hi-flying Gujarat Titans on April 12.

Mumbai Indians head coach Mahela Jayawardene admitted that powerplays have been a concern for his side in this edition. While MI have lost four of their five matches this season, Monday’s (April 8) defeat to Royal Challengers Bengaluru marked their first loss at home. Invited to bat first, RCB racked up 73/1 in the first six overs, their highest ever powerplay total against MI. In contrast, the hosts could only manage a middling 54/2 in the context of the match. “The powerplay is a concern for us with the ball and the bat,” Mahela said after MI’s 12-run defeat. “In the last few games as well, we were leaking too many runs with the ball in the powerplay and we are not getting the starts and losing wickets [with the bat]. “We got an early wicket today as well and then they counterpunched, played good shots and we didn’t react well to that. These are the margins. And then they had the big sixth over [bowled by Deepak Chahar], which really hurt us. We didn’t close the powerplay properly. With the bat as well, I thought we had a good start but just couldn’t continue. We lost those two wickets and then we had to consolidate a little bit and lost a bit of momentum there. We had a few big overs in between even in the powerplay but we weren’t in the game in that first 10 overs [during the chase]. “So the margins are small in this competition and we are not hitting our strides and that’s a concern. We are playing good cricket, but not good enough.” MI also lost their previous game, a 12-run defeat in Lucknow, where a costly 69-run powerplay once again proved decisive. Despite Jasprit Bumrah’s return for this match against RCB, the new ball was handed to Deepak Chahar, a swing bowler who hasn’t had the best of seasons. Chahar has been leaking runs at 11.30 in powerplays this year, the second-worst economy among bowlers who have bowled more than five overs in that phase. “I don’t think chasing was the wrong decision, where we went wrong was with our execution with the ball where we could have controlled things much better,” Mahela said. “I think we got two swing bowlers, we need to give them that opportunity first up and Booms [Jasprit Bumrah] was coming back from a three month layoff as well, so we just wanted to ease him into the competition. “We need to understand that the skills were brilliant but there are areas for us to improve.” MI captain Hardik Pandya played a blinder, scoring 42 off 15 balls but in the end, it was not enough to chase down a mammoth target of 222. “With the talent that we have we know we are always in the game,” the MI head coach said. “We know that we just need to be patient and most of the guys are matchwinners. It’s just that we’re not getting that tempo going consistently. We had to settle down when we lost those early wickets because they also bowled well, they brought the two spinners who didn’t miss much, they bowled well. And we built partnerships after that and then obviously once you hit that 10th-12th over mark, we knew we could give ourselves a chance and obviously when Hardik walked into bat, that was the conversation I had with him. I said try and see whether you can get three big overs in and that’s what he delivered and then the momentum changed.” Being more “ruthless” is something Mahela had emphasized after the loss in Lucknow, and he reiterated the same following the defeat in Mumbai. “I still back the senior pros and all the guys I put out there. I think they have the skill, it’s just that we need to be a bit more ruthless,” Mahela said. “At times we’re missing out on those one or two overs where we lose our discipline, with the bat as well as with the ball. So that’s something that we need to rectify. Losing is not a great thing. I mean you start doubting yourself and sometimes a fresh face coming into this kind of situation might be even tougher for them without the experience. The guys who have the experience know how to handle tough situations and be mentally stronger. Going forward, that’s something that we will bank on and make sure that we really focus on getting the group together and be positive and play the next game.”

Royal Challengers Bengaluru broke a 10-year long jinx to beat Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede stadium for the first time since 2015 in a thrill-a-minute high-scoring contest. The game see-sawed all the way through and nearly sided with the hosts before RCB bowled their way out of trouble in the nick of time to take away two more vital points on the road. Where the match was won? Death overs. Rajat Patidar’s clean hitting and Jitesh Sharma’s inventive stroke-play became the difference-maker in the end. They didn’t let a double-wicket over from Hardik in the 15th push them back at the death. MI had an inferior PowerPlay but made up the lost ground in the middle-overs to set themselves up for the death overs. But RCB once again came up trumps in the final overs to finish as the victors. The death-overs difference Parameters RCB MI Score 70/1 52/5 Run rate 14 10.4 4s/6s 4/6 3/4 Royal Challengers Bengaluru PowerPlay: Kohli, Padikkal fire away Phase score – 73/1 [RR: 12.16, 4s/6s: 8/4] The big ticket game got a picture perfect start. First, Phil Salt played a glorious cover drive on the first ball and then Trent Boult hit back with an inswinger on the second ball to floor the stumps. Virat Kohli welcomed Jasprit Bumrah to the tournament with a whipped six over midwicket. The RCB star showed intent throughout the phase, hitting fours off Boult, Deepak Chahar and Will Jacks. Devdutt Padikkal too arrived with the idea of throwing his bat around as he smashed successive sixes off Chahar to close out an eventful PowerPlay with 20-run over. Middle-overs: RCB maintain intent; Hardik strikes twice Phase score – 78/3 [RR: 8.67, 4s/6s: 6/3] Kohli took his aggression into the middle-overs and slog swept Vignesh Puthur for a six to get to a 29-ball fifty. In the same over, Padikkal’s fiery knock of 37 (22) ended as Jacks took a sharp catch at the long-on fence. The wicket allowed MI to tighten the screws with a couple of quiet overs as the scoring rate dipped a little below 10. Mitchell Santner bowled three excellent overs in this phase, varying his pace very smartly, and giving away just 20 runs. But his fourth over on the other side of the timeout was met with a couple of sixes from Patidar and a four from Kohli. Hardik, fresh from a fifer in his last outing, stopped the pair from getting away with a double-wicket over. First, he had Kohli caught by Naman Dhir at deep square leg for 67 (42) and then snuffed out Liam Livingstone, caught at short third, for a duck. Both wickets came from Hardik sticking to the outside-the-off stump line. Death overs: RCB fly through Patidar, Jitesh Phase score – 70/1 [RR: 14.00, 4s/6s: 4/6] Patidar took down his opposite number at the death. Hardik continued to bowl outside the off-stump but Patidar, who had already sized him up earlier, hit him out effectively. Hardik conceded two sixes and a four to Patidar and a boundary to Jitesh Sharma, who too arrived with the basic instruction of throwing his bat around, in a 23-run over. Bumrah still got the respect from the pair as they took six singles in the 18th over, but made up for it against Boult. The New Zealander conceded 18 in the 16th and then got hit for two sixes by Jitesh in the 19th, but soon saw the back of Patidar for a 32-ball 64, courtesy an incredible diving catch from wicketkeeper Ryan Rickleton who first covered a lot of ground running towards the fence behind him. Bumrah bowled another excellent over at the death – the 20th – even as Jitesh managed to collect a six off it to finish with a stirring cameo of 40* from 19 deliveries. Mumbai Indians PowerPlay: Openers fall; MI lag behind with score rate Phase score – 54/2 [RR: 9.00, 4s/6s: 8/2] Rohit Sharma’s abysmal season continued. He showed signs of turning the tide with pull over square leg and push down the ground but Yash Dayal ended his stay with a full inswinging delivery that rattled the stumps off an inside edge. Ryan Rickleton followed soon through an excellent review for a leg before appeal against Josh Hazlewood. The left-hander was struck on the back leg but even Hazlewood wasn’t sure whether the ball pitched in line. Jitesh however, ran in from behind the stumps, pointed where the ball could’ve bounced and convinced Patidar to review the ball. That conviction turned into a wicket as the onfield decision was overturned. The Aussie then bowled an exceptional sixth over, mixing his lengths very well against Suryakumar Yadav, to concede just two runs. Middle-overs: Hardik Pandya blitzkrieg brings the chase alive Phase score – 103/2 [RR: 11.45, 4s/6s: 10/6] RCB played with fire by bringing on Suyash Sharma against a spin hitter like Suryakumar but the leggie came out on top in this mini-tussle. He stayed away from Suryakumar’s hitting arc and bowled well to his fields and the skewed square dimensions to concede 15 runs in three overs to drag the game away from MI. Both Suryakumar and Jacks tried to target the shorter leg side fence against him but Suyash bowled quicker – upto 104kmph – and outside the off-stump to repeatedly beat both the batters. From the other end, Krunal Pandya conceded three fours in his first over but hit back in the second. Krunal unfurled his surprise short ball – at 117kmph – on Jacks, who pulled but found Kohli at deep backward square leg. Suryakumar, who struggled to get going, was dropped twice before a third offering from the batter was pouched Livingstone at mid-off. RCB were close to acing the middle-overs until Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya came together in the middle. Tilak, fresh from being retired out for his struggle in the previous game, went after Suyash before Hardik brutally took down Hazlewood with 6, 4, 6, 4 in…

By now it is well established that Mumbai Indians have a dubious reputation for poor starts. And that is not just in terms of match outcomes alone. They often begin the games just as poorly. Increasingly, their fortunes are being decided in the first six overs – more often than not, for the worse. The relevant numbers point to a telling picture. In four games, they lost eight wickets in the first six overs – the second-most among all teams – while managing to take only five wickets in return, also the second-worst. Only Punjab Kings have fared worse in terms of wickets taken during this phase. Their best six-over phases upfront came against Kolkata Knight Riders – five scalps in first seven overs (four in the first six) and lost only one while batting. That was the only time this season when they won a match. In T20 or white ball parlance, it’s the PowerPlay problem. Mahela Jayawardene agreed that the PowerPlays have been a worry. “We have looked at those numbers as well. When you start the season with a new group of players, we will come across these issues. So, that is something that we will have to address. Agreed on the PowerPlays that we need to take a bit more control. Whenever we have done that, we have done that. That is something we are going to plan and see whether we can improve on that.” That could change with the return of two key players for Monday’s game against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Wankhede – Jasprit Bumrah and Rohit Sharma. Bumrah has missed all four games so far, while Rohit had to sit out the last one and is eager to make his presence count. Both are more than capable of making an impact – in the PowerPlay overs, primarily. MI will be hoping for that against a side that has shown a lot of promise despite the reversal in the result the previous game at home. With the likes of Phil Salt, Virat Kohli, Rajat Patidar with the bat, while Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Suyash Sharma follow with the ball…Royal Challengers have raised the hopes of their ever so loyal fans for the season. “It’s been a great start for us – two big wins on the road against KKR and CSK. They’ve been traditionally tough places, so that’s a brilliant start for us,” said Tim David. “The last game (versus GT at home), we lost early wickets, that happens. We’re looking forward to this game.” When: Monday, April 7 at 7:30 PM IST Where: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai What to expect: Mumbai’s red-soil pitches are known to be batting-friendly, a factor further amplified by the small boundaries. The contest is expected to produce copious amounts of runs, with the key question being whether dew will play a role. The chasing team is likely to have the advantage, but how significant that advantage turns out to be will depend on the level of moisture on the grass on Monday night. Head to Head: MI lead RCB 19-14 but the two teams are evenly matched in recent years, with a 2-2 record since 2022. At the Wankhede, MI dominated them 8-3, with RCB’s last win at the venue dating back to IPL 2015. Since then, they have lost six consecutive matches at the ground. Team Watch Mumbai Indians Injury & Availability: Jasprit Bumrah will finally be available for MI, the team management has confirmed. However, some uncertainty still surrounds Rohit Sharma’s fitness after he missed the previous match after being hit on the knee in the nets. Tilak Varma, who was also on the injury list, is expected to be fit for the game – just as he was in the previous match. Tactics & Match-ups: Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult, both known for consistently striking in the PowerPlay, are likely to continue to wield the new ball. This could leave Jasprit Bumrah to operate in the middle and at the death, with young Ashwani Kumar possibly left out of the XI. Vignesh Puthur may be brought in as a tactical option to counter big-hitters like Liam Livingstone while Bumrah, in the death overs, could be the right man to stop big-hitting Tim David with his toe-crushers. Probable XII: Rohit Sharma, Will Jacks, Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya (c), Naman Dhir, Raj Bawa, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Vignesh Puthur Royal Challengers Bengaluru Injury & Availability: Tim David confirmed that there is no information of any injuries to the team. Tactics & Match-ups: RCB’s default strategy should be enough to begin with against MI. With Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar opening the bowling, they will have enough ammunition to counter the MI openers Rohit Sharma and Ryan Rickelton. Spinner Suyash Sharma will have to tackle the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya. Probable XII: Philip Salt, Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar (c), Liam Livingstone, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Tim David, Krunal Pandya, BHuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Suyash Sharma Did you know? – MI picked up four wickets in the PowerPlay against KKR while in the other three games they have just one, largely thanks to Boult’s struggles. – Each of Hardik’s five wickets against LSG have come off hard lengths and seven wickets by him off these lengths is the most by a seamer in IPL 2025 so far. – Tim David has the highest strike rate (220.83) in death overs (16-20) for anyone who faced at least 20 balls in this phase in IPL 2025. What they said: “We needed to take control, which we had in our last one Wankhede game. So, if we can try and be aggressive as we were and execute, that is something that we are looking forward to. And keep building on it. I think the GT game was something that, in my mind, we were not in the game. All the other games, we were right in it. Even against LSG, we fought well. We were in a situation where…

Sunrisers Hyderabad continued to look like the shadow of their 2024-selves as they suffered their fourth straight defeat of the season – and second at home. The comprehensive seven-wicket win put Gujarat Titans on the opposite end of this spectrum, making it third straight win. On a slow surface where stroke-making was tough, SRH crashed and burned their way to a 150-plus total but were found wanting with the ball once again as Washington Sundar, playing his first game of the season, proved to be an excellent punt at No.4. He and Shubman Gill added 90-runs for the third wicket. Where the match was won In the middle-overs. Washington started GT’s turnaround in the sixth over, after which he and Shubman Gill aced the middle-overs to put the game beyond SRH’s reach. Twice in the day, Pat Cummins tried to single-handedly take his team towards the two points – first with the bat and then the ball in the PowerPlay, only for this GT pair to defy him through the middle phase. The middle-overs difference Parameters SRH GT Score 60/2 82/1 Run-rate 6.67 9.11 4s/6s 5/1 12/0 Sunrisers Hyderabad PowerPlay: Early exit for Travishek again Phase score – 45/2 [RR: 7.50, 4s/6s: 8/0] Sunrisers were greeted with a drier surface at home where hitting through the line was not easy. The hosts learnt it the hard way as they lost both Travis Head – to Siraj in the first over – and Abhishek Sharma – to Siraj again in the fifth. Between the two dismissals, Abhishek managed to get a few boundaries going against an erring Ishant Sharma before Siraj clipped the opener’s wings. Ishan Kishan and Nitish Reddy took the team to 45/2 by the end of the PowerPlay – the team’s second-lowest score in this phase since 2024. Middle-overs: Nitish, Klaasen attempt slow rebuild Phase score – 60/2 [RR: 6.67, 4s/6s: 5/1] The rut went on through this phase too. Kishan couldn’t get on top of a short ball from Prasidh Krishna and hit to backward square leg in the eighth over to fall for 17. In the 11th over, when Nitish played a pre-meditated reverse sweep and sent a Rashid Khan delivery to the third man fence, it was the first four of the SRH innings in 36 deliveries. While Sai Kishore kept it tight from the other end, Nitish and Klaasen targetted Rashid, who has had an ordinary start to the season. Klaasen hit the first six of the innings – in the 13th over off Rashid, as the leggie finished with figures of 0/31 in four overs. Sai Kishore pulled one back from the other end by cleaning up the South African with an arm ball just when he was starting to get going. Death overs: Cummins cameo pushes SRH past 150 Phase score – 47/4 [RR: 9.40, 4s/6s: 6/1] Sai Kishore continued to torment the home side, dismissing Nitish and finishing with exceptional figures of 2 for 24. Siraj then returned to try and deny SRH a late flourish by trapping Aniket Verma leg before and then floored Simarjeet Singh’s leg stump with some reverse swing to finish with figures of 4-17 – a spell that included 17 dot balls. Pat Cummins’s cameo – 22 off 9 – and a 17-run 20th over from Ishant gave SRH bowlers a total (152/8) to work with on a clearly tough pitch for batting. Gujarat Titans PowerPlay: Washington Sundar revives a bad start Phase score – 48/2 [RR: 8.00. 4s/6s: 5/2] A good start from Pat Cummins and Mohammed Shami was sullied in the last over of this phase – from Simarjeet Singh, as Washington went after his short lengths to collect two fours and as many sixes in a 20-run over. Before that, Shami took out Sai Sudharsan for just five and Cummins got the ball to move and had Jos Buttler caught behind for a third ball duck. GT bumped up Washington to No.4 and he delivered right away. Middle-overs: Gill, Washington dwarf the asking rate Phase score – 82/1 [RR: 9.11, 4s/6s: 12/0] The third-wicket pair continued to ride the late PowerPlay momentum to deny SRH a way back into the fixture. None of Cummins’s bowling options could make an impact like he did early on as Gill and Washington comfortably mounted their stand that dragged the match away from the hosts. Leg spinner Zeeshan Ansari bowled three overs of his leg spin for 22 runs but couldn’t break through while the ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis got taken apart for 12 in an over. Cummins came back on in the 11th over in desperate search for a wicket, but was hit for perhaps the shot of the game – a sublime cover drive by Gill. Washington’s excellent knock was brought to an end by a contentious call from the third umpire after Aniket took a diving catch very close to the ground at deep point. Cummins was out of bowling options and turned to Abhishek Sharma’s left-arm spin. But he bowled to the left-handed Sherfane Rutherford, who hit him for four fours in the over, leaving GT with just 23 to get at the death. Death-overs: Gill, Rutherford close out big win Phase score – 23/0 [RR: 13.80, 4s/6s: 3/1] SRH got a change of ball for the death and Ansari returned but Gill hit him to both sides of the ground- a sweep behind square leg and an inside-out hit over extra cover – for two fours. Rutherford then sent one from Cummins out of the ground and followed it up with a four before Gill hit the winning run. Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 152/8 (Nitish Reddy 31, Heinrich Klaasen 27, Pat Cummins 22*; Mohammed Siraj 4-17, R Sai Kishore 2-24) lost to Gujarat Titans 153/3 in 16.4 overs (Shubman Gill 61, Washington Sundar 49; Mohammed Shami 2-28) by 7 wickets What next? SRH have five days to reflect on their losing rut before hosting Punjab Kings on April 12. GT head home…

At 65 for 5, Delhi Capitals were in trouble in their first match of IPL 2025 against Lucknow Super Giants. Watching from the sidelines, team mentor Kevin Pietersen was asked in a flash interview if the game was slipping away. The former England captain replied in the negative. He backed Ashutosh Sharma, who’d just walked in, and also picked out Vipraj Nigam, a 20-year-old Lucknow boy in DC’s ranks yet to take the field. Nigam only found out later, after the Capitals had pulled off a stunning win. It has stayed with him. “That was the best part,’ Nigam beams in a chat with Cricbuzz. “To know that someone like him believed in us even before we stepped in, and that we delivered on it, there can’t be a better feeling.” Nigam was living a dream he first saw as an eight-year-old in Barabanki, a town close to the UP capital of Lucknow. The son of a Government teacher and a house wife, Nigam, was enamoured watching Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings clash in the IPL final of 2013. The star-studded line-ups, the dazzling lights, the roaring crowd – they had all captured his imagination. Now in Vizag, he went from being a spectator to becoming the central figure of the spectacle. ‘When you enter the ground, when you’re on the field in the first over, when the crowd is right there, you realise it’s something different. Kuch toh alag hai,’ Nigam says. Mumbai Indians re-entered Nigam’s story last November. They were one of three teams that auditioned him in the lead-up to the mega auction. But ultimately, Delhi Capitals wanted him more, having closely studied what he could offer. A leg-spinner who can hit – it’s a rare combination, and Nigam had it. In a format where versatility is king, the 20-year-old’s ability to turn the ball both ways and clear the ropes made him a prized asset. That’s why the Capitals, despite already having two premier Indian spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel, were eager to bring him in. Interestingly, Nigam’s rise wasn’t built around his leg-spin from the start. He began as a prodigious batter at the Youth Cricket Club in Barabanki. His coach, Sarwar Nawab, pushed him into games above his age group, and Nigam held his own with the bat. He impressed in the inaugural season of the Uttar Pradesh T20 league with his power-hitting, scoring at 165.85 which included plundering 28 runs in a single over for the Lucknow Falcons against the Meerut Mavericks. It was this hitting combined with ability to chip in with a few overs of leg-spin that strengthened his case for a spot in Uttar Pradesh’s Under-19 setup. The real shift came at the National Cricket Academy (NCA), where coaches recognised his potential and pointed out the high demand in India for a leg-spinning all-rounder. That feedback changed everything. Nigam started taking his bowling seriously, but he needed a model to learn from. He found one in Yasir Shah, the wily Pakistan leg-spinner known for his control and sharp turn. Hours were spent in watching and studying how Yasir bowled, as Nigam worked on his new craft. “There was a Test match, West Indies vs Pakistan. I watched the highlights. He had taken 10-11 wickets in that game. The way he used to bowl, I started to bowl leg spin that way. From the start, he was one of the leg spinners who I watched and felt I could bowl like and I felt there were things I could learn from him,” Nigam reveals. Results followed – he had a standout season in the Uttar Pradesh T20 league 2024, finishing with 20 wickets from 11 games as a genuine leg-spinner. On the second day of the mega auction, Nigam was away at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai with his UP side in the Syed Mushtaq Ali trophy fixture against Himachal Pradesh. His mind was in Jeddah but had to wait until the end of the game to find out if he had any suitors. As he walked back to the dressing room, there was no nervous anticipation, no anxious wait. He fished out his phone, and right at that moment, his name flashed live on the screen. Sold. For the next five to ten minutes, everything was a blur. His mind struggled to process it all. Then came the handshakes and the messages – Rinku Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Nitish Rana walked over, offering their congratulations. “The feeling was unlike anything else, it’s imprinted so vividly even now,” Nigam recollects.