Weekly CRICKET Review - Liv | IPL - Playoff race is still on!

Hello,, fellow Cricket Enthusiast,

You already know I am sharing a weekly wrap-up of what is happening within the Cricket community. It's the 54th edition now.

International Cricket is a bit free these days, with Cricket’s richest franchise tournament IPL. But with the T20 World Cup coming, we see the announcement of squads, preparation matches. So, let's dig into some exciting moments of last weeks in the last week.

Using Canva & Getty Images

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• 2024 ICC Women's T20 World Cup Qualifier was held in Abu Dhabi in April and May. 10 teams (Sri Lanka, Scotland, Thailand, Uganda, United States, Ireland, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, and Vanuatu) were played and the two finalists Sri Lanka and Scotland were able to qualify for the upcoming World Cup.

• Ireland registered a famous win against Pakistan in the ongoing T20I series. Pakistan put a good total of 187/7 batting first. But Ireland could pass it in the penultimate well, even in front of ballers like Shaheen, Naseem, Imad, Shadab, etc. It's their first one against Pakistan.

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• Let's move on to IPL then. Things have been pretty exciting and changed since my last episode, "Please Save the Ballers". Now the matches are more balanced with good Cricket all around.

• Well we are after 62 matches out of 70. Here are the standings up to now.

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• MI was the first team to eliminate with 9 losses. It was a lousy tournament for most players, and Hardik couldn't answer the criticisms, he received in the first place. Next Panjab received the ticket. In the last 10 years, PBKS couldn't qualify for a playoff.

• On the other hand KKR has already been in the next round and most probably they will end up being the first spot. So, in the next 8 matches, all other 07 teams still have the chance to go through.

• After 06 consecutive losses, surprisingly RCB is on track after winning the next 5 matches. On the other hand, RR who had a dream start lost the last three matches. So, the next matches will be very crucial and entertaining.

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• Kohli is leading the race with a healthy margin. And in this season, he is with a good strike as well. He became the first player to play 250 matches for a single iIPL franchise, RCB.

• And Bumrah is the leading wicket-taker with great economy, under 6.50 as well. It's a good thing for Indians to see their best two players topping the list. Sunil Narine is still the best player so far with 461 runs (7th place) and 15 wickets(9th).

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• The 57the matches between LSG and SRH are unreal. SRH boys never fail to impress us who try to break their records for fun.

Well, LSG started the batting and it's not a happy one. They could only score s7/2 inside the first 6 overs. Rahul struggled getting only 29 off 33 balls. Pooran and Badoni had a decent partnership of 99 runs, making a total of 165/4.

But, when Head and Sharma came to proceed, the game changed. It was a total carnage and they were just toying with the ballers and KL. They just finished the chase in 9.4 overs without losing a wicket. Abhishek Sharma 75 off 28 balls, Head 89 off 30 balls.

8, 17, 22, 17, 23, 20, 19, 17, 14, 10 - 167/0 runs in 9.4 overs

The game was in between rather Head and Abhishek to bag runs as much as possible. The pair scored 107/0 in the powerplay. This is the second-highest powerplay total in IPL. Head put another 16-ball fifty and Abhishek an 18-ball fifty.

Head and Sharma

This is the highest difference in Powerplay totals in an IPL match as well - 80 LSG(27/2) vs SRH(107/0). And the highest total after the first 10 overs in IPL

• Anyway after the match there was a heated conversation between the LSG owner and KL, which caught everyone's eye.

So, let's see how the tournament is going ahead. Who are you betting on?

Until the next time! Enjoy!

Thank you.
Best Regards!