Weekly CRICKET Review - LV | IPL - KKR vs SRH

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 55th edition now.

We are less than 12 hours away from the IPL final and a week away from the 2024 ICC Men's T20 World Cup. It's a big month coming up and the teams are already preparing for World Cup matches. So, let's dig on!

Using Canva & Getty Images

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• USA defeating Bangladesh in consecutive matches is the highlight on the corner. The USA and the Windies are hosting the T20 World Cup for the first time. The team is rather consisted of a few foreign players, currently ranking at 19th on the points table. So, it's a historic day for the hosts as they have beaten full-member nation, Bangladesh for the first time. USA won the first match by 5 wickets, the second one by 6 runs, and Ban won the third one by 10 wickets.

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• Well it was a frustrating series for the Proteas against the West Indies. Clearly both the teams are tournament favourites for the upcoming World Cup. WI won both the T20I matches by 28 runs and 16 runs.

• All the English players left IPL for the national duties against Pakistan became big news. Anyway, England led by Jos Butler defeated Pakistan comprehensively by 23 runs. Joffra Archer announced his comeback by taking 2 wickets.

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• Let's move on to IPL then. We have our two finalists SRH and KKR. Things have been pretty exciting since my last episode, "Playoff race is still on!".

• Well, after 70 group-stage matches here are the standings.

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• KKR, SRH, RR, and RCB could grab the playoff sheets. The first three were on the hunt and sealed their spot pretty early, but with Unreal stuff from RCB | THE FIARY TALE CONTINUES for them.

• RR could have easily ended up in the first two, after winning 8 out of 9 matches. But they couldn't win a single match in the next 5 games. They lost the momentum, confidence, the qualifier opportunity, and the trophy.

Oranage Cap

• Kohli is still leading the orange cap race with a healthy margin. Gaikwad, Parag 2.0, Head, and Samson are behind him.

• Harshal Patel overtook Bumrah as the leading wicket-taker category. Chakrwarthi, Natarajan, and Avesh also appear in the top five. . Sunil Narine is still the best player so far with 482 runs (9th place) and 16 wickets (13th).

Purple Cap

• Qualifier 1 - Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad - The top two teams battled up in the qualifier 01 at Ahmedabad. KKR played with full strength like the best team and through to their fourth final after 2012, 2014 & 2021.

Starc got the dream start removing Head for a duck and they restricted SRH for 39/4 after the powerplay. Eventhough Tripathi and Klaseen got some going, KKR spinners particularly scattered them in the middle overs. They went from 101/4 after 11 overs to 1256/9 after 16 overs. Pat Cummings put a little in the end, making it to 159 runs. Anyway, after a good start from the KKR openers, two Iyers put a 97 partnership for the third wicket and chased the target in just 13.4 overs.

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• Eliminator - Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru - It was between RCB with 6 6-match winning streak and RR with 4 losses. Boult had a great powerplay spell for RR giving away just 6 runs for 1 wicket in three overs, against Kohli and Du Plessis. In the last 5 also, RR managed well, anyhow, RCB managed to get 172/8.

RR openers got a good start and then Jaiswal, Parag, and Samson got them going. With small cameos from Hetmyer and Powell, they chased down the target in 19 overs.

• Qualifier 2 - Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals - Royals started the balling well, especially Boult after taking Abhisek in the first over and Tripati and Markram inside the powerplay. Head also couldn't hit as he used to. Klaasen could get a fifty but, fell off in the 18th over and RR did well to restrict them to 175 runs.

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Jaiswal got a good start but other batters couldn't adjust to the situation. Surprisingly, the left-arm spin duo of Abhishek Sharma and Shahbaz Ahmed did the trick for SRH. Only Juvel fought till the end, with a fifty, and ended up scoring just 139/7. It was a professional balling and fielding display from SRH.

Shahbaz Ahmed - 3/23, Abhishek Sharma - 2/24.

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So, today at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai it's KKR against SRH. Who will claim the glory? Who are you betting on?

Until the next time! Enjoy!

Thank you.
Best Regards!