IPL-2022: David Miller-Rashid Khan Blitzkrieg Powers GT To Its 5th Win Handing Over 5th Defeat To CSK!

After watching this cliffhanger of a match between Gujarat Titans (GT) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), the second of the Sunday double-header today in Pune I just couldn’t stop myself from writing a bit about it. Chasing a moderately challenging but tricky nonetheless target of 170 runs set by CSK the GT started in a horrible way passing through the phases of regular fall of wickets at 1 for 1, 2 for 2. 16/3. 48/4 and 87/5, losing in the process all the batsmen except for David Miller and without the momentum-building skipper Hardik Pandya, not playing today due to injury. At the stage of 87/5 in the 13^th over GT was looking at defeat needing 83 runs in 38 balls with only one recognized batsman Miller and stand-in skipper cum bowling all-rounder Rashid Khan just coming in who did not quite do well with the bat in the previous matches. As you know nothing is for certain in cricket, a game of glorious uncertainties, Rashid Khan had other incredible ideas as if he was in a dream.

For the next three overs Miller had been taking the charge of hitting big shots allowing Rashid to settle down. They needed 48 runs from 18 balls then. Now Rashid Khan picked out pacer Jordan for an incredible display of genuine cricketing shots hitting 3 sixes and a four collecting 25 crucial runs in that over and thus building a partnership of 80 runs. They still needed 23 runs from the last two overs and as Khan got out in the 19^th over Miller had only the tail-end bowlers for company, and finally it was 13 runs in the last over. However, riding on the momentum created with Rashid Khan he steered the team to a 3-wicket victory in the penultimate ball. Miller had today achieved one of his best T20 innings scoring 94 not out with 6 sixes and 8 fours and was the obvious choice for the Player of the Match. GT retains the top spot in the IPL-2022 points table with 10 points now, winning 5 out of 6 matches and almost ensuring a place in the play-offs.

CSK continues to languish in the 9^th position with a solitary win, just above the beleaguered Mumbai Indians. Of course, today Ruturaj Gaikwad hit a solid 73 in 48 balls and good contributions by Rayudu, Dube and Jadeja at the later stage enabled CSK to reach 169/5. Rashid could not capture any wicket and so made amends to be a match winner with the bat. For CSK Bravo bowled well, but except for Mukesh Chaudhary and Maheesh Thieekshana the other bowlers could not deliver the much desired finishing punches.

Earlier, the resurgence of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) continued with its 4^th consecutive victory overpowering Punjab Kings quite easily by 7 wickets in the first match today. Aiden Markram, Rahul Tripathi and Nicholas Pooran did well with the bat steering the team to victory without hiccups. Now SRH has also become one of the serious contenders for the play-offs occupying the 4^th position. This season of IPL so far has delivered very competitive cricket with absolute low-scoring thrillers and incredible chasses of tall scores too.

The VIP Brat: A Study in Contrast!

Here we’re talking about only two compartments inside a particular AC 2-Tier coach in a particular daily train under the Indian Railways that departs a particular originating station at around noontime and reaches the destination city early morning the next day. The train is popular because it is superfast and always on time. That fateful noon too, the train was ready for boarding about one hour before departure. We cut to the inside of that particular coach having those two compartments for our contrasting study. Two elderly couples were in a state of considerable distress. One of them, both technically senior citizens, had been allotted two upper berths and the husband was at his wits end how to proceed, because his wife was being taken for check-up after surgeries in both of her knees—she could hardly walk and her climbing up the berth was a sheer impossibility. The husband was also on the wrong side of the sixties, but he thought he could manage the climbing once he managed a ...

Mitali: The Trauma of Losing a Sibling

Maybe I lied to her when I used to reassure her that she was going to be alright and was going to resume her life in some measure of normalcy in the future years; maybe all my gestures/expressions were false when I used to run my fingers across her forehead or embrace her on occasions when she was able to move around a bit; and maybe all my exhibitions of love care and responsibility were exposed as superficial when I failed to turn up in Delhi where she along with my mother were treated during September-October, 2022 (my mother Urmila Chakravarty was also diagnosed with dental cancer the same month the same year as she was) and when all the members of my parental family and the in-laws converged. Since that fateful day in August, 2022 when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer to that disastrous day of March 6, 2025—the day my younger blood sister Mitali (Mainu) Chakravarty Sarma (November 2, 1963—March 6, 2025) passed away in the wee hours in a hospital in Guwahati after giving a bra...

Release of Book 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories'!

The fourth collection of stories titled 'Randomized: A Dozen Short Stories' by Chinmay Chakravarty has been released on Amazon KDP just now! This collection, short stories in a lighter vein plus with mild satire like the previous collections, has been published in both the E-book and Paperback formats. The links are given below: International: Click Here ! India: Click Here ! Other collections of short stories by the same author: The Cheerless Chauffeur and Other Tales(2021)--Notion Press. Funny and Fishy Tales(2022)--KDP. The Weirdos(2022)--Ukiyoto Publishing. All books of the author are available on Goodreads, apart from Amazon and other outlets! Have a look!