England Tour of India: First New Normal Cricket In India Since the Pandemic!

Undoubtedly the most cricket-crazy nation of the world, India had to go without official cricket for nearly a year due the COVID-19 Pandemic that raged in the country till September 2020. Three away cricket series against South Africa, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka had to be cancelled. The much awaited T20 cricket bonanza, the IPL, had to be shifted to the United Arab Emirates thanks to an empty slot left by the indefinitely postponed ICC World Cup T20 slated for 2020. For India, the IPL had been the start of the New Normal Cricket during September-November 2020 followed by its historic tour of Australia 2020-21, both under secure bio-bubble environment. Now, with the England cricket team touring India, the first official cricket Series is about to unfold from tomorrow, the 5^thof February 2021, at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai: the first of the four-match Test Series between England and India.

 

In view of the pandemic that still has not said quits, new normal arrangements are in place creating a tight bio-secure environment. Although the COVID-19 protocols of the Government of India have allowed 50% of capacity spectators in the stadium the Tamil Nadu cricket authorities had decided to vote for full safety holding the first Test behind closed doors, no spectators allowed. However, after consultation with the BCCI, the state authorities have now allowed half-capacity spectators for the second Test to be held at the same stadium from 13^th February.

 

To maintain a strict bio-bubble the BCCI has restricted the venues to only three: the first two Tests of the World Test Champion Series to be held in Chennai; the next two Tests and the five-match T20 Series to be held at the Motera, Ahmedabad; and the three-match World Cup Super League ODI Series to be held in Pune. The third test in Ahmedabad is going to be a pink-ball day-and-night match, starting from 24^th February 2021. Really a power-packed tour with the good news that half-capacity crowds will be allowed for all the matches from the second test onwards. The matches will be telecast live on Star Sports and live streaming will be available on Disney-Hotstar. The euphoria of the Indian cricket fans after the home team’s stupendous Melbourne and Brisbane victories and the historic fight-back draw in Sydney, all under a stand-in captain Ajinkya Rahane and depleted squads, is set to explode.

 

India, after the 2-1 Test series victory against Australia in Australia, starts as hot favorites. Their top players, namely R Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ishant Sharma, have fully recovered from injuries, and therefore India will have the services of all top players including Virat Kohli coming back as the captain. The day Team India conquered the Brisbane fortress the Indian squad had been announced for the first two tests. In view of the pandemic an 18-member squad had been selected with the exclusion of a still recuperating Ravindra Jadeja. Then, of course, their near-invincibility at home.

 

On the other hand, England is hardly a pushover. They have also come here after sweeping the test series against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka 2-0, and they have tremendously consistent players in captain Joe Root, leading batsmen Rory Burns and Jos Buttler, ominous all-rounders Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali, top-class fast bowlers Jofra Archer, James Anderson and Stuart Broad and capable spinners Dom Bess and Jack Leach. The England team had earlier won a test series in India in 2012-13 and crushed India in their tours of England in 2011, 2014 and in 2018.

 

There are more stakes involved in this Test Series as far as the World Test Championship (WTC) is concerned. This series between Indian and England is almost sure to decide the second finalist for the WTC Final in June this year at Lord’s in England, both of the teams having played 5 of the 6 Series allowed and New Zealand having already qualified with 70 points. India on top with 71.7 points needs to win at least two tests to qualify while England on 68.7 points will need to win three tests. Australia, even though they are in the third position with 69.2 points, is almost out of contention as their series against South Africa has been postponed indefinitely. India enjoys the greatest of chances to qualify at the moment. However, cricket being a game of glorious uncertainties we can only hope for the best. But some superlative cricket is definitely in store for all cricket lovers.

India Win Canberra ODI: No International Cricket Series Should Immediately Follow The IPL!

Even though the Indian Premiere League (IPL) is basically a T20 club-cricket tournament with multinational cricketers, the stakes involved in the tournament are immense. There is the great promise of moolah for every stakeholder: from the richest cricket board of the world BCCI to the national cricket icons or superstars, little-known domestic cricketers and international cricket stars. Every club or franchise is sort of produced by a business group or a rich investor, and all of the investors not only want their money back, but also shares of the net profits. The fantastic popularity that the IPL enjoys brings in the advertisers and commercial sponsors/co-sponsors. So, for obvious reasons nobody would ever like to give up on this annual bonanza, at any cost. No doubt, the BCCI had been desperate to organize IPL-2020 despite the pandemic, and finally grabbed the anticipated slot that was vacated by the ICC as the Cricket T20 World Cup-2020 could not be held. Not to speak of the other benefits that the domestic cricketers are expected to get in their careers.

 

The BCCI has long termed the IPL as a must event. The Indian cricketers, on the flip side, are the worst sufferers in this tournament: like the underworld there is no point of return for them once they get in; even injured players are forced to get fit in no time; the icons or the superstars are always the biggest attractions assuring the flowing advertising money; the rising or little-known domestic players have everything to gain from this tournament; the international players do not ever mind it because of the money and cricketing practice. With the industrialists and business tycoons breathing down their backs the Indian players cannot even think of quitting the tournament mid-way whatever be the reasons/grounds.

 

Naturally, the nearly two-month long tournament leaves the domestic players drained, and what they desperately need after is rest, at least for a fortnight, with families and friends. Therefore, whenever an international bilateral series or a world cricket event immediately follows the IPL the Indian cricketers hardly get enough time to regroup and reenergize. While the international cricketers participating in the IPL can leave the tournament early to attend to the call of their respective national duties the Indian counterparts have to go through to the last ball, despite the ‘national duty’ on which even the BCCI always takes an ambiguous stand.

 

The ICC Cricket World Cup-2019 was a glaring example in this context when the Indian players had only about a fortnight to prepare for the most prestigious world event that comes only once in four years, not annually. The international players got their precious practice and confidence-building in the IPL-2019, and left early to participate in their respective training sessions. And, the Indian cricketers, including skipper Virat Kohli toiling for a lost cause, had had to suffer through the full tournament with no training camps to follow. What happened? Perhaps the best Indian team ever fielded for World Cups could not progress beyond the semi-final, with topsy-turvy performances in-between. The IPL becomes a clear liability under such circumstances, and therefore, we strongly and in agony appeal that scheduling of international series or events must not ever be done immediately following the annual IPL.

 

The India Tour of Australia-2020-21 has been suffering directly from the scheduling with India already losing the ODI Series. With a host of restrictions and quarantine procedures the Indian players participating in the IPL-2020 in UAE since September had been both physically and mentally drained. Yet they had to proceed to Australia the very next day after the IPL final, and had again to undergo isolation for 14 days without any practice matches or sessions. It is only hoped that the Indians would gradually get acclimatized and be somewhat ready by the time the Test Series starts.

 

On the third and final ODI match in Canberra today India made a few changes in the team. Why? Perhaps only the winning Australian team enjoyed this prerogative. Since it has been widely reported in the media that ‘India now play for respect’, why then the management did not field the same team that they did not bother to change even for the decisive second match! The retained star batsmen of Team India for the Canberra match could do no better than on the earlier two occasions, and the pair of Pandya-Jadeja had to bat out of their skin to restore some of the ‘respect’. While Australia registered three centuries there was none from the superstars of India, and only Pandya, an all-rounder who never really bowled, reached the 90s twice.

 

India did get back the ‘respect’ winning a close match in Canberra by 13 runs, and lost the Dettol ODI Series 1-2. Mind you, this was a second Australian team thanks to Warner’s injury and experimentation with reserve players. Can Team India come back at least for the 3-match T20 Series that starts from the 4^th of December, based on the benchmarked IPL-selection procedures exercised since the last few years? Perhaps the Canberra win would make them a little more spirited.

India Vs Australia: Cricket New Normal, COVID Stress, Pink Ball And Expectations!

 

Photo: rediff.com

India started their tour of Australia in 2018-19 too from November 2018 to January 2019, and created history by becoming first Asian cricket team to beat Australia in a Test Series in Australia. They also became only the second team of the world to beat Australia in Australia in both the formats of ODI and Test. The first test of that series too started in Adelaide in December and in that cracker of a match India won by 31 runs, one of their slenderest of victory margins. Australia won the second test in Perth by 146 runs, and India sealed the series 2-1 by winning the third test in Melbourne by 137 runs with the last match ending in a draw in Sydney. Then they went on to win the ODI Series 2-1 too. Under Australia’s split captaincy regime for different formats Aussie wicket keeper Tim Paine was the captain in the Test series and Aaron Finch captained the Aussies in the ODI and T201 formats, and they met Virat Kohli as the all-format Indian skipper. The rivalry remains the same this time, only with the exception that Virat Kohli is going to go home on paternity leave after the Adelaide test. But India have the advantage of the previous triumph behind them.

 

The major difference this time is obviously the pandemic cricket new normal with empty stadiums and a strict regime of bio-bubble which means that all members of the teams will have to stay put in their hotel rooms except for the designated bus trips to the stadiums for practice sessions or matches, no mixing allowed with anyone, no group meetings and players cannot even dine with their team mates. Now, this means that the Indian players have been continuously under bio-bubble since the IPL-2020 in September after which they were airlifted to Australia the next day after the Final was played on November 10 in which Mumbai Indians became Champions easily defeating Delhi Capitals, to be put under a mandatory 14-day quarantine in Sydney and then to continue under bio-bubble till January 2021. Nearly five months of isolation is bound to affect the mental preparation of the visiting players. However, this factor is also applicable to the Australian players most of whom were also in the IPL-2020, of course, with the exception of having a brief but precious exposure to their home environs. Besides, there will be players for both sides who have joined afresh.

 

In the Adelaide Test of 2018 Cricket Australia had proposed the day/night pink ball match, but the BCCI rejected the idea due to lack of preparation at that juncture, and then the latter organized the first ever pink-ball day/night Test in November 2019 in India, in Kolkata against the visiting Bangladesh side. This time in Australia, the first Test in Adelaide is set to be a pink-ball affair from the 17^th of December. All the factors, swing or no-swing or reverse-swing or the ‘twilight behavior’, will be in full display one more time. With the COVID-19 situation in Australia easing off nicely at the moment the earlier uncertainties about this match are more or less set at rest.

 

The main architects of India’s maiden series victory in Australia in 2018-19 among others were the Indian pacer-trio: Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami, with bits of spinner Ashwin, and the towering batting performance of Cheteshwar Pujara who amassed 550 runs in the four test matches. Uncertainty of Ishant’s fitness continues, but still India have the likes of Bumrah, Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Mohammad Siraj to that of Australia’s Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazelwood, Cameron Green and so on. Ashwin would most probably figure in the final eleven. Cheteshwar Pujara is also there and his form will be of crucial importance. Uncertainty about the fitness of wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha who created a storm as an opener in IPL-2020 and then unfortunately got injured also continues. 

 

Injured Rohit Sharma has been included in the Test squad and his presence will be significant in the absence of Virat Kohli for the remaining three Tests. Ajinkya Rahane, with proven captaincy records, will be captaining the Indian team from the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne. Previous statistics also do not support the fears that in the absence of Kohli India perform dismally. No doubt, his absence is set to be a huge psychological advantage for the Aussies who would dearly want a sweet revenge for the loss in 2018-19. India’s tremendous depth in batting has been acknowledged internationally, and with the added advantage of world-class pacers, apart from the classic spinners, India is a formidable side to any opponent. Australians know this well, and therefore, they have been rather cautious so far, not indulging in their usual mind games prior to the contest.

Two of the traditional archrivals of world cricket will unfold the show with the first ODI to be played in Sydney on 27^th November, the next also there on 29^thand the third and final ODI in Canberra on 2^nd December. The three-match T20Is unfold from the 4^th of December. And then the 4-match Test Series. The day/night ODIs will start from 9.10 am Indian time; the night T20Is will begin from 1.40 pm Indian time; the day/night Test starts daily from 9.10 am while the three day-Tests start daily for 5 am Indian time. All the matches are to be telecast live by Sony Pictures on its TEN 1, TEN 3 and Sony Six channels. So then, the epicenters of the great expectations, cheers and support of the fans are to be their homes, exclusively this time. The anticipated excitement would definitely be able to neutralize some of the gloom generated by months of new normal times. Cheers!

Anticlimactic Twist To An Absorbing IPL-2020, KXIP And RR Eliminated!

IPL-2020 has been one of the most absorbing versions ever given very different terrains in the United Arab Emirates, its three stadiums being Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah. Dubai is almost similar to the Indian flat tracks inducing high scores while the pitches in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are on the slower side, both rather helping the bowlers yielding mostly modest scores, more than 200 runs very rare. That IPL 2020 is so absorbing is clear from the fact that only a couple of matches to be played in the final stage of the league, only one team has officially qualified for the play-offs and it is still not clear which three of the five teams would finally join MI there. Of course, Dhoni’s CSK had already been officially eliminated from the tournament, along with KXIP and RR as of today.

 

We had maintained in our earlier IPL piece that thanks to the slowish nature of the pitches the struggle between the bat and the ball was keener, and therefore, we were having many hard-fought humdingers. Besides, we also said that the Indian win-toss-and-chase strategy had been almost neutralized here which was a healthy sign for competitive cricket. However, things have changed dramatically in the final week of the league stage.

 

We are seeing now active application of the Indian strategy, that is to say, win toss and choose the option of chasing a target, and this has been paying off. In several crucial matches we are getting used to watching the toss-losing side batting first and making perfect mess of a target, with at least 2/3 bowlers, both spinners and pacers, of the rival sides creating havoc.  Yesterday we had seen a perfectly balanced side RCB making just 120 runs batting first against SRH and another top side DC setting a pathetic target of 110 runs against MI. In earlier matches we saw CSK and RR easily chasing down competitive targets set by KKR and KXIP respectively. In all these matches and in a few more the winning sides have consistently been the ones winning the toss and then opting to chase. Such has been the importance of the toss that all these matches ended as thoroughly one-sided affairs, adding an anticlimactic tinge to an otherwise absorbing tournament.

 

The most spectacularly disappointing victims have been RCB and DC, two top teams who amassed 14 points each more than a week back, and since the last one week had been unable to win just one match to proceed to the play-off stage. DC has lost last four games on the trot while RCB lost three. Of course, at least one of them would still make it to the play-offs. The struggling first and then resurging, Team KXIP had done all the hard work to amass 12 points and needed to win at least one of the remaining two matches. They lost both: against RR on 30^th October and against CSK today.

 

Funnily enough, CSK, after being eliminated from the tournament, has become a sort of kingmaker, preventing two teams from entering the play-offs: eliminating KXIP today and almost doing the same defeating KKR (on 12 points for a long time) on October 29. To the question as to why this strategy is evolving the answer is not forthcoming. The common theory is that pitches are slowish okay, but dew is affecting the bowlers of the toss-losing side and helping the chasing side score with greater ease.

 

The lament is the probability of either KKR or KXIP winning those matches that would have given them at least 14 points each had they won the tosses and chased. Of course, we cannot cry too hoarse for KKR, because the team has been suffering from an unpredictability of the West Indies type, non-performance of key players, change of team leaders and a classic saga of strategical mistakes. Then the two teams of RR and SRH that had been performing indifferently are surging at this late stage, RR is gone today, but SRH is still in the fight.

 

As we go on talking about the anti-climax of one-sided matches, we just have had a reversal of our own theory in the tough match between KKR and RR today in Dubai. As per the set strategy RR decided to field first after winning the toss. Through the usual series of fits and starts KKR finally managed to set an imposing target of 192. Then they entered the battlefield like charged Royal Bengal Tigers and made an attacking RR totter getting half of the side out in less than five overs. The rest just lingered on, the match turning out to be entirely one-sided, but neutralizing the set pattern. KKR won the match by  60 runs in 20 overs and earned 14 points to be in the fourth position, their only concern at the moment being a low net run-rate (NRR). RCB and DC also have low NRRs while SRH has a much higher one.

 

Now we need to wait two more days for the final line-up. Today, RR and KXIP are eliminated. Tomorrow’s RCB Vs DC match would ensure one of them reaching the play-off with 16 points while the last league encounter between SRH and MI on 3^rd November would be important only for the former as the latter is already the number 1 in the play-off line-up. We might be having 2 or 3 teams locked with 14 points each and in that eventuality NRR would decide the qualifiers. So, absorbing yes, but the one-sided matches are always disappointing. And we fervently hope that the win-toss-and-chase strategy does not influence the play-off matches. The first Qualifier is to be played in Dubai on 5^th November, the Eliminator and the second Qualifier in Abu Dhabi on 6^th and 8^th November while the Final will be played in Dubai on 10^th November. 

Tour of Australia 2020-21: Indian Squads Look To Be A Judicious Mix!

Photo: deccanchronicle.com

The all-India cricket selection committee of the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) has yesterday finalized the Indian squads for the India Tour of Australia 2020-21 to be played from end of next month under new normal rules due to the pandemic. Three squads for the T20Is, ODIs and Tests have been announced with some significant changes of players/specialists. Rishabh Pant, who is reportedly unfit due to weight issues, has been left out of the shorter formats and included in the Test squad as the second wicket-keeper. This is despite he being the hype of the millennium when he was not selected for the ICC Cricket World Cup-2019, initially, and the Board eventually forced to select him due to Shikhar Dhawan’s injury, but largely due to the pressures created by the Pant fans on social media, the mainstream media hooting for him even with editorials and a range of cricket experts and ex-players crying for his inclusion. However, it proved to be a damp squib, and Pant is yet to prove his mettle in the ODIs and the T20Is. The IPL 2020 in UAE has also failed so far to bring out the ‘best’ in him.

 

The BCCI has also been judicious enough by doing away with the selection of injured batsman Rohit Sharma and fast bowler Ishant Sharma instead of taking the risks. Accordingly, KL Rahul has been named vice-captain for the T20Is and the ODIs thanks perhaps to his current rollicking form in the IPL 2020. His inclusion in the Test squad has been contested though by some ex-cricketers since there are already two wicket-keepers included (Wriddhiman Saha and Pant) and Ajinkya Rahane being made the vice-captain. However, with 18 players in the squad there should be a lot of scope for selecting the playing eleven, and it also must be borne in mind that Rahul first came into international fame in the Test format. His co-opener in IPL 2020 for Kings Eleven Punjab, Mayank Agarwal has also made it to all the three formats.

 

Inclusion of the IPL star of recent years, Sanju Samson, in the T20I squad is significant too; because apart from being an attacking batsman Samson is also a wicket-keeper and he would provide relief to KL Rahul whenever required. Promising pacer Navdeep Saini has also made it to all the squads while spinner Yuzvendra Chahal is retained for the shorter formats and spinner Kuldeep Yadav selected for the Test squad only with R Ashwin coming in. Other offbeat selections from IPL 2020 being that of spinner Varun Chakravarthy for the T20I squad and pacer Mohammed Siraj for the Test squad.

 

The Squads:

T20I: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, KL Rahul (vice-captain and wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson (wicket-keeper), Ravindra Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Deepak Chahar, Varun Chakravarthy.

ODI: Virat Kohli (Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Shubman Gill, KL Rahul (vice-captain & wicket-keeper), Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey, Hardik Pandya, Mayank Agarwal, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Navdeep Saini, Shardul Thakur.

Test: Virat Kohli (Captain), Mayank Agarwal, Prithvi Shaw, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane (vice-captain), Hanuma Vihari, Shubman Gill, Wriddhiman Saha (wicket-keeper), Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper), Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd. Shami, Umesh Yadav, Navdeep Saini, Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, R. Ashwin, Mohd. Siraj.

 

Four additional bowlers, all IPL 2020 finds: Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Kartik Tyagi, Ishan Porel and T. Natarajan will travel with the Indian contingent as per the BCCI release. All team management members, coach and players not playing in IPL would join in Dubai, and all the squads are to fly to Australia from Dubai after November 10 IPL final.

 

There is, however, still a lot of uncertainty about the final India-Australia match schedule with different sports sites giving different dates for the matches. The final schedule is to be announced only after all the quarantine and other norm requirements are fixed. In all, three T20Is, three ODIs and four Test matches will be played between November-January 2020-21. While Sydney is believed to host the first few matches covering all formats Adelaide would be the venue for the pink-ball day-night Test match. With the pandemic hopefully coming under perfect control by the month of December in Australia cricket spectators could be allowed for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG Melbourne, that is to say, from 26^th December. In spite of the continuing uncertainty of the final schedule this Series is likely to be very absorbing, considering the fact that the Virat Kohli team had won in the Test series last time against the hosts in Australia. 

Meanwhile the schedule of the tour has been finalized with the first One-Day International match starting on 27th November in Sydney. The fourth and last Test match taking place in Brisbane from the 15th January, 2021. The Final Schedule:

IPL 2020: Super Cricketing Matches Over the Weekend!

Whenever we get to watch cricket of the highest order involving star national and international players we tend to forget about the format of the game and in which ‘type’ it is being played, international Tests or ODIs or T20Is or commercial league T20 matches, and we consider and cherish such games as treats. This exactly has been the case in all of the four matches of the Indian Premier League-2020 (IPL 2020) played over the weekend, that is on Saturday and Sunday, 17-18 October 2020 in UAE, each of the four matches being a humdinger down the wire, and several national and international cricketers displaying tremendous competitive spirit and superlative cricket.

 

Photo: espncricinfo.com

The first game on Saturday was played between RCB and RR in Dubai. RR set a competitive target of 178, and RCB started the chase on a pitch slowing down and found shot-making increasingly difficult. They needed 76 runs off the last 41 balls when Virat Kohli departed for 43 runs off 32 balls, and in came AB de Villiers. Despite his attacking shots from the word go, it came down to needing 35 runs in the last two overs for a win. The incredible prowess of de Villiers unfolded, and he won the match for RCB making 55 runs in just 22 balls, comprising of 6 sixes and with two balls to spare. He thus snatched a victory by 7 wickets from the jaws of an impending defeat, and RCB needed this victory badly, after its listless performance in the game against KXIP on 15^th October when de Villiers was demoted to number six in the batting order with only three overs to play with, this unusual move by Kohli contributed largely to the KXIP, a team on the verge of being ousted from the tournament, getting a new lease of life. More significantly, de Villiers delivered another superlative knock of 73 runs off 33 balls that helped his team win the match against KKR on 12^th October.

 

The second match on Saturday was played between DC and CSK in Sharjah and it also went down to the last over and last-minute fireworks. Again, chasing a competitive CSK target of 180 DC proceeded mostly thanks to a brilliant century by Shikhar Dhawan as wickets on the other end fell in regular intervals slowing down the scoring-rate. 17 runs were required in the last over, and the new batsman Axar Patel had the strike, not the set batsman Dhawan. And what followed was just breathtaking. Axar, as if on a mission, kept on hitting sixes from the first ball, scoring a scintillating 21 in 5 balls and DC winning the duel by 5 wickets.

 

The two matches yesterday, that is Sunday, the 18^th October, were not only close encounters, but both were also tied ones, keeping the viewers riveted with unending twists and turns. The first match was played in Abu Dhabi between KKR and SRH, both teams desperate for the next couple of points. KKR, Russel still not delivering, reached a somewhat respectable total of 163/6 thanks largely to the unbeaten Morgan-Karthik partnership. Chasing a modest target, SRH, despite a rollicking opening partnership between injured Williamson and Bairstow, faltered eventually losing wickets regularly. Finally, skipper Warner still in command, SRH could not get the 30 runs from the last two overs and the match was tied. SRH had also no clue to the incredible bowling by pacer Lockie Ferguson who was playing his first game of the tournament. In came Warner again for the super over, but fell to Ferguson first ball, and KKR had triumphed finally with new skipper Morgan partnering with keeper Dinesh Karthik overhauling the small target easily.

 

Photo: espncricinfo.com

The last match yesterday was played in Dubai between MI and KXIP. Chasing a competitive MI target of 177 runs KXIP, riding on another super knock of 77 by KL Rahul, failed to score the victorious 2 runs off the last ball of the last over in spite Jordan’s last-minute heroics, getting brilliantly run out coming for the second run, and the match was tied. Bowling the super over MI’s main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah bowled yorker after yorker kept the winning score for the MI at just 6 runs. However, the twists could not be foreseen even by MI’s season openers Rohit Sharma and de Kock as KXIP’s strike bowler Mohammad Shami surpassed the brilliance of Bumrah by bowling a beauty of an over, and Rohit, again for the defining 2-run for victory was run out with classic precision by a diving Rahul, and the super over was also tied. Things were different in the second super over, because batsmen and bowlers in action for the first super over could not feature in the second. So, Pollard and Hardik Pandya came in to bat the second super over for MI while Jordan bowled it for KXIP. They could manage only 11 runs and the final target was 12 for KXIP. MI's pacer Trent Boult proved to be a poor man's Bumrah. And, Gayle coming in as an opener for the first time in IPL 2020, started the proceedings with first-ball six, and then Mayank Agarwal who earlier saved a sure Pollard six followed it up with the fours. So then, finally KXIP got the much-fought two points and still remained in contention with 6 points. A match, forget the IPL format or type, of historical proportions finally ended. Results:

 

Now, DC with 14 points is set to enter the playoffs, followed by MI and RCB with 12 each, KKR with 10 and the remaining four teams locked with 6 points each, leaving the doors still tantalizingly open for IPL 2020. All the franchises have played 9 matches each so far and 5 matches each are remaining. This new-normal IPL 2020 in UAE, has somewhat reversed the pattern of winning-toss-fielding-first-and-mostly-winning in Indian settings, and has also seen batsmen struggling for runs on rather slowish pitches instead of the undaunted rain of fours-sixes in Indian settings. These factors have made the tournament hard-fought, closer and absorbing as we have seen in the last four matches over the weekend.