STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsFinally, Mumbai Indians attain their first win and register two points against Rajasthan Royals after eight matches. Royal Challengers Bangalore in the day match on Saturday, suffered their third successive loss after Gujarat Titans won eight out of nine.
On Sunday, in the first match of the double header, Lucknow Super Giants registered their seventh win after Delhi Capitals lost by six runs. In the second match, Chennai Super Kings defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad to attain their third win of the season.
Kohli registers a scratchy half-century
Nothing has been going right for Bangalore in their last three matches. However, on the bright side, Virat Kohli registered his first half-century of the season, not the fluent one but something that could give confidence to the ace batsman of Bangalore.
He registered his first half-century of the season in 45 balls, which is his second slowest in the grand tournament. In the end, Kohli managed to score 58 off 53 balls at a strike rate of 109.4. In a 50+ knock by Kohli, this is the slowest he has batted in an innings in the IPL.
Gujarat off to a dream start
Both the new teams of 2022 IPL, have got off to a good start. Lucknow Super Giants in their 10 matches have won seven. But, the other new team, Gujarat, have had an even better run, a dream start to be precise.
In the nine matches played so far, Gujarat have won eight of them and are sitting pretty at the top with 16 points and five matches remaining. In the history of the IPL, they are the first team to win eight matches in the first nine played. To emboss more, in none of the seasons, a team has won eight out of the first nine matches.
Buttler tops the seasons chart for Rajasthan
Apart from his match against Lucknow (13) and Bangalore (8), Jos Buttler hasn’t scored less than 35. In nine innings, Buttler has six 50+ scores, a testimony of how good the season has been for him.
In his match against Mumbai, Buttler reached the 500-run mark this season in just nine innings, which is the joint second quickest by a batsman in a season of the IPL. Kohli in his mega season in 2016, had reached the landmark in just eight innings, which is the quickest.
To add more, by virtue of his 67-run knock against Mumbai, Buttler ended his innings at a total tally of 566 runs in nine innings this season at an average of 70.8 and 155.1. The runs scored by Buttler in this edition is the most for a Rajasthan batsman in a season of IPL. He went past the tally of 560 set by Ajinkya Rahane in 2012.
An all-time slow fifty
Considering his form, Buttler looked off colored in his innings against Mumbai. Thanks to his four consecutive sixes, his strike rate boosted to 128.8 from 93.5 in just four balls.
Before heading into this match, in each of the innings where he had batted 10+ balls in the first 20 balls of an innings, Buttler had hit a six. In this innings, his first six came in the 47th ball. With his second six, Buttler registered his half-century in 48 deliveries, his slowest in the IPL and second slowest in all T20s.
Rohit hits all time
Mumbai’s chance of making it to the play-off’s is unlikely, but the main reason behind their failures has been the failure of their captain. In nine matches, Rohit’s highest score has been 41 and he has one score between 30-39 score, two scores between 20-29, one score of 10 and four single digit scores.
In the nine innings, Rohit averages 17.2, which is the lowest for a top order (1-7) batsman who has scored 150+ runs this season. To his worst, this is the first ever IPL season in which Rohit has averaged less than 20.
Mumbai register their first point
The biggest let off in this season of IPL has been the performance of the five-time champions Mumbai. Heading into their ninth match against Rajasthan, Mumbai had lost eight out of their eight, their worst start to the season, a worst start from any team in a season of IPL to be precise. Finally, in their game against Rajasthan on their skippers 35th birthday, Mumbai opened their account.
Marsh and Rishabh explode at the start
In reply to their chase, Delhi lost both their gun openers, David Warner and Prithvi Shaw early in the third over. Since Warner’s arrival, this was the first innings in which they lost both Shaw and Warner inside the powerplay.
But, that didn’t hamper Rishabh Pant and Mitchell Marsh’s aggressive intent. The duo blasted their way through and hoisted a 50-run partnership in just 16 balls. In the IPL, the 16 balls taken by them to register a 50-run partnership is the fastest for a Delhi pair.
Dhoni back at the helm
It has been a game of musical chairs for Chennai’s captaincy role. Just before the first game of IPL 2022, Chennai announced that Ravindra Jadeja will take over the captaincy role from MS Dhoni.
Similarly, a day before their ninth match, Jadeja relinquished the captaincy to Dhoni and he was back at the helm for Chennai once again. By becoming the captain at the age of 40 years and 298 days, Dhoni became the oldest Indian captain in T20s.
Gaikwad-Conway go big
Just like Mumbai, Chennai have had their troubles. Before their match against Hyderabad, Chennai had lost six out of their eight matches and one of the main reasons was their opening partnership.
In their win against Hyderabad today, that wasn’t the case. Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad came to the party and had a bash. Before this match, in eight innings, the opening pair had posted 101 total runs. In this match alone, the opening pair of Conway and Gaikwad posted 182 runs. In the IPL, this was the highest partnership for any wicket for Chennai. In addition, this was also the highest partnership against Hyderabad for any wicket in the IPL.
Gaikwad, so far yet so close
The most commendable aspect of Gaikwad's batting is when he gets going, he is one of the most delightful batsmen to watch. If not convinced, watch the replay of few shots he played against Umran Malik, SRH's best bowler this season.
Though Gaikwad has had a season in which he has blown hot and cold, he reached the 1000-run mark in the IPL in real quick time. By virtue of reaching the landmark in just 31 innings, Gaikwad became the joint fastest Indian to score 1k IPL runs, speaks volumes of his contribution.
However, it was unfortunate that he missed out on a century by just one solitary run. In the IPL, he became the fifth batsman to be dismissed on 99. Nevertheless, it was an eye treating innings from the young batsman on his home turf (Pune).
The best middle sector saw Chennai post 200 for the 22nd time
The openers from Chennai, started off steadily after they scored 40 runs without being separated throughout the powerplay. This was also the first time this season, their openers batted through the powerplay. On a strong base, Gaikwad and Conway pressed on the accelerator in the middle overs and scored 113 runs in the middle overs phase (7-15). This was not only the highest middle overs score by any team this season, but also, Chennai’s highest ever total in this phase in the history of IPL.
Thanks to the platform laid by the openers, Chennai posted a 200+ total for the 22nd time, which is the most for a team in the IPL. Bangalore are behind them with 21.
