STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsIn the first match of the Saturday double header, Rajasthan Royals registered a win by six wickets against Punjab Kings and in the second, Lucknow Super Giants registered an emphatic win by 75 runs against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Sunday was a day of big wins. In the first match, Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 67 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings won by 91 runs against Delhi Capitals.
Kohli’s dreadful season worsens even more
At one point of time, everything was going in Virat Kohli’s way and now, it has gone south for the ace batsman. In his match against Hyderabad, Kohli suffered yet another golden duck, his third of the season. Overall, this was Kohli’s sixth golden duck in the IPL. In a season of IPL, Kohli is the eighth batsman to suffer three golden ducks.
In the reverse fixture as well, Kohli had suffered a golden duck against Hyderabad. By virtue of it, he became the fifth batsman in the IPL to suffer two golden ducks against the same team in a season of IPL. The most recent batsmen to suffer this fate was Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan in 2018.
Shivam Mavi’s forgetful over
Till the 18th over of the first innings, Mavi had bowled three overs for just 20 runs without a wicket. But, his fourth over of the innings against Lucknow, changed the dynamics of the game and squashed the confidence of Mavi.
Marcus Stoinis who was struggling to get going till that point, smashed three sixes of the first three balls of the 19th. Despite his dismissal in the fourth ball, the carnage on Mavi didn’t stop. Holder smashed two sixes of the last two balls and took the tally to five sixes in an over. Mavi became the fourth bowler in the history of IPL to concede five sixes, the most in an over.
His day of remorse doesn’t end there. By conceding 30 runs in one over, Mavi recorded the worst over for a Kolkata bowler in the history of IPL. To worsen it more, all the top three most expensive overs in the IPL for Kolkata belong to Mavi.
Chahal continues to cherish
The Purple Cap holder, Yuzvendra Chahal is having a memorable season. In each match, he continues to excel and in his match against Punjab, nothing changed.
The wily leg-spinner has bagged 22 wickets this season, four wickets ahead of Kuldeep Yadav and Kagiso Rabada (18). In a season of IPL, the 22 wickets are the joint second most wickets and the highest by a spinner from Rajasthan. In addition, the 2022 season was the fourth edition in which he has 20 or more wickets, which is the joint most for a bowler.
Hetmyer owning the last five overs
Rajasthan has been one of the most balanced sides this season. If Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson are providing the impetus at the start, Shimron Hetmyer has been brutal towards the fag end of the innings.
In this season, Hetmyer has scored 291 runs at an average of 72.8 and a strike rate of 166.3. His overall strike rate might not be as telling but, Hetmyer’s strong suit has been in the last five overs. Out of the 291 runs scored by Hetmyer, 230 runs have come in the last five overs. Across the seasons of IPL, no Rajasthan batsman has scored over 200 runs in this phase in a single season. To add more, the 18 sixes hit by Hetmyer in the last five overs, is also the most by a Rajasthan batsman in a season of IPL.
The coin refuse to fall in favor of Samson
In every aspect Samson has been excellent for Rajasthan. Good captaincy skills and mainly, his batting hasn’t been hampered by his captaincy. The one thing Samson is lacking this season is his luck at the toss. Though it hasn’t affected their results so far.
This season, he has lost 10 tosses out of the eleven played. In a season of IPL, this is the most tosses lost by Rajasthan. Previously, in 2009 (9 out of 13) and 2018 (9 out of 15), they had lost nine each season.
Rahul’s season of ducks
Heading into the 2022 edition of the IPL, KL Rahul in his 85 IPL innings, had only one duck. To enhance it more, as an opener, Rahul didn’t have a single duck to his name in 62 innings.
However, in this season, he has suffered a saga of ducks. In his first match of the season, Rahul suffered a golden duck against Gujarat Titans. Then against Rajasthan, he suffered another golden duck. In his match against Kolkata, he suffered his third duck of the season and it was a diamond duck (without facing a ball). In the IPL, he became the second opener after Gautam Gambhir in 2013 against Delhi Capitals, to be dismissed for a diamond duck as a captain.
High flying de Kock
After selling out his opening partner Rahul, Quinton de Kock had a lot to make up for as Rahul has been Lucknow’s main batsman. He played out the first over and was on the attack from the third over.
He smashed Tim Southee for 17 runs in the third over and there on, he was unstoppable. The left-handed dasher scored 44 runs in the first six overs without being dismissed. Those 44 runs are the most he has scored in an innings in the first six overs of IPL. Prior to this match, against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2015, he scored an unbeaten 43 in this phase while playing for Delhi.
Mohsin magic
The find of the season for Lucknow has been the left arm pace of Mohsin Khan. Since his return, he has managed to pick up a wicket in each of the four matches he has played. It isn’t just about the wickets, he has bagged those wickets at an economy of 4.9.
In his match against Kolkata, Mohsin bagged a wicket-maiden in the first of the innings, only the second bowler after Bhuvneshwar Kumar against Delhi to achieve the feat this season. In the two overs he bowled in the powerplay, he conceded only one run to go with his solitary wicket. In the history of IPL, among bowlers who have bowled two-plus overs inside the first six, his spell in this match was the joint best.
Hasaranga lives up to the reputation
After not retaining Chahal, Bangalore brought Wanindu Hasaranga for a whopping 10+ crore price at the auction and he has absolutely lived up to it.
With 21 wickets to his name, Hasaranga is just one wicket behind Chahal (22 wickets). For Bangalore, his 21 wickets this season, is the most by an overseas bowler, surpassing Shane Watson (2016) and Mitchell Starc’s (2015) tally of 20 wickets.
To add more, Hasarange became the fourth Bangalore bowler to bag a five-for in the IPL. His spell of 5/18 in this match, is the second-best spell for a bowler from the Bangalore-based franchise. Anil Kumble’s spell of 5/5 against Rajasthan in 2009 still stands as the best.
The tale of ducks for openers
The duck tales for the openers just didn’t stop with Kohli. Chasing a mammoth target, both the Hyderabad openers were sucked by pressure and both of them were dismissed for a duck. Abhishek Sharma for a three-ball duck and their skipper Kane Williamson, was dismissed for a diamond duck in the first ball of the innings when he was run-out.
In total, this match saw three of the openers being dismissed for a duck. In the IPL, this was the fifth match in which there were three ducks by openers and one of those five matches came this year. In match 33 between Mumbai Indians and Chennai, Mumbai’s both openers, Rohit and Kishan were dismissed for ducks and Ruturaj Gaikwad from Chennai was out for a golden duck.
Double strike in the first ball of the innings
After Kohli was dismissed in the first ball of the first innings, Williamson was run-out in the first ball of the second innings, without facing a ball that too.
In the IPL, this was only the third match in which a wicket fell off the first ball in both the innings. The first instance happened in 2012 between two defunct teams, Deccan Chargers (Parthiv Patel) and Pune Warriors India (Manish Pandey). The second was in 2015 between Mumbai (Lendl Simmons) and Delhi (Mayank Agarwal) at Wankhede. However, in the match between Mumbai and Delhi, Simmons was dismissed off the first legal delivery (followed by a first ball wide).
The consistency of Conway
Devon Conway was dropped after Chennai’s first match to accommodate a foreign pacer. Later on, Conway had to leave for his wedding. Since his return (May 1), it has been a complete turnaround for the left-handed batter.
In the three innings, Conway’s score read: 87 vs DC, 56 vs RCB & 85* vs SRH (recent first). By virtue of scoring three 50+ scores in three innings, Conway became the third Chennai batsman to score three successive 50+ scores in the IPL.
Delhi bundled out a lot too many times
Heading into this match with a heavy positive net run rate of 0.6, what Delhi didn’t was a big defeat and unfortunately, they suffered one against Chennai.
Apart from the third-wicket partnership between Mitchell Marsh and Rishabh Pant of 36, none of the other pair could put up a partnership of 25+. Hence, they were bundled out for 117. This was the 24th time in the IPL that Delhi team have lost all their 10 wickets in an innings, the most among all teams.
