The inaugural match of IPL 2018 was between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) on April 7. In total there are 60 matches. MI’s 165 was a good score. There were three crucial knocks to make it 165. 29 balls 40 runs by Ishan Kishan, 29 balls 43 runs by Suryakumar Yadav, and 22 balls 41 runs by Krunal Pandya. A point to ponder in this innings is moving Kieron Pollard to 7th place. He could have been a significant contributor in any place above. Placing him at 7 was a waste of his hard-hitting skills. On the bowling front, CSK’s Deepak Chahar was the most economical bowler with 4.67 economy rate. I wonder, why CSK captain didn’t utilize his fourth over. Whereas Mark Wood with 12.25 runs per over had all his four overs.
I am sure CSK team would have been repenting until the second last ball of the over to offer bat to MI first. The gamechanger from CSK side to fetch their first win in IPL 2018 is Dwayne Bravo. In fact, his 30 balls 68 runs with 7 sixes and 3 fours say it all. Hardik Pandya and Mayank Markande had a complete spell of 4 overs each with 6 and 5.73 runs per over. Both were the most economical bowlers from MI side. Kedar Jadhav had the match-winning shot at the penultimate ball of the game thus changing the game upside down. Otherwise, the match was almost out of CSK’s hands after losing 9 wickets and hardly 2 balls left.
IPL 2018 producing exciting games
Day 2 of IPL 2018 was a Sunday. There were two matches on that day. Match 2 of the season was Delhi Daredevils (DD) vs Kings XI Punjab (KXIP). While Match 3 was between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). KXIP opted to bowl despite winning the toss. And they were right in their decision winning the match batting second with one over and one ball to spare. Three batsmen from DD did well. Gautam Gambhir with 55 had a supporting 50 plus innings. While Rishabh Pant and Chris Morris need a mention because of their high strike rates contributing 28 and 27 respectively. DD were166 for 7 wickets in 20 overs. In reply, two batsmen from KXIP need a special mention. Opener K L Rahul had a magnificent inning of 51 runs in just 16 balls with a strike rate of 300 plus.
Source India.com
The only other half-century of the game was from Karun Nair in 33 balls. Kings XI wins the match by 6 wickets. In the second match of the day, KKR decided to bowl after winning the toss. This was the first match of IPL 2018 with scores crossing 170. Brenden McCullum, AB de Villiers, and Mandeep Singh were only the successful batsmen from RCB. KKR playing on their home pitch were comfortable to seal the win with one over and a ball to spare. The credit goes to opener Sunil Narine with 50 runs in just 19 balls.
IPL 2018 setting a trend of a team winning the toss and batting second wins
Match 4 was between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Sun Risers Hyderabad (SRH) on Monday, April, 9. In fact, this was the fourth match in a row where the team winning the toss and inviting the opposite team to bat first wins. This was, in fact, the first low score match. RR could make only 125 runs losing 9 wickets in 20 overs. SRH were comfortable to close it easily in 16th over losing only one wicket. The credit for this win comes to Shikhar Dhawan making 78 of just 57 balls.
Match 5 of IPL 2018 was between KKR and CSK on April, 10. As a matter of fact, this was the first 200+ match of the current series of the Indian Premier League. The pattern was same as in previous four matches. The team winning the toss and inviting the opponent team to bat first won the match. Andre Russell’s 36-ball 88 runs could not turn the game in the favor of KKR. In fact, there was a lot of bowling experimentation in this game by CSK by using 7 bowlers. I wonder why Harbhajan had only 2 overs despite giving an economy rate of 5.5 runs per over. Maybe, the captain of CSK had something else in his mind. As a matter of fact, the asking rate was more than 10 for CSK.
IPL 2018 has total 60 matches in store
In fact, both the CSK openers played a solid knock thus providing a strong base to the batsmen to come. On one hand, Shane Watson scored 42 in just 19 balls. On the other hand, Ambati Rayudu had a superb knock of 39 in 26 balls. Later it was Sam Billing’s knock of 56 runs in 23 balls to take the game in CSK’s favor in this 5th match of IPL 2018. As a matter of fact, Sunil Narine was the only economical bowler from KKR. As a matter of fact, rest all were unable to control CSK batsmen. Game 6 on April, 11, was between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils. In fact, this was the first match that could not complete and the result of this game was on the basis of D/L (Duckworth Lewis) Method.
Another interesting point of this game is that this, in fact, is the first match where the regular trend of previous 5 matches goes in vain. The team winning the toss and inviting the opponent team to bat first lost the match. RR batting first made 153 runs in 17.5 overs and losing 5 wickets. The top three scorers were Ajinkya Rahane (45 off 40 balls), Sanju Samson (37 in 22 balls), and Jos Buttler making 29 in 18 balls. To win, DD had to make 70 runs in 6 overs. But they were able to make on 60 thus losing the match by 10 runs. Game 7 on April 12 was between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad. The pattern was same as was in first 5 matches. The team winning the toss inviting the other side ultimately winning the match.
IPL 2018 brings excitement in every match
But this match has an another first in it. This is the first match of IPL 2018 with a last-ball win. There was no considerable and consistent batting from MI batsmen except 29 of 17 balls by Evin Lewis. That was the reason of only 147 after losing 8 wickets in 20 overs. Shikhar Dhawan again was the person to give a sparkling start to SRH by producing 45 runs in just 28 balls. The excitement was at its peak in this match as anybody could win till the last ball of the game. SRH had the last ball to score the winning runs and last wicket to lose. The credit, of this win, goes to Deepak Hood coming at number 6 and holding his nerves until the end of the game. Game 8 on April 13 was between KXIP and RCB.
Two RCB bowlers that we will remember for their magnificent spells are Washington Sundar and Umesh Yadav. Umesh Yadav had 3 wickets in his quota of 4 overs with an excellent rate of just 5.75 runs per over. Similarly, Sundar had 2 wickets in 4 overs with 5.5 runs per over. RCB had to make 156 runs in 20 overs to win. That they did easily with 3 balls to spare. Game 9 and 10 were on Saturday, April 14. Game 9 was between MI and DD. This was a high scoring match though not above 200 but 190. Mumbai Indians were 194 for 7 batting first. The trend was same. DD winning the toss and inviting MI to bat first. All the good knocks of first three batsmen of MI were not able to deliver a win for the team.
IPL 2018 Is a pack of surprises in every match
In fact, the two significant knocks of 53-ball 93-runs by Jason Ray and then 25-ball 47 runs by Rishabh Pant were enough to get a win for Delhi Daredevils. Interestingly, this was also the last-ball win. Sunday, April 15 also was a day of 2 games. IPL 2018 game 11 was between was between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore. This was the first game of the season where the pattern of team winning the toss and inviting the other team to bat first wins. In fact, this was the second. But first one was cut short and the result was on the basis of D/L method. Well, in this match, RCB invited RR to bat first after winning the toss. This was the highest score in the first innings match of the season. RR made astounding 217 for the loss of just 4 wickets.
Sanju Samson’s 92 of 45 balls with a strike rate of 204.44 was phenomenal. RCB had no match for it to make 218 to win. This was despite some good batting from Virat Kohli, Mandeep Singh, and Washington Sundar. The credit goes to Shreyas Gopal for a beautiful spell of 4 overs and taking two important wickets of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. That too by giving only 22 runs at a rate of 5.5 runs per over. The same day game 12 was between KXIP and CSK. This was game 12 of the season. This was also an anti-pattern match. CSK invited KXIP to bat first after winning the toss. But as per the initial few games pattern, they were not able to win the match. Chris Gayle was in full form in his first game of the IPL 2018. He made 63 runs of 33 balls.
IPL 2018 has a lot more in store for the rest matches to come
KXIP were 197 for 7. In reply CSK were 193 for 5 in their 20 overs thus losing the match by 5 runs. In fact, this was despite a great effort by MS Dhoni of 79 runs in just 44 balls.
