IPL 2022: Week six in review

Six weeks have gone by in the 15^th season of the Indian Premier League and another week of frenetic cricket, but after seven days the points table maintained the same teams in the top four positions. Here’s a recap of the major talking points from May 2-8.

RCB MAINTAIN TOP FOUR POSITION, CSK STILL ALIVE

Having briefly transformed themselves the weekend before once MS Dhoni resumed captaincy duty from the beleaguered Ravindra Jadeja, defending champions Chennai Super Kings slumped to their seventh loss from a position of dominance when they met Royal Challengers Bangalore at the start of the week.

Chasing a target of 174, CSK required 54 runs from 30 deliveries with six wickets in hand but somehow lost the plot. Proving a thorn in CSK’s side was the revamped pace bowler they let slip at the auction, Josh Hazlewood, whose exceptional death-overs bowling continued as he dismissed Dhoni in the penultimate over to effectively close out RCB’s 13-run win. Hazlewood stifled CSK’s chase while conceding just 13 runs combined in the 17^th and 19^th overs, which followed a pivotal spell of 2/22 from fellow Australian Glenn Maxwell.

Adding to CSK’s stunning collapse was Harshal Patel with three wickets, which included Jadeja and a dangerous-looking Moeen Ali. This win lifted RCB to fourth on the points table and left CSK’s IPL 2022 playoff hopes dangling.

As the week closed out, however, CSK absolutely smashed Delhi Capitals to keep their playoff ambitions alive. Leading the way was New Zealander Devon Conway, who hit his third successive fifty since returning to CSK’s XI, and Moeen with 3/13 from four overs in a 91-run victory. Having been asked to bat by Rishabh Pant, CSK managed a total of 208/6 on the back of Conway’s 87 off 49 balls and Ruturaj Gaikwad’s 41, the pair putting on 110 in 11 overs. Delhi were bowled out for 117 with more than two overs to spare.

Earlier in the day, RCB hammered Sunrisers Hyderabad by 67 runs to hold onto fourth spot. Their skipper Faf du Plessis found form with an unbeaten 73* and Wanindu Hasaranga claimed five wickets for the first time in the IPL. Virat Kohli’s form remains a matter of discussion, however, following his third golden duck of the tournament.

NO EXTRA MOTIVATION FOR WARNER AGAINST SRH

Delhi’s week ended on a limp note, but earlier in the week they looked a top-four team when they pummeled SRH. A red-hot David Warner needed no ‘extra motivation’ against the team that let him go, as he hit a match-setting unbeaten 92 off 58 deliveries to set up a total of 207/3 at the Brabourne Stadium.

Warner’s falling out with the SRH setup in 2021 had raised eyebrows, after the management removed him as captain and dropped him from the XI, but when the Australian came up against his former franchise he insisted there was no bad blood. Maintaining his fine form this season, Warner batted all 20 overs while selflessly shunning the chance for a century in telling his Rovman Powell to clear the boundaries in the last over instead of getting a single to put him on strike with three figures looming.

Powell hit 18 off the 20^th over to finish on 67* from 35 balls, thus taking his association with Warner to 122 from 66. Set a target of 208, SRH ended up 21 runs short though Nicholas Pooran continued his upswing with 62 off 34 balls. Warner’s 92* was the 89^th half-century of his T20 career and fetched him the Man-of-the-Match award.

“I didn’t need extra motivation,” beamed Warner after the win. “We’ve all seen what happened before in the past. It was just good to get the win on the board.”

AUSSIES SHINE AS MUMBAI CHOKE GUJARAT IN THRILLER

Mumbai Indians’ abysmal season was given a rare moment of joy when they beat Gujarat Titans by five runs, as Australian import Daniel Sams defended nine runs off the final over of the match. The left-arm pacer sent down three dot balls and conceded just three runs, despite the presence of dangerous David Miller at the crease, to seal Mumbai’s second win in ten matches.

This result had been difficult to envision once Gujarat’s openers Wriddhiman Saha and Shubman Gill hit brisk fifties to drive a century opening stand.

From needing 22 runs off 15 balls, and with Miller and Hardik Pandya at the crease, Gujarat somehow proceeded to lose the plot. Pandya’s call for a sharp single saw him run out and during the penultimate over Jasprit Bumrah did well to conceded four off the first four balls, before a flat six from Miller left the asking at ten from seven. Sams delivered a tremendous final over of full and slower deliveries to bring joy to Mumbai’s faces.

Earlier, another Australian, the Singapore-born Tim David, underlined his big-hitting tag by clubbing 44* from 21 balls, with four sixes and two fours, to push Mumbai to 177/6. David, who has represented Singapore in 14 T20Is, was named Player of the Match.

KKR END FIVE-LOSS SPREE, ONLY TO SLIP FURTHER

Having lost five consecutive matches to make it nearly 30 days without a win, Kolkata Knight Riders chased down Rajasthan Royals’ 152 for a much-needed victory last week, winning with seven wickets and five balls to spare. This kept them in the lower middle half of the table, but in their next match the Kolkata-based franchise slumped to their seventh loss which shunted them down to eight place on the table.

On Saturday, after Rajasthan trumped Punjab Kings by six wickets to maintain their place in the top four, Lucknow Super Giants hammered KKR by 75 runs to claim the top spot.

Put in to bat by KKR captain Shreyas Iyer, Lucknow scored 176/7 with a late-overs surge from Marcus Stoinis and Jason Holder proving the difference. Stoinis (28 from 14 balls) and Holder (13* off four) smacked pacer Shivam Mavi for five sixes in the 19^th over of Lucknow’s innings to deflate KKR.

This was followed by KKR being bowled out for 101, the season’s lowest score, with more than five overs to spare. Only three batsmen made it to double digits as LSG’s trio of quicks Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan and Holder grabbed seven wickets between them. With this latest defeat, KKR’s hopes to make the IPL 2022 playoffs are hanging by that proverbial thread.