A recap of the major matches and moments from the fifth week of IPL 2024, at the end of which Rajasthan Royals are still table-toppers while Royal Challengers Bengaluru remain tenth out of ten teams with just two points.
SRH openers keep redefining Powerplay batting
What possessed Delhi Capitals’ captain Rishabh Pant to put the strongest top order of the tournament into bat, on a flat Delhi surface with its small boundaries?
The fastest team 100, the highest Powerplay score and visions of 300 being breached for the first time in the IPL. Only Sunrisers Hyderabad look capable of doing this, and when Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma blazed a record 125 runs inside the first six overs – which went for 19, 21, 22, 21, 20 and 22 respectively – and when Head was dismissed for 89 off 32 balls, having smacked 11 fours and six sixes during the Powerplay, the run rate was 20.83 and SRH’s predicted score was 417.
They didn’t even get to 300, as Kuldeep Yadav (3/55) and Akshar Patel (1/29) pulled things back for DC, but SRH’s eventual 266/7 in 20 overs was their second consecutive score over 260 and followed their IPL-record 287/3 from the match against Royal Challengers Bangalore before this one. Where Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen failed, Nitish Reddy made 37 off 17 balls and Shahbaz Ahmed struck five sixes during his unbeaten 59 from 29 balls to close out the innings.
In reply, DC were bowled out for 299 to lose by 67 runs. The only bright spark was the IPL’s equal third-fastest fifty from Jake Fraser-McGurk, who got there in just 15 balls en route his 65 from 18 balls (a strike-rate of 361.11) with seven sixes. When he was dismissed with DC at 109/3, the home team was marginally behind the asking rate of 15.57 but the chase gave way with T Natarajan ending with a three-wicket maiden 19th over.
Kohli fumes as RCB fall one run short of KKR’s 222
Virat Kohli was left fuming when a new method applied to the ball-tracking technology ruled him out to a full toss from Harshit Rana that he believe went above his waist, but the bigger picture is that his team is staring at a very early exit from IPL 2024.
Chasing Kolkata Knight Riders’ total of 222 at Eden Gardens, Royal Challengers Bengaluru finished on 221 at the end of their 20 overs, which has left them bottom of the table. With one win from eight matches, RCB are all but out of the tournament at just barely past the halfway mark.
Needing 21 runs off the last over of the match, RCB’s No 9 Karn Sharma carved Mitchell Starc for three sixes in four deliveries to leave the asking at three off five. Then Starc held onto a stunning caught and bowled, and off the final ball of the match the last man, Lockie Ferguson, was run out when coming back for a second run. This narrow victory put KKR back at second on the leaderboard.
Earlier in the chase, RCB lost their openers cheaply and it was Kohli’s dismissal that left him incensed, and a day later having to pay half his match fees for showing dissent. Kohli was given out caught and bowled to Rana off a waist-high full toss and wasted no opportunity to show his ire, turning around after walking towards the dugout to have words with the on-field umpires, and then smashing a flowerpot as he entered the dressing room.
Following the loss of the openers at 52/2, RCB were lifted by fifties to Will Jacks and Rajat Patidar and were 137/2 after 11 overs. That’s when Andre Russell was called on to bowl and dismissed both set batsmen in the span of three balls. And when Sunil Narine took two wickets, it meant that RCB had surrendered four wickets in 12 deliveries. Russell later took out Dinesh Karthik, before Starc just narrowly managed to finish the game for KKR.
Jaiswal returns to form with special knock
A superb unbeaten century from Yashasvi Jaiswal headlined Rajasthan Royals’ nine-wicket win over Mumbai Indians at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, one which further consolidated RR’s place at the top of the points table and left the five-time winners MI staring at elimination from the playoffs race.
Set a target of 180 after Sandeep Sharma claimed five wickets in his return to the 11, the Royals chased it down in 18.4 overs for the loss of just one wicket with Jaiswal returning to form with an unbeaten 104 off 60 balls.
The home team’s chase began promisingly as Jaiswal put on 74 in eight overs with Jos Buttler, and getting out of the Powerplay for just the second time in this IPL proved a turning point for the 22-year-old. Buttler was the only wicket to fall, making 35 off 25 balls before he was bowled by Piyush Chawla, but by then Jaiswal had found his groove. The left-handed opener got to his first 50 of the season off 31 balls and then shifted gears, swatting his way to a second IPL century in his next 28 balls – his previous one had also been scored against MI – and his celebration said it all.
Jaiswal’s innings featured eight fours and seven sixes and even though he was aided by some dropped catches by MI’s sloppy catchers, there was no denying the class and determination of his comeback inning, one that has sealed Jaiswal’s place in India’s T20 World Cup squad.
Superb Stoinis stars in IPL classic
A superb unbeaten century from Chennai Super Kings’ captain Ruturaj Gaikwad was put in the background by an innings for the ages from Marcus Stoinis, who smashed a career-best 124* to take Lucknow Super Giants past a target of 211 in Chennai this week.
Chasing a big target at a venue where hosts CSK were unbeaten this IPL season, LSG lost Quinton de Kock for a duck and then KL Rahul for 16, but promoting Stoinis to one-down proved a masterstroke as the muscular allrounder set himself up for an incredible century that took his team to a six-wicket victory with three deliveries left. Stoinis faced 63 balls for his unbeaten 124, which included 13 fours and six sixes, which is his first IPL century in nine seasons.
The 34-year-old found himself at the crease to face the fourth ball of a daunting chase, and found himself needing to the heavy lifting after Rahul and Devdutt Padikkal struggled. LSG were 98 for 3 after 11 overs, which meant they had to get a further 123 runs in nine overs at an asking rate of more than 13 per over. Having set himself up to bat deep, Stoinis displayed his customary power and CSK had no plan for his stunning counter-attack, which saw Stoinis accelerate at a rapid pace for his second highest T20 score. Aided by Nicholas Pooran’s cameo innings of 34 off 15 ball and a superb 17* off six from Deepak Hooda, Stoinis reached his century off 56 balls and then set himself up for the final over, from which LSG needed 17 runs.
Gaikwad opted for Bangladesh’s death specialist Mustafizur Rahman, but Stoinis was in imperious mood and smashed the first ball over long-on for six, the second straight for four, and the third over the slips for another boundary. That one was a no-ball to boot, and Stoinis swung the free hit for another four to finish an epic chase with three balls to spare.
