A recap of the major matches and moments from the third week of IPL 2024, at the end of which Rajasthan Royals are table-toppers while Delhi Capitals remain tenth out of ten teams with just two points.
SRH openers blow away CSK in Powerplay
How often have you seen an opener win Player-of-the-Match honours for an innings that did not last even three overs? Well, this is what Abhishek Sharma earned after he fueled Sunrisers Hyderabad’s electric start to a chase of 166 against defending champions Chennai Super Kings at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Sharma, 23, smashed 37 off just 12 balls in an opening stand of 46 in 2.4 overs with Travis Head, which included a stunning assault on Mukesh Choudhary who was carted for 27 runs in an over. Sharma hit three sixes and two fours off Choudhary in the second over, and then took consecutive balls from Deepak Chahar for six and four before he sliced a catch to backward point in the third over, in an innings that put SRH on course for a six-wicket win.
Australia’s World Cup final hero Head made 31 off 24 balls after being dropped on 0, hitting three fours and a six as SRH closed out the Powerplay block on 78/1. Aiden Markram built on the openers’ strong start by contributing 50 off 36 balls from one-down, and the rest of the chase was straightforward as SRH won with 11 deliveries remaining.
Butler trumps Kohli
Another fine innings from Virat Kohli was put in the background by a return to form from Jos Buttler, whose unbeaten 100 outdid the former’s 113 not out in Jaipur.
Kohli’ eighth IPL century – and joint slowest in the tournament’s 16-year history – was the bedrock of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s total of 183/3 but was cancelled out by Buttler’s 100* from 58 balls, which helped hosts Rajasthan Royals reach their target for the loss of three wickets with five deliveries remaining.
Kohli led an opening stand worth 125 in 14 overs with Faf du Plessis (44) before the spin pair of Yuzvendra Chahal and R Ashwin slowed down the innings. Du Plessis’ departure was followed by further struggles from the Australian duo of Glenn Maxwell (1) and Cameron Green (5*) which left Kohli needing to bat out the full 20 overs. That he did, facing 72 deliveries – the third most in an IPL innings ever – for his unbeaten 113 that contained 12 fours and four sixes.
Ashwin completely shut down Kohli during the middle overs, bowling 15 balls to him for 14 runs without a boundary conceded (strike-rate 93.33), and even though the former RCB skipper scored 44 off his last 22 balls faced (strike-rate 190.91), he took 10 balls to move from 87 to his century.
In pursuit of 184, RR lost Yashasvi Jaiswal for a second-ball duck but Buttler joined forces with Sanju Samson (69) to put on 148 for the second wicket and set RR on course for a fourth straight victory. In his 100th IPL match, Buttler shrugged off a lean run of scores – 11, 11 and 13 – to find form with a superb hundred, raised with a six to finish off the chase.
Shepherd announces himself in MI’s first win
On an afternoon during which several big bats made their presence felt at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, there was one innings that left people speechless. And it came from Romario Shepherd, who on his Mumbai Indians debut clubbed 39 runs from just 10 balls in a partnership of 53 with Tim David that lifted the home team to a match-winning total of 234 for 5 in 20 overs. That innings, followed by the wicket of David Warner, fetched Shepherd the Player-of-the Match award in what stands as MI’s only win of the tournament.
Walking to the middle for the last ball of the 18th over after Hardik Pandya was dismissed with the score 181/5, Shepherd knew he had no time to waste and the allrounder began as he intended to finish, simply targeting the boundaries of the Wankhede Stadium. Of his 39 runs, 32 came in the final over of the inning as Anrich Nortje was targeted with brute force and sheer disdain. The faster Norjte bowled, the harder and farther Shepherd smashed him in a sequence that went 4, 6, 6, 6, 4 6 to leave MI’s dugout with their jaws dropping.
This impactful knock left big-hitting Australian David marveling at what he had witnessed. “Just exciting to watch at the other end, he hit that six out of the ground which everyone here enjoyed,” he said of his batting partner’s innings. “I got upstaged at the back end there, but it was a great effort. Sheppy put the hammer down, and it was the perfect finish.”
GT pull of thrilling last-ball win
It needed something special to put a stop to Rajasthan’s unbeaten streak and that’s what Gujarat Titans pulled of after needing 35 runs from 12 balls.
Set a target of 197 after Samson (68) and Riyan Parag (76) scored fluent fifties, GT were struggling to get close to a rising asking rate despite another solid effort from Shubman Gill (72). When Rashid Khan walked out at No 8 with 40 runs needed from 15 deliveries, the visiting team looked down for all money.
But Rashid roared back into batting form in the company of Rahul Tewatia, and the pair looted 20 runs off the 19th over bowled by Kuldeep Sen – who had earlier taken three wickets to leave GT in trouble – which brought the equation down to 15 from the last over. Samson opted for Avesh Khan who had conceded just seven runs in the 18th over while taking the wicket of Shah Rukh Khan, but the bowler erred in his judgement in those last six balls.
A low full toss was swiped over square leg for four – since RR were slow on the over rate, the penalty fielding restrictions kicked in – before Rashid and Tewatia harried two runs. The third ball from Avesh was edged to third man for four by Rashid, which left GT needing five from three. Returning for the second, Tewatia was run out for a very good 22 off 11, and thus Rashid needed two from the final ball of the game.
What did he do? Slash a wide ball from Avesh over point to clear the GT dugout. Rashid’s unbeaten 24 off 11 balls followed a miserly spell of 1/18 earlier in the match, and he was the deserved hero for GT on the night.
Bumrah and SKY star in RCB thrashing
As the week rounded out, MI won their second at home and RCB lost their third in a row. No surprises that RCB failed to defend 196 at the Wankhede, given the lack of firepower in their bowling. A rare off day for Kohli, who was Bumrah’s first wicket on the way to figures of 5/21 in what was a superb display of pace bowling, but fifties to du Plessis (61), Rajat Patidar (50 off 26) and Dinesh Karthik (53* off 23) got RCB to 196. Bumrah’s five-wicket haul on one side, and the other six MI bowlers conceded 173 runs from 16 overs, which underlines the glaring weaknesses that franchise has to contend with.
Set 197, MI reeled off their target in just 15.3 overs as Ishan Kishan cracked five sixes in his 34-ball 69 and Suryakumar Yadav hit top form in his second innings on comeback. Kishan dominated an opening stand of 101 in 8.5 overs with Rohit Sharma, who made 38 off 24, in what stands as the first century opening stand that Rohit has been involved in during the 93 innings he’s opened.
Surya walked out and wasted no time in stamping his presence, and when he walked off for 52 of 19 balls, including four sixes, the job was done for Mumbai.
