IPL week two: KKR outgun Kohli, DC stun CSK, Pandya remains winless

A recap of the major matches and moments from the second week of IPL 2024, at the end of which Kolkata Knight Riders sit atop the points table and Mumbai Indians languish at tenth without a win yet.

Kohli’s RCB out-gunned by KKR

Royal Challengers Bengaluru became the first team in IPL 2024 to lose a match at home, as visitors Kolkata Knight Riders extended their nine-year dominance at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
With RCB’s big overseas players again underwhelming as Andre Russell and Harshit Rana checked the team’s progress, it was down to Virat Kohli (83* off 59 deliveries) to help the hosts put up a total of 182/6. Given RCB’s poor bowling stocks, that total did not really look defendable but the way KKR’s openers waded into the attack during the Powerplay was unprecedented.

Englishman Phil Salt got the ball rolling with 18 off the first over bowled by Mohammed Siraj, before Sunil Narine, playing his 500th T20 match, began smashing the ball around the stadium. Narine hit five sixes and two fours during an entertaining 47 off 22 that helped KKR score 86 for the opening wicket in a mere 39 deliveries.

That rocketing stand was followed by Venkatesh Iyer smoking four sixes in a 29-ball half-century while Shreyas Iyer contributed a breezy 39* off 22 as KKR chased down the victory target with 3.1 overs and seven wickets to spare. Thus, the first away win in 10 IPL games was achieved.

Express Yadav clocks 155kph on LSG debut, then goes one better

Raw pace from an exciting new Indian prospect was at the heart of Lucknow Super Giants’ first win of the competition. The unheralded Mayank Yadav made people take notice of his pace, and he was the rightful Player of the Match for taking three wickets on his IPL debut to help LSG beat Punjab Kings by 21 runs.

The 21-year-old quick, who plays for Delhi in domestic cricket, nipped out Jonny Bairstow, Prabhsimran Singh and Jitesh Sharma after PBKS were given a century opening stand before they trailed off to finish with 178/5 in 20 overs. Having not been given a chance since being part of LSG’s squad since 2022 – he was ruled out of the 2023 season with a torn hamstring – Yadav troubled the Punjab batsmen and clocked 155.8kph during his analysis of 3/27 from four overs.

Bairstow (42) and Shikhar Dhawan (72) had put on 102 off 70 balls before Yadav derailed the chase by taking his three wickets in a span of 13 deliveries.
A few nights later, Mayank again made heads turn with his raw pace as he pocketed a second consecutive Player-of-the- Match award after he dismissed the Australian pair of Glenn Maxwell and Cameron Green in a fiery spell during which he clocked 156.7kph – the quickest ball of this IPL season so far – on the way to figures of 3/14 in LSG’s 28-run win over RCB.
Delhi beat Chennai for memorable win

A complete shutdown of Chennai Super Kings’ big hitters. That was the pinnacle of Delhi Capitals’ first win of IPL 2024, which happened at their ‘away’ home of Visakhapatnam. And key to this was Delhi understanding and adapting to the conditions better, first in the way that their openers David Warner and Prithvi Shaw laid the foundation for a total of 191 and then in the way the pacers applied the squeeze on CSK.

Warner made 52 off 35 balls and Shaw, getting his first chance of the tournament, hit 43 off 27. Rishabh Pant walked out at No 3 instead of Mitchell Marsh and scored 51 off 32, inclusive of three sixes. This helped DC post 191/5 in their 20 overs, after which Khaleel Ahmed took out CSK’s openers in a terrific opening spell to set the tone for a limp chase.
That Khaleel reduced Rachin Ravindra – who before this game had scores of 37 off 15 and 26 off 20 – to repeatedly wafting outside off stump before getting him for 2 off 12 balls, was mesmeric to watch. The left-arm pacer, having not played for India since 2019, was in his prime in claiming the Player-of-the-Match award for figures of 4-1-21-2. Then it was over to Mukesh Kumar, who was introduced late in the CSK chase but struck immediately with the wickets of Ajinkya Rahane and Sameer Rizvi in his first over.

The dangerous Shivam Dube and Ravindra Jadeja were completely shut down as the asking rate escalated and barring a cameo innings of 37* off 16 deliveries from MS Dhoni, there was no threat to Delhi who won by 20 runs.

RR keep Mumbai winless

After two away defeats to start off their IPL 2024 campaign, Mumbai Indians played their first home game at the Wankhede Stadium on April 1, and much before a ball was bowled there was widespread conjecture about the type of welcome the franchise’s new captain Hardik Pandya would receive.
Pandya’s return to MI after two seasons in charge of Gujarat Titans – who won the IPL in 2022 and were runners up in 2023 – had been a hot topic for months. When MI lost two matches, beginning with a loss to Pandya’s former franchise GT in Ahmedabad, where he was widely booed by the fans, the narrative was woven of a team in disarray, aided no doubt by some dubious calls by the new captain as well as his underwhelming performances.

And so, when MI met RR on Monday, there were fireworks of several kinds expected. However, the early exchanges were completely dominated by Rajasthan’s quicks, as Trent Boult nipped out Rohit Sharma and Naman Dhir off successive deliveries and then added Dewald Brevis for a golden duck, meaning that three batsmen had all been dismissed first ball. Nandre Burger’s extraction of Ishan Kishan made it 20/4 in the fourth over.

Yuzvendra Chahal made further inroads into the early disarray that MI found themselves in, taking out Pandya (34), Tilak Varma (32) and Gerald Coutzee to pocket figures of 3/11 from four overs. Mumbai ended with 125/9 in 20, which was not enough to stop RR from winning the match with 27 deliveries remaining for a hat-trick of victories.
Shashank finds redemption with breakout knock

Shashank Singh is making up for lost time after starting the tournament with a duck, having earned himself Player of the Match honours for his superb unbeaten innings in Punjab Kings’ win over GT. The 32-year-old journeyman cricketer smacked four sixes and six fours in a nerveless display of finishing, having walked to the crease at the fall of the fourth wicket at which time the asking rate for PBKS was almost 11 and a half per over.

In that pressure situation, with Rashid Khan, Purple Cap holder Mohit Sharma and young Noor Ahmad to cope with, Shashank backed his natural instincts on the night and it paid off handsomely as he finished with 61 from 29 balls. His ability to hit pace and spin was impressive, as he judged the length early and hit over the infield with ease and power, and the way in which he hit a pacer of Umesh Yadav’s experience for 14 run in three balls in a crunch situation spoke volumes of the hard yards put in by Shashank.
Punjab went into the 20th over needed 7 runs after Shashank clubbed Mohit Sharma’s final delivery for six, and despite the loss of Ashutosh Sharma for 31 off 17 balls they got across the finish line with one delivery left as Shashank got a leading edge off the fourth ball of the over that went for four to level the scores, before a leg bye won the match.