On April 29, Kolkata Knight Riders hosted Delhi Capitals and dominated from the start as Rishabh Pant’s men failed to get a partnership going with Kuldeep Yadav walking out to bat in the 14th over. The spinner played a useful innings of 35 runs off 26 balls which included 5 boundaries and a maximum.
In reply, Sunil Narine fell cheaply but his opening partner Phil Salt took the matter into his own hands smashing 68 runs off 33 balls including 7 boundaries and 5 maximums. A steady partnership between skipper Shreyas Iyer and Venkatesh Iyer saw the hosts over the line on an evening where Salt broke a 14-year-old record of most runs at Eden Gardens in an IPL season.
List of batters with most runs at Eden Gardens in a single IPL season
Phillip Salt: 344 runs in 6 innings, IPL 2024
Sourav Ganguly: 331 runs in 7 innings, IPL 2010
Andre Russell: 311 runs in 7 innings, IPL 2019
Chris Lynn: 303 runs in 9 innings, IPL 2018
On Tuesday, the fans witnessed another low-scoring affair as visitors Mumbai Indians found it hard to settle in with the lower-order pair of Nehal Wadhera and Tim David scoring 81 runs out of the team’s total of 144 runs.
A blistering innings of 62 runs off 45 balls from Marcus Stonis negated the tight bowling from Jasprit Bumrah and MI skipper Hardik Pandya as Lucknow Super Giants sealed a 4-wicket win marking the first successful run-chase in a match between LSG and MI.
At the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, the Super Kings posted 162 runs on the board courtesy of a half-century from skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad. A 69-run partnership off 37 balls between Jonny Bairstow and Rilee Roussouw titled the scales in favor of Punjab Kings who bagged 2 crucial points in an away match.
Thursday witnessed the first high-scoring affair of the week as a total of 401 runs were scored but the margin of win was only 1 run. Batting first, Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy helped SRH put 201 runs on the board with half-centuries.
Rajasthan Royals had a false start as both Jos Buttler and skipper Sanju Samson were dismissed for a duck. A 134-run partnership of 76 balls between young guns Yashaswi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag ignited the hopes of a win and playoff qualification but the trio of Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, and Dhruv Jurel couldn’t take them over the finishing line.
List of the highest partnerships in a losing cause in IPL history
Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey: 135 runs against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, IPL 2018
Yashaswi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag: 134 runs against Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2024
Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell: 126 runs against Chennai Super Kings, IPL 2023
On Friday, the action shifted to the Wankhade Stadium where Venkatesh Iyer’s innings of 70 runs off 42 balls alongside Manish Pandey’s comeback innings of 42 runs off 31 balls helped KKR post 169 runs on the board.
A star-studded MI batting line-up once again crumbled under pressure as Suryakumar Yadav’s half-century went in vain with Mitchell Starc picking up 4 crucial wickets which helped the match being written in the record books as it became the fourth instance of both sides getting all-out in an IPL match
List of matches with 20 wickets in IPL history
DC vs RR: VCA Stadium, Nagpur (IPL 2010)
KKR vs RCB, Eden Gardens, Kolkata (IPL 2017)
MI vs SRH, Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai (IPL 2018)
Mi vs KKR, Wankhade Stadium, Mumbai (IPL 2024)
On Saturday, Royal Challengers Bengaluru deflated Gujarat Titans’ batting line-up as Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, and David Miller contributed 30+ scores to post 147 runs on the board but RCB skipper Faf du Plessis played a blistering innings of 64 runs off 23 balls including 10 fours and 3 maximums to chase the target with 38 balls to spare.
The IPL 2024 caravan then shifted to the beautiful valleys of Himachal Pradesh as the HPCA Stadium in Dharamsala was the venue for the second battle of the week between PBKS and CSK.
Despite Rahul Chahar and Harshal Patel starring with the ball, the Super Kings managed to put on 167 runs on the board and the Preity Zinta co-owned team failed to do a double over Gaikwad’s side as they lost 8 wickets within the first 15 overs, losing by 28 runs in the end marking another poor run at home in the cash-rich league.
On the double-header Sunday, the action shifted to Uttar Pradesh as LSG hosted KKR and the Knight RIders continued their assault at the top scoring their sixth 200+ total of the season, the joint-most in an IPL season. Narine’s innings of 81 runs off 39 balls also helped him enter an elite list of all-rounders with 1500+ runs and 150+ wickets in IPL history.
Everyone except Narine seemed to be batting on a different pitch that day as LSG crumbled on a total of 137 runs suffering an embarrassing 98-run loss at the hands of the Knight Riders.
On May 6, Mumbai Indians played hosts to SRH and none of the SRH batters were able to breach the 50-run mark which was an achievement for MI’s bowling unit. MI’s top-order crumbled in the run-chase of 174 runs with the Hardik Pandya-led side reeling at 31/3.
Then, Tilak Varma decided to drop the anchor from one end as Suryakumar Yadav went berserk scoring 102 runs off 51 balls including 12 boundaries and 6 maximums as every bowler except Bhuvneshwar Kumar was treated in disdain by the MI duo.
List of Indian batters with the most T20 centuries
Virat Kohli: 9 centuries
Rohit Sharma: 8 centuries
Ruturaj Gaikwad: 6 centuries
KL Rahul: 6 centuries
Suryakumar Yadav: 6 centuries
(The writer is a sports expert with Parimatch Sports)
