IPL - Royals, Knight Riders riding high after week five

MS Dhoni proved yet again that he still has ‘the magic’ as defending champions Chennai Super Kings beat their arch-rivals and fellow five-time champions, Mumbai Indians, by 20 runs at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai at the end of the fifth week of the IPL.

The 42-year-old former Indian captain, who also relinquished the CSK captaincy this year, walked to the crease with four balls of his team’s innings remaining and hit the first three of them for six before finishing with 20 from four balls. The fact that his score was also the winning margin did not go unnoticed.

CSK’s total of 206 for four was under threat for a while, with Rohit Sharma (105*) launching a fierce counterattack but was unable to relieve the pressure on the man who controversially replaced him as captain of the franchise this year, Hardik Pandya – who also bowled the final over to Dhoni.

FAF UNDER PRESSURE

Another man feeling the heat is Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Faf du Plessis after his team slumped to their fifth defeat in six games and sit firmly at the bottom of the log after a seven-wicket drubbing by MI, also at the Wankhede Stadium.

Du Plessis smashed 61 from 40 balls in RCB’s more than respectable total of 196-8 but was helpless as his bowlers conceded defeat with a shocking 4.3 overs to spare. The former Proteas captain didn’t mince his words afterwards bemoaning the “lack of firepower” among the bowlers and suggesting “we might have to score 250 to win a game.”

Delhi Capitals moved off the bottom of the log with a convincing six-wicket victory against the Lucknow Super Giants thanks to 55 on debut from Australian big-hitter Jake Fraser-McGurk and 41 from Rishabh Pant who continues to push for a return to international cricket after his career-threatening car crash 15 months ago. Tristan Stubbs (15 from nine balls) guided the team over the line.

BEST LOOKING TEAMS

But the Rajasthan Royals and Kolkata Knight Riders continue to look like the best teams in the competition and deservedly sit on top of the log with just a single defeat each in six and five games respectively. 

Good teams still win even on bad days as the Royals showed chasing a modest 148 for victory against the Punjab Kings, with Keshav Maharaj claiming 2-23. Shimron Hetmyer’s 27* from 10 balls got the team home with just three wickets and one ball to spare.

Chennai and Sunrisers Hyderabad occupy third and fourth place, both with positive win/loss ratios while Lucknow and the Gujarat Titans have three wins and three losses from six games. But Punjab, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru are in desperate need of victories to stay in knockout contention.