From sensational bowling spells to brilliant finishes — this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) has seen it all, albeit none of the games so far has gone into a Super Over.
There have been several twists and turns throughout the tournament, and the IPL points table has never stayed constant. Be it Pat Cummins’s quickfire fifty, or Odean Smith’s productive final over, as always in IPL, it is actually never over until it’s actually over.
The race for the IPL playoffs is well and truly on, and more fireworks will be expected in the forthcoming matches.
For now, let’s take a look at some of the game-changing moments from the season so far.
Pat Cummins (KKR vs MI, 6 April)
He’s done this before for Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the IPL, and Australia’s Pat Cummins did it once again, against the five-time champions in the same tournament.
Pat Cummins scored a whopping 56 off 15 balls while clinching a 50 off 14, the fastest fifty this season. Photo by Pankaj Nangia / Sportzpics for IPL
In this league match against MI in Pune on 6 April, KKR opted to field first after winning the toss. Although Cummins went for 49 runs in his four overs, the 28-year-old still managed to get the wickets of Ishan Kishan (14) and the dangerous Suryakumar Yadav (52).
However, for Cummins, his best in the game was yet to come. KKR were set 162 to win, and lack of substantial partnership meant they were restricted to 101/5 in the 14th over. Andre Russell had just departed, and in came Cummins.
Tymal Mills was the bowler who delivered the 14th over, and in the second ball that Cummins faced, he cleared the deep square leg fence by smashing it out of the ground.
Cummins continued his onslaught with another maximum in the 15th over, hitting Bumrah over cow corner for a six. At the end of the 15th over, Venkatesh Iyer had reached his fifty, and Cummins was on 22.
KKR needed 35 runs off 30.
What followed was arguably Daniel Sams’ worst nightmare.
Sams was looking to unleash the yorker first up but missed that, and Cummins clobbered one straight down the ground for a six, leaving long-on with no chance of a catch. He followed it up with two sixes and a four off the next three balls to reduce the deficit, but had it not been for the costly no-ball in the fifth delivery, the script of the game might just have been different.
Cummins got enough bat on it as he was looking to clear the boundary ropes by going all the way but Suryakumar Yadav at long-off managed to take the catch. But it was a waist-high no-ball from Cummins’ fellow Australian Sams. Suryakumar, though, still managed to save a couple of runs, but that wasn’t enough as Cummins, in the last two balls of the over, sealed the deal with a four and a six.
Odean Smith (PBKS vs MI, 13 April)
West Indian Odean Smith was the hero of the Punjab Kings’ match against Mumbai Indians. PBKS were on a roll in the early stages of the game after being put in to bat. A 97-run stand between Mayank Agarwal (52) and Shikhar Dhawan (70) was pivotal in Kings getting to 198/5.
In MI’s reply, the five-time champions lost Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan inside the powerplay overs before Dewald Brevis and Tilak Varma forged an 84-run stand and put them right back in it.
However, once this stand was broken, MI were in a spot of bother after wickets at regular intervals hurt their rhythm.
MI were 177/6 in the 19th over, and Odean Smith, who had removed Brevis earlier, was handed the responsibility of winning the game for Punjab.
And he delivered! Three wickets in the final over with MI needing 22 runs meant it would change the outcome of the game altogether.
The first of those three wickets was of Jaydev Unadkat, who went for a heave over long-on, but skied it to the extra cover fielder instead. The very next ball, Mumbai lost Jasprit Bumrah, who hit this over short third man, but Dhawan rushed from backward point to complete the catch to dismiss Bumrah.
By this time, Mumbai’s chances were looking slim, and although Smith did not get a hat-trick he struck again in the last ball of the match, to get rid of Tymal Mills and finish the proceedings.
This was MI’s fifth loss on the trot as they remained winless this season.
Rahul Tewatia (GT vs PBKS, 8 April)
The phrase ‘Tewatia does a Tewatia’ came into play once again, this time at the Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.
Tewatia is synonymous with his Sharjah Storm in IPL 2020, and this time, although it was a brief cameo, he ensured he would not fail his fans or even the team management.
Rahul Tewatia plays a shot against Punjab Kings. (Source: Twitter/Gujarat Titans)
GT were chasing a total of 190, and the middle-order did good, with Shubman Gill (96), Sai Sudharshan (35) and Hardik Pandya (27) producing the bulk of the runs.
However, Gujarat were in a spot of bother once Harrdik departed in the first ball of the 20th over. They needed a further 18 runs off the last five balls and in the third ball, Miller hit a boundary to reduce the deficit.
He rotated the strike to Tewatia with a single in the next ball, and with 12 needed off two balls, Tewatia did the rest. Two sixes, one that was cleared over deep midwicket and another that was slog-swept over the long-on fence, meant that Tewatia broke the hearts of PBKS fans and management to seal a memorable GT victory.
Dinesh Karthik (DC vs RCB, 16 April)
Time and again, Dinesh Karthik has sent reminders to the Indian team management to push them to pick him in limited-overs team and the game against Delhi Capitals was no different.
The RCB top order failed miserably after being put in to bat, with Faf du Plessis (8), Anuj Rawat (0) and Virat Kohli (12) all being dismissed early.
Glenn Maxwell played his part with a 34-ball knock of 55 but it was Dinesh Karthik, aka, DK who stole the limelight. Karthik came at a time when RCB were 92/5 in the 12th over after losing Maxwell, and he proved once again that age may not be a barrier for one to potentially finish games.
Dinesh Karthik amassed 66 off just 34 balls to power RCB to 189, and the bowlers did the rest.
DC got off to a promising start but lost momentum once Warner (66) departed and skipper Pant (34) was unable to carry forward his innings. The Capitals were eventually restricted to 173/7, meaning RCB won the contest by 16 runs.
Chahal hat-trick (RR vs KKR, 18 April)
In another game of several twists and turns, Kolkata Knight Riders asked Rajasthan Royals to bat first after winning the toss. Shreyas Iyer may have regretted making that decision, as RR enjoyed a few substantial partnerships. The biggest performance for RR with the bat was Jos Buttler (103), who scored his second IPL 2022 century, and was involved in 50-plus partnerships with Devdutt Padikkal and Sanju Samson.
That led RR to 217 in 20 overs. KKR lost Sunil Narine early in their chase of 218, but Aaron Finch and Shreyas Iyer forged 107 runs for the second wicket, before the former departed.
KKR later were in a spot of bother with their score reading 178/5 in 16.1 overs after the dismissal of Venkatesh Iyer. It was Chahal who did the damage and to make matters worse, Chahal claimed a memorable hat-trick by removing Shreyas, Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins in the latter half of the over.
Despite this sudden collapse, Umesh Yadav stood firm and took KKR to a position where they needed 11 runs off six balls.
However, it was not meant to be for Kolkata.
Obed McCoy bowled the final over of the match. Sheldon Jackson collected a brace first up to keep Kolkata alive, but fell victim to McCoy in the very next ball. McCoy then only needed a couple of more balls to finish proceedings with the wicket of Umesh Yadav, who was cleaned up. It was a close contest but Chahal’s over was the massive game-changer and that ensured RR would end up on top in the end as they won by seven runs.
Tewatia-Rashid run riot (GT vs SRH, 27 April)
On paper, the Gujarat Titans vs Sunrisers Hyderabad contest was meant to be a promising even contest. Rightly so, it was. Both GT and SRH came into this contest as table-toppers. As was largely the tradition this season, Gujarat opted to bowl after winning the toss.
Rahul Tewatia (20-ball 41) took pressure off his partner as well in an unbeaten 59-run stand by hitting four boundaries and two sixes at the death. Sportzpics
SRH’s top and middle-order, barring Abhishek Sharma (65) and Aiden Markram (56) looked shaky but they still managed to post 195/6 on board.
In reply, while GT got off to a positive start, they still lost Shubman Gill (22) and Hardik Pandya (10) to low scores. Wriddhiman Saha emerged as an unlikely hero as he amassed 68 off 38 balls.
However, that was not all. In a space of little more than two overs, between the 14th and 16th, GT would lose Saha, Miller and Abhinav Manohar, leaving them in a spot of bother at 140/5.
Following Abhinav’s wicket, Rashid Khan walked in to bat and he let his bat do the talking.
In the first ball of the 17th, Tewatia collected a boundary to bring some respite to GT and their fans. Tewatia, however, was originally given OUT for LBW towards the end of the over bowled by T Natarajan, but Tewatia got no option but to review this to keep GT on track. Alas, the review worked! Ball-tracking showed it was missing leg, with the ball pitching outside leg too.
The 18th over of the chase was a big one, with 12 runs coming off it. Rashid had cleared Jansen at long-on for a six in the fourth ball of the over and that somehow eased the pressure for GT. The equation was now 35 off 12 balls, and in the 19th, Tewatia came up with a crucial four and a six to ease the pressure even more. GT needed 22 runs off the last six balls, which seemed quite distant at once but still not impossible.
Jansen bowled the final over, and Tewatia slog-swept over mid-wicket for a six in the first ball, before collecting a single and rotating strike to Rashid. In the third ball, Rashid slaughtered one maximum down the ground and this reduced the deficit to nine from three balls.
In the fourth, Rashid went for the pull but missed.
The fifth ball was massive. The match-defining ball. Nine needed off two balls. GT needed a boundary, and Rashid delivered yet again. Jansen went for the wide yorker but that does not pitch right, and Rashid sliced a low full toss to hit for the maximum over the extra-cover boundary.
Three needed off one ball now, two for a Super Over. Jansen tries to bounce this one but doesn’t get the desired short length, and Rashid made no mistake with this, a launch over fine leg boundary for a six, to eventually seal the game.
This game was, as they say, one for the ages, one where Umran Malik’s hard work where he took all the five wickets went in vain for SRH and it was Tewatia and Rashid who saved the day for GT like real superheroes.
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