Indian Premier League T20 Cricket: Overview of Matches 5 and 6

Hello Cricket Lovers,

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We witnessed couple more interesting matches in the 2020 edition of Indian Premier League T20 Cricket Tournament being played in United Arab Emirates in 3 different venues.

In the Fifth match, defending champs, Mumbai Indians faced one of the favorites this time Kolkata Knight Riders and the match was an one sided affair as Mumbai won it rather convicingly.

In the Sixth match played yesterday, Royal Challengers Bangalore took on Kings XI Punjab and that was even more one sided with Punjab crushing RCB.

Let's get into more details of each of these 2 matches.

Match 5: Mumbai Indians versus Kolkata Knight Riders:

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Coming back from the back of a defeat in the opening match, Mumbai Indians wanted to get into the winning mood and having lost the toss, they were asked to bat first by Kolkata Knight Riders captain Dinesh Karthik.

Mumbai lost the left hand opener Quinton De Kock early, but captain Rohit Sharma got good support from number 3 batsman Surya Kumar Yadav to add 90 runs for the second wicket with Rohit scoring 80 and Yadav scoring 47.

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All the other batsmen who got a chance to bat, got some score, but it was Rohit Sharma's innings that set the tone for Mumbai as they ended their innings with score 195 for the loss of 5 wickets.

Kolkata having strong batting lineup and also expecting dew to play some part in second innings, Kolkata were expected to chase this down.

But, on contrary, they started on a poor note by losing their openers Shubman Gill and SP Narine by Fifth over and it was left to captain Dinesh Karthik and Nitish Rana to do the repair act.

They both added 50+ score, but the asking rate was always climbing and they were forced to take some risks and perished back to back in Eleventh and Twelfth overs.

Others including Andre Russell and Eoin Morgan couldn't accelerate the score and got out cheaply.

If not for the heroic efforts of all-rounder Pat Cummins who scored 33 from just 12 balls, Kolkata would have got out below 100 runs.

The final score for Kolkata read as 149 runs for 9 wickets fro their quota of 20 overs.

Kolkata will be disappointed with the kind of players it has and will be itching to win their next match.

Mumbai Scorecard:

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Scorecard for Kolkata:

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Match 6: Royal Challengers Bangalore versus Kings XI Punjab:

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Royal Challengers Bangalore came with a win in their last match, their first in the tournament against Sunrisers Hyderabad, while Kings XI Punjab lost the match to be won even after it went to super over. But, they put back that disappoint to register a emphatic win against RCB with their captain KL Rahul hitting First century in this edition of IPL and his second century.

RCB won the toss and put KXIP into bat and riding on captain's century, KXIP scored 206 for 3 wickets with captain scoring 132 not out from just 69 balls with 7 Sixes and 14 Fours and the second highest score from KXIP was just 26 from the other opener!!! such was the dominance from KL Rahul.

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Rahul got the benefit of 2 dropped catches from none other than one of the safest fielders and RCB captain Virat Kohli.

RCB's bowlers, particularly fast bowlers got some bad treatment and gave away about 160 runs from 14 overs.

Needing 207 for a win, RCB started very badly losing 3 wickets for just 4 runs including the wicket of captain Virat Kohli.

RCB didn't feel at home and didn't have the intent to win the match after losing those 3 wickets.

On the other hand, KXIP had a balanced attack in Ravi Bishnoi, M Ashwin and others and ensured RCB gets out for 109.

RCB will be severely disappointed with that performance and they should check their basics in playing some of the expensive bowlers in Umesh Yadav and Dale Steyn. They should think to accommodate Moin Ali, who will be a good middle order batsman besides giving his useful spin bowling option.

KXIP Scorecard:

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RCB scorecard:

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Today's match: Chennai Super Kings versus Delhi Capitals:

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Chennai Super Kings got lost of criticism for not showing the intent to win their last match against Rajasthan Royals and their captain MS Dhoni was at the center of that criticism for coming in as late as seventh batsman.

While, Delhi is coming back from a Super over win against KXIP after they were in a losing position as KXIP needed 1 run from last 3 balls, but failed to do so.

It will be a match of experienced CSK team against young players of Delhi Capitals and should be an interesting one.

While some players have already shown their worth and justified their purchase value, some of the bigger names who just moved in from playing in other countries are yet to get adjusted to the IPL mood and are expected to get into rhythm as IPL moves into second week.

At this point of time, Mumbai, Punjab, Delhi and Rajasthan have moved ahead and looks to be finishing in top 6 atleast, but cannot right off Kolkata, Chennai and other teams as the tournament progresses and table toppers can change with each finished match.

That is all from me for today and I just hope you guys are enjoying this IPL coverage thru my blogs and request you to provide your feedback on how my blog content is.

Thanks and have a good Friday :)

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