IPL9 - Cutting helps Hyderabad lift the trophy for the first time, Bangalore outplayed

It was a glorious T20 match for Hyderabad when they lifted the IPL Trophy for the first time. It was a battle among equals and Bangalore finally faltered and lost by 8 runs. Ben Cutting was declared the Man of he Match for his blistering knock of 39 not out off just 15 balls and his capturing of 3 wickets. He had hit four huge sixes and three fours.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 30 May 2016.

David Warner, the captain of Sun Risers Hyderabad won the toss and decided to bat first. He, along with Shikhar Dhawan, put up 63 runs by the seventh over when Dhawan fell at an individual score of 28 off 25 balls with the help of a six and three fours. Warner raced to his ninth fifty of the season in the ninth over in just 24 balls hitting three sixes and five fours and fell when his score was 69 off 38 balls (three sixes and eight boundaries). SRH finally posted 208 runs on the board for the loss of 7 wickets.
In reply, Chris Gayle and Virat went all out to score the necessary runs and the duo added 114 for the opening wicket to set a perfect platform to chase down the big target. But, Cutting cut into Kohli's dreams - he got the prized wicket of the Gayle in the 11th over. Gayle had hit eight sixes and four boundaries in his quick-fire 76 off 38 balls. Kohli also did not last long - he fell victim to Barinder Sran. Kohli had smashed two sixes and five fours for his 35-ball 54. Then wickets fell in heaps - RCB were reduced to 148/3 in 13.5 overs and finally folded up for 200 runs.
For RCB, it was their third defeat in as many finals of IPL.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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IPL9 - unstoppable Virat Kohli scores his 4th ton: a record

It was a rain curtailed match of IPL9 between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab. After losing the toss, the RCB was sent in to bat by KXIP and, it turned out to be a nightmare for them. Virat Kohli hit his 4th century of IPL9 (113 runs off 50 balls). There were sixes galore with the openers Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle hitting eight sixes each to post a massive total of 211 for 3 wickets in the allotted 15 overs.
This has been reported in oneindia.com dated 19 May 2016.

RCB captain Virat Kohli scored his fourth century in the ongoing IPL season and became the only batsman to score more than 800 runs in a single edition. His tally now stands at 865 runs from 13 matches. Incidentally, he had sustained injuries that required multiple stitches due to his split webbing on left hand. It happened during the last match against Kolkata Knight Riders.
Kohli had hit 12 fours and eight sixes while his opening partner Chris Gayle smashed a scintillating 32-ball 73 with the help of four boundaries and eight sixes. The duo posted a whirlwind 147-run opening stand to lay the foundation for a huge score. Thanks to Kohli and Gayle's blitzkrieg, the Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 211/3 in 15 overs in the rain-curtailed match.


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IPL8 – Chennai beats Bangalore and enters the finals, Dhoni does it again

#IPL8 #CSKvsRCB #MikeHussey #AshishNehra Chennai Super Kings defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore at Ranchi to move ahead to the finals and their opponent now will be the Mumbai Indians – they will clash at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 22 May 2015.

Dhoni won the toss and elected to bowl first and Ashish Nehra took three of the prize wickets of Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers and Dinesh Karthik to put RCB on the back foot. Hard hitting Chris Gayle hit Suresh Raina for two consecutive sixes and then gave a return catch to Raina to ensure that RCB does not get to a too big score.
It was a game more of holding ones nerves and there were dropped catches and misfielding on both side. The tension was evident from the facial expressions.
Finally the RCB could score 139 runs and it was left to CSK to score 140 to win and move on to the finals which should have been an easy task but proved difficult and dragged on to the last ball of the innings. Mike Hussey top scored with 56 runs and Dhoni added 26 runs.
Ashish Nehra was adjudged the Man of the Match.
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IPL8 – Bangalore beats Rajasthan and will now face Chennai in next round

#IPL8 #RCBvsRR #MandeepSingh #ABDeVilliers After the big names like Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli failed to deliver, Royal Challengers Bangalore still managed to defeat Rajasthan Royals to set the stage for its next encounter which will be with the Chennai Super Kings.
This was made possible by two fine knocks of AB De Villiers and Mandeep Singh. De Villiers hit a fighting 66 and shared a match-winning 113-run stand with Mandeep Singh (54 not out) to enable RCB to recover from a sluggish start to post a challenging 180/4 after electing to bat.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 20 May 2015.

In reply RR could score just 109 runs in 19 overs even though, at one time, they appeared to have had the control of the game when they had removed Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli within 8 overs. But they gave away 86 runs in the last six overs to let the game slip away. Chris Morris and James Faulkner conceded 42 runs each in their allotted overs.
AB De Villiers was named the Man of the Match.
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IPL8 – Bangalore dislodges Kolkata from No 2 position in rain affected match

#IPL8 #SRHvsRCB #ChrisGayle #ViratKohli #DavidWarner It was a terribly rain affected match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Sun Risers Hyderabad. The match was initially reduced to an 11-over match but, by the time RCB came to bat, the revised target was 81 in 6 overs. And, thanks to brilliant batting by Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle, they reached the target with one ball to spare.
This is reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 16 May 2015.

RCB defeated SRH by 6 wickets and, by virtue of this win, RCB moves up to 2nd spot in the points table dislodging KKR, the defending champions to No 3 position based on the net run rate.
Batting first, SRH posted a total of 135 for 3 in 11 overs – David Warner remained not out with 52 and with Moises Henriques (57), they put up a fairly good score because RCB would have to score at over 12 runs per over.
But, Duckworth-Lewis decided that RCB should score 81 runs in 6 overs – which works out to a rate of little over 13 per over.
And, when batsmen like Kohli and Gayle ae at the crease, anything can happen. Kohli remained not out with 44 in 19 balls while Gayle made 35 in 10 balls – both of them hit three sixes!! (Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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IPL8 – RCB lose to KXIP by 22 runs, courtesy Duckworth-Lewis

#IPL8 #Wriddhiman #KXIPvRCB #Mohali It was a rain affected match at Mohali where the home team Kings XI Punjab got the better of the visiting Riyal Challengers Bangalore by 22 runs, courtesy Duckworth-Lewis. This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 14 May 2015.

RCB won the toss and send in KXIP to bat. Batting first, Kings XI Punjab posted 106 for 6 in 10 overs with Wriddhiman Saha hitting 31 runs off only 12 balls. Considering the changed playing conditions of the game which started nearly 3-hours after the scheduled time, Saha was promoted as opener. He did not disappoint his captain. He launched an all-out attack from ball one and, a quickfire innings from David Miller (14 off 4) and Axar Patel (20* off 15) put KXIP in a comfortable position.
In reply, RCB could score only 84/6 even though they began with a flying start scoring 33 runs in 2.5 overs but, Anureet Singh scalped Virat Kohli for 19 and Chris Gayle soon left after scoring 17. Axar Patel got the wicket of AB de Villiers (10) and Dinesh Karthik (2) fell to Beuran Hendricks. For RCB, Mandeep Singh was the top scorer and, RCB finally fell short by 22 runs.
Due to this loss, RCB moves down to 5th position on the points table.
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IPL8 – Chris Gayle hits 12 sixes in his 57 ball 117 to blow away the Kings XI Punjab

#IPL8 #RCBvsKXIP #ChrisGayle #Bangalore It was an unbelievable show that Chris Gayle put up with his bat at the Chinnasawmy Stadium in Bangalore when he hit 12 sixes to score a 57 ball 117 runs to help RCB amass a huge score of 223 for the loss of 3 wickets.
He was dropped twice, first time when he was on 27 and then again when he was on 53 and the Kings XI Punjab paid a heavy price for their lapses. They lost by 138 runs and this was second biggest win in the history of IPL. The record is held by the 14-run victory by Kolkata Knight Riders over Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2008 edition.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 6 May 2015.

This massive win helped Bangalore to jump to 3rd spot overtaking Kolkata and Mumbai based on run rate. RCB has certainly improved their chances to make the playoffs – they now have 11 points from 10 matches.
Chris Gayle completed 3000 runs in IPL with a single off Anureet in the eighth over and is the fourth player do so. He was finally caught and bowled by spinner Axar Patel and was adjudged Man of the Match.

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IPL2015 – Virat Kohli’s men rout Delhi Daredevils on their home turf at Kotla

#IPL2015 #MitchellStarc #ChrisGayle #DDvsRCB #Yuvraj It was a game that J P Duminy & Co would like to forget because, batting first, they could not post even 100-runs in spite of having a talented batsman like Yuvraj Singh in their squad as reported in cricbuzz.com dated 26 April 2015.

Mitchell Starc was the demolition-in-chief for Royal Challengers Bangalore – he had taken 3 for 22 against Rajasthan Royals in the last match and in this match against DD, took 3 for 20. As a result, the home team was out for 95 runs in 18.2 overs. They could not even play out the full 20 overs. It was a disappointing performance in front of their home crowd who had turned up in large numbers to cheer their team on.
RCB scored the required runs in 10.3-overs with Chris Gayle hitting 62 runs off 40 balls and Virat Kohli hit 35 off 23 balls to take their team to a well-deserved win, thanks to the RCB bowlers who foiled all chances of DD making a comeback.
Virat Kohli had won the toss and had decided to bowl first and his bowlers justified the faith he had in them. The loss of Delhi Daredevils was their fourth one in seven matches.

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IPL8 – Mumbai Indians break the jinx with first win against Royal Challengers Bangalore

#IPL8 #RCBvsMI #harbhajansingh #rohitsharma Mumbai Indians finally broke the jinx and won their IPL8 encounter against Royal Challengers Bangalore to beat them on their home ground by 18 runs as reported in zeenews.india.com dated 20 April 2015.
This win came after four defeats and was a result of a dedicated approach to the game and posting an impressive total of 200 plus for the opposition.

RCB won the toss and sent in MI to bat first. Opening the MI innings, Lendl Simmons made 59 off 44 balls with the help of nine boundaries and two sixes, and Unmukt Chand smashed his way to 58 off just 37 balls which included eight fours and two hits over the fence.
Then skipper Rohit Sharma contributed with a 15-ball 42-run cameo to help Mumbai's cause. He hit three fours and four huge sixes. And, towards the end, young Hardik Pandya played an unbeaten 16 runs off just six deliveries for Mumbai. The final total of 209 was too much for RCB and, with Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli failing to deliver, the RCB had to face defeat on home ground.
Harbhajan Singh took 3 wickets for 27 runs was the Man of the Match.

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IPL8 – Royal Challengers drubbed in home ground, had no answer to Sun Risers

#IPL8 #RCBvsSRH #ChinnaswamyStadium #TrentBoult #chrisgayle This match did not go own to the wire, neither did it have a nail biting finish – it finished in the 18th over. It was a case of abject surrender of Royal Challengers Bangalore to Sun Risers Hyderabad in their IPL8 encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Or - was it a case of over confidence of the Royal Challengers?
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 14 April 2015.

Winning the toss, Sun Risers Hyderabad opted to field first and the Royal Challengers Bangalore began batting with two stalwarts Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle but, neither could fire as they would have desired.
AB de Villiers hit a useful 28-ball 46 while Virat Kohli chipped in with a 37-ball 41 and Chris Gayle scored a 16-ball 21 as RCB folded up with a score of just 166 runs which was not enough.
Trent Boult of SRH picked up three wickets in the last but one over and Bhuvneshwar Kumar picked up two wickets in the last over.
Sun Risers Hyderabad chased down the 167-run target quite easily in 17.2 overs with Warner slamming a 27-ball 57-run knock that was studded with six fours and four sixes.

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Two great knocks so far in CWC 2015 – Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers

#CWC2015 #abdevilliers #chrisgayle #rohitsharma First of the great unbelievable knocks of CWC 2015 came from the West Indies batsman 35-year-old Chris Gayle who is well known for his hard hitting abilities. In the game against Zimbabwe, Chris hammered 215 runs in 147 balls - it included 16 sixes to match the record for most sixes in an ODI innings. This record is shared by India’s Rohit Sharma and South Africa’s AB de Villiers. This has been reported in indianexpress.com dated 24 February 2015.
The second of the wonderful knocks this World Cup was that of AB De Villiers in the match between South Africa and West Indies.
The Proteas captain AB de Villiers hammered 162 not out in just 66 balls to floor the West Indies. It included 17 fours and 8 sixes and was a grand show of how cricket can be played to the galleries. The fans flock to the venues to watch those magnificent sixes and applaud every shot – sometimes the runs come through flukes, sometimes due to poor fielding but, when shots are lofted high and beyond the reach of players, they are a treat to watch.
De Villiers put on the fastest ever 150 in ODI cricket - in just 64 balls – and South Africa had 408 runs on the board by the time the show ended. This is as per report in ibnlive.in.com dated 27 February 2015.
These are all Pool B matches in which India is also there – let us see if any Indian batsman can create a new record in CWC 2015.