Hello Sports Lovers,
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It's been 4 weeks since Indian Premier League Cricket tournament started and we are into half way stage of it with teams already having playoffs in sight.
Some of the teams who are predicted to be in the playoffs are reeling down the table and some others who used to be in bottom half are performing well and part of the credit for that goes to neutral venues and also may be better team combination compared to previous versions.
Let's have an overview of each of the 8 teams performance in terms of their victories, defeats, top run scorers and top wicket takers.
Here is a snapshot of the points table including today's 2 matches SRH vs DC and RR vs PBKS.
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Royal Challengers Bangalore:
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RCB continues to be in the top half with current position being #3 with 5 wins from 7 matches.
Although RCB's batting failed in the 2 chases they had against Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings, they still are a solid batting unit with Devdutt Padikkal, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, AB De Villiers are all among runs.
As for their bowling unit is concerned, Harshal Patel continues to be the purple cap holder, but he seems to have lost a bit of his length as he was carted into all the corners during his death bowling.
Inspite of Harshal Patel's issues, Mohammad Siraj continues his improved performance and if Yuzvendra Chahal can find back his old form, it will more advantageous to team RCB.
Chennai Super Kings:
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Chennai Super Kings looked out of sort in their opening match, but then after, it's been an improved show by them with Faf Du Plessis and Ruthuraj Gaikwad giving them good start in almost all the matches and Moen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran also having some runs behind them and in yesterday's match, even Ambati Rayudu found back his form which will be ominous signs for CSK.
Their bowling has been good with Sam Curran, Moen Ali, Ravindra Jadeja, Lungi Ngidi and Deepak Chahar among the wickets and even Imran Tahir when he got a chance against RCB, he proved he is a serious contender too to be in playing XI.
CSK continues to be in second phase at half way stage and if the other players can find their touch, we may once again see team CSK lifting the trophy.
Delhi Capitals:
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Delhi Capitals are showing all signs of finishing among the top 2 with an allround performance by them although couple of their main bowlers still looks out of form.
They are sitting pretty in top position after first half of the tournament.
Their batting has been good and they have chased down huge totals with the help of batting by their ever reliable opening pair of Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan and middle order consisting of Rishabh Pant, Shimron Hetmyer and Marcus Stoinis is formidable one to chase any target.
Their bowling has been good too with the likes of Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan, Axar Patel and Amit Mishra among wickets.
Their main bowler Kagiso Rabada still searching for form and that will add more tooth to their bowling.
Kolkata Knight Riders:
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Kolkata Knight Riders are finding it difficult to climb up the points table as they are into back to back losses inspite of putting runs on board.
Lack of form among middle order batters in Eoin Morgan, Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell is hurting their scoring.
Shubhman Gill and Nitish Rana have given them decent starts, but the middle order hasn't capitalized on those starts.
Last couple of matches, Andre Russell showed glimpse of his lost form and that should be some good news for team KKR.
Their bowling has been good in patches with Pat Cummins and Varun Chakravarthy among wickets, but their other bowlers are leaking runs which is a concern for them.
KKR is at Seventh position right now and need a much improved performance by them for chances of making it into playoffs.
Sunrisers Hyderabad:
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SRH has been the worst team so far with just Single win from the Seven matches they have played and in today's match, they even left out their captain David Warner, but that didn't help them much under new captain Kane Williamson.
Their batting depends much on Johnny Bairstow, David Warner, Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey.
Middle order is not among the runs although Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar have batted well here and there.
Their bowling barring Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, looks wayward with likes of Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed leaking runs.
Rajasthan Royals:
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RR has been good sometimes and surrendered meekly in few other.
They have scored well in last few matches with Jos Buttler and Sanju Samson doing bulk of their scoring and allrounder Chris Morris has been doing good for them and has contributed in couple of their wins.
Their bowling once again depends on Chris Morris, Kartik Tyagi and Chetan Sakariya and if Mustafizur Rahaman and Rahul Tewatia finds form, it will be more formidable bowling attack for them.
RR with their today's win against SRH, have climbed to Fifth place.
Mumbai Indians:
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MI is like sometimes hot and sometimes cold as they are not being consistent, but their last match gave a glimpse of what they can do as they chased down score of 218 with Kieron Pollard scoring at over 15 runs per over after required run rate climbed over 15.
Their opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Quinton De Kock has been good with middle order in Surya Kumar Yadav, kieron Pollard doing good as well, but they will want Hardik Pandya finding some touch before they start looking for playoffs.
Bowling has been good for them with Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult, Krunal Pandya and Rahul Chahar among wickets.
MI continues in Fourth place right now and they, being slow starters, their last win against CSK should give them more confidence.
Punjab Kings:
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Punjab Kings over dependency on their skipper KL Rahul is fully visible as they have been inconsistent in their batting and bowling.
They went into today's match with Mayank Agarwal as new captain since KL Rahul had some health issues.
KL and Mayank are good for them and barring some runs from Deepak Hooda and Chris Gayle, their middle hasn't been firing for them which is resulting in low scores.
Their bowling looks their weak link with almost all the bowlers leaking runs and they couldn't defend even 170+ scores.
With 3 wins from 8 matches, PBKS is at Sixth position right now and they have to find right combination in their remaining matches to have a chance of making it into play-offs with DC, CSK, RCB and MI looking the better teams right at half stage.
Top Run Scorers and Wicket Takers:
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Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Faf Du Plessis are the top 3 run scorers so far and there is always a competition for the top 3 by other batters.
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