Hi Friends,
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If you are a Cricket fan, I am sure you are already following the Indian Premier League or simply IPL as IPL 2025 is already started and we have 5 matches completed already.
Well, many call it as Biggest Cricket Festival on Earth and that I think, is a fitting sentence. It's because so much money is generated, so many matches and a month long fun for Cricket lovers all around the World.
This year, IPL is already celebrating 18th Birthday and when we say 18, there is another person who will come infront of our eyes and yes, it's none other that Mr. Run Chaser Virat Kohli as he is with 18 number jersey and I am just hoping that IPL cup #18 and Virat Kohli's jersey #18 will bring some good luck to team Royal Challengers Bengaluru for them to secure their First IPL cup.
It's a long tournament and anything can happen in a matter of few matches for a team.
But, team RCB looks much balanced and the way they played against reigning champions KKR, it was a pleasing thing to see.
If we look at the matches completed so far after all teams played a match each, we can confidently say that, all teams played good as all the matches were competitive with margin of loss very less.
But, teams like SRH, DC, RCB, RR and even GT have shown that, they have fire power and can be dangerous customers this time.
SRH especially stands out with their top 6 batters being so fearsome, they don't mind losing a wicket in the process of hitting everything out of the ground!!!
Theirs is the team to watch out for in this edition just like they did last year.
Points Table:
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With just One match played by each team, it's still very early days, but every team will try to make the most of it from match 1 itself and as we can see, SRH is already at the top with superior run rate and they are followed by beaters of reigning champions i.e. RCB and PBKS, CSK and DC are the remaining teams in top 5 courtesy of their wins in opening matches for each of these teams.
The teams which lost are the ones of Lucknow Super Giants, Mumbai Indians (like they do every year), Gujarat Titans, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals.
But, as I said, these are the early days and we will definitely see those places changed after each match and maintaining the composure and form will be key to maintain the positions in time table.
Most Runs So Far:
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In the First 5 matches, we have already seen all kind of records in this year's IPL with a century already scored by Ishan Kishan and he is the top run scorer with 106 runs and I must say that, he is one of those 6 fearsome batters from SRH and we are sure to see many more such records by SRH as the matches goes on!!
He is followed by Shreya Iyer, who moved from KKR to Punjab Kings and just missed a century by 3 runs although he remained not out.
The other 3 top 5 are, Nicholas Pooran with 75 runs, Sai Sudharsan with 74 and Mitchell Marsh with 72.
We do have names like Travis Head, Sanju Samson, and that Mr. cool guy Ashutosh Sharma and Virat Kohli as well in that list of top run getters and we have already seen as many as 15 half centuries!!!.
I have to say about this guy Ashutosh Sharma who batted so beautifully for Delhi against the Lucknow Super Giants and he proved that his scores of runs in last year for Punjab Kings are no fluke and he is a serious customer.
I wonder why Punjab Kings didn't retain him in the mega auction.
Most Wickets:
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The wickets takers list is a well balanced with both spinners and fast bowlers taking wickets as in other editions of IPL and it's expected one with some of the pitches assisting spinners more and others for fast bowlers.
Afghanistan is fast become one of the emerging Cricket power and it used to be mostly because of their spinners and now they have some of the nice batsmen as well.
One such spinner from Afghanistan who plays for CSK is the top wicket taker with 4 wickets and it's Noor Ahmad.
He is followed by many 3 wickets takers but among the top 5 are Khaleel Ahmed, Krunal Pandya, Sai Kishore and new spin sensation Vignesh Puthur.
As it was a mega auction before this year's IPL, all the teams have many new players and they are all are gelling well.
The early trend shows in this IPL that, all the batsmen are trying to score faster in the powerplays as if it's just 6 over match and making the most of the field restrictions. If we check all the teams, all of them have power hitters and most of the matches are high scoring ones so far.
If the trend continues, we might see more 200+ scores from each match and we might end up with most runs in an IPL season.
I will catch you all soon, take care, have a wonderful day :)
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