Dubai international stadium welcomed the 2 deserving finalists of the Dream 11 IPL onto its lush green field. The 2020 IPL has been a remarkable one in more than one sense. It has been the most keenly contested IPL season so far, in its 12 year-long histories. Besides cricketing reasons, it has been a landmark season as BCCI managed to host the entire IPL season in a bio bubble without any logistical disasters. Kudos to the entire team of BCCI under Sourav Ganguly and Jay Shah for ensuring that the organization of the tournament was absolutely on point. The global audience got a taste of what ..read more

DC and SRH faced off for the penultimate clash of the season at Abu Dhabi. DC was coming off a pasting from MI and they looked the underdogs going into the eliminator clash. Shreyas Iyer’s men were coming off 5 losses from their last 6 games and SRH was riding high with 4 victories in their last 4 matches. On top of that, the DC batting has been misfiring for quite a few matches and their batting form touched a new low as they succumbed to 0-3 in a 200 plus chase against MI in Qualifier 1. On the contrary, both Warner and Williamson have been in a purple patch throughout the tournament and the ..read more

SRH and RCB faced off for the first eliminator of the season. It has been a diametrically opposite journey for these 2 sides through the league stages. RCB began well and reached its peak when they decimated KKR for a paltry 84 runs in their 10th league match. But from there on, it has been a downward slide for Kohli’s men. They have lost their last 4 league matches to just creeping into the playoffs by edging out KKR in NRR. The momentum was not with them and that was visible from the 4 erratic team changes they made in the eliminator.  It was prominent that they were searching for the r ..read more

MI and DC faced off against each other at the Dubai International cricket stadium with a place in the final at stake. The battle promised to be a mouth-watering one as MI has been the best team in the tournament and DC looks to have found their ideal batting lineup in the last match. Doing away with Shimron Hetmeyer and including Rahane in the mix gave DC much more solidity in terms of batting. What that also meant was that they could play Daniel Sams to trouble the batsmen with some swing in the initial overs. DC won the toss and chose to field on a dream batting pitch at Dubai. MI welcomed a ..read more

RCB and DC faced off at the Abu Dhabi international cricket stadium for a high-stake league match tonight. When the penultimate match of the round-robin stage began on a flat Abu Dhabi surface, we were yet to know the names of 3 of the playoff qualifying teams. Such has been the tight competition in this year’s IPL, that the fate of 4 teams depended on a final couple of matches. DC won the toss and chose to field. Shreyas Iyer made an interesting change to the squad as he replaced Hetmeyer with Rahane in the playing 11. DC has historically gone for firepower over solidity in terms of their bat ..read more

KKR and RR faced off for a humdinger of a clash at the Dubai International cricket stadium in another potential eliminator for the second match of the day. The loser of this match gets outright eliminated from the race to the playoffs but the winner does not qualify for the playoffs either. The winner stays alive though and their playoff fate will depend on the remaining 2 matches. Steve Smith won the toss and sent KKR in to bat on a surface that threatened to get slow with the progression of the innings. RR was, however, more intent on exploiting the dew that would set in at the later half of ..read more

CSK and KXIP got on the field for the last time this IPL at Abu Dhabi. A very unique scenario was at the backdrop of this match. If KXIP won, they would keep their playoff hopes alive, while CSK had an interesting record to play for. If CSK won, this would be the first edition of IPL, where every team will finish with at least 6 victories – a statistical validation that this has been the most competitive edition of IPL since its inception. CSK won the toss and chose to field on a sluggish Abu Dhabi pitch. Punjab had decided to play the extra batsman and went in with just 5 bowlers including Ne ..read more

The ring of fire welcomed MI and DC for the first of the weekend double-headers. It has been a strange fortnight for DC, as they have gone down from being table toppers to scrambling for a place in the playoffs. In fact, from a position where they were fighting for a place in the top 2, they have come down to fighting for a place in the top 4. However, because of a series of a win early in the tournament, DC can manage to get through on their own merit, if they win either of the remaining 2 matches. Otherwise, they need a lot of other results to go their way, if they want to make it to the pla ..read more

KXIP vs RR was a second eliminator we were treated to in successive days. After the thriller between CSK and KKR last night, we were in for another mouth-watering clash. The stakes were high as both KXIP and RR needed to win the match to stay in contention for the playoffs. If RR lost this match, they will be out of the competition officially. They have not been ascertained a place in the top 4 even if they win this one, but at least there would be hope. For KXIP, the calculation was simpler. If they win this one against RR and go on to win the next match against CSK as well, they would qualif ..read more

KKR and CSK faced off for a critical encounter at Abu Dhabi as the league stage of the tournament drew to an end. Much like other seasons, the last week of the league stage promised quite a no. of eliminators. Tonight was one such, as KKR would be virtually eliminated if they lose this match. CSK, on the other hand, had just pride to play for as they approached the business end of the tournament. CSK won the toss and chose to chase on a good pitch with long square boundaries. MS stated at the toss that he anticipated dew to set in at the later half of the inning. For KKR, they made the much-ne ..read more