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The second wave of COVID-19 has been disastrous for India. With cases rising at an unparalleled pace and the healthcare system completely overwhelmed, citizens have resorted to social media to find assistance with medical and equipment needs. India’s COVID-19 situation has drawn the empathy of the entire world. As governments moot regarding the challenges of imposing a lockdown, several people have questioned the need to continue with the IPL at such a critical time....

The Jamaican will be in action later tonight for the Punjab Kings against the Rajasthan Royals at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Gayle made his IPL debut in 2009 and has played at least one match in every IPL season since then. The left-handed batsman has represented three teams, namely the Punjab Kings, the Kolkata Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore in his IPL career so far. Gayle has played 140 IPL matches, amassing 4,950 runs at an average of 40....

RR have been most affected by player pullouts in the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021). Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes are unavailable for various reasons while Andrew Tye too had to be replaced. According to Chopra, though, RR still have decent players in their mix and need to be smart with their choices. Speaking about his playing XI for RR, the 44-year-old picked two left-handers as openers. Chopra said on his YouTube channel:...

In the second game played at Ahmedabad, the game continuously ebbed and flowed before finally settling in the hands of RCB by a margin of just one run. Batting first, RCB put forth an insipid batting performance as Ishant Sharma impressed in his first game of the season. Carried by AB de Villiers’ superb finish, RCB posted 171, which DC looked nowhere close to with the death overs to go....

After playing two consecutive matches in Chennai, DC will now head west to Ahmedabad. They will play their next four league games at the Narendra Modi stadium. Ravichandran Ashwin left the squad’s bio bubble after the previous game, so the DC management will have to make a change to their line-up for today’s game. DC openers Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw have been in stellar form in recent times and will be crucial to their teams’ chances again....

The IPL, over the years, has showcased some explosive batting from hard-hitters of the cricket ball. Though there have been plenty of sixes in the cash-rich league, there are a few maximums in the history of the IPL that will be remembered for years to come. That being said, we take a look at the 10 longest sixes hit in the 13-year long history of the Indian Premier League....

Heavily fancied Mumbai Indians have been among the teams to have disappointed so far. Rohit Sharma’s men have struggled to adapt to Chepauk, which is in stark contrast to the Wankhede Stadium, and are placed fifth with two wins from five games. On a positive note, a few teams have exceeded expectations to be placed in the upper echelons of the IPL 2021 points table. Here are the 3 teams which have made a name for themselves as the early favorites for the title....

After his dismissal, AB De Villiers continued the momentum created by McCullum. Virat Kohli struggled but did well in the partnership with De Villiers as the duo set up the platform for a big score. But both of them were dismissed by Nitish Rana off successive deliveries. Mandeep Singh’s 18-ball 37 helped RCB get to 176. KKR then got off to a flying start with Sunil Narine scoring a blazing 50 in just 17 balls....

The other common factor between them both is the fact that their bowling units failed to defend 200+ total against the explosive batting unit of CSK. The teams will lock horns in the Chinnaswamy after defeats that they would gladly want to overturn. In the South Indian Derby, RCB failed to trump CSK, adding to the string of losses against their top rivals. On the other hand, KKR are returning from a 55-run loss to the DD team, which is being led by the young Shreyas Iyer....

RCB got the right start as they picked up two wickets in the power play for just 38 runs. In the ninth over, they also got the wicket of Manish Pandey who has been struggling to find some form. After that wicket, it was a Williamson show as he scored his fifth half-century of the tournament and put on a 64 run partnership with Shakib, before getting out off the last ball of sixteenth over....

Having had a dismal season in 2017, where they finished bottom, RCB signed some talented bowlers in Chris Woakes and Umesh Yadav. Also read: IPL 2018: 4 reasons why Royal Challengers Bangalore are strong contenders for the title This season, RCB arguably have the most balanced squad they ever had. A solid bowling unit, all-rounders and batsmen apart, they also have the bench strength in all departments that can make it big....

Players like Unadkat are the ones who will be under the scanner this time around as a lot of big stars might miss the second leg of the league due to national duty. These players have had a few chances to represent their country, but their inconsistent performances have led to their ouster. But they can make their case strong again with some good performances in the IPL. Let’s have look at the players who are heavily relying on IPL for their national selection....

Every season provided them with a new opportunity but they have somehow choked at crucial stages in every season. They will have the opportunity to finally make up for those mistakes as they look to win their first title this season. They retained their key players before going into the IPL auction. The likes of Virat Kohl, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, and Tim Southee were some of the stars which were retained by the franchise....

But then, one day - after five years of being a CSK fan and a part of the corporate world - I suddenly found myself walking into the club’s press conference with MS Dhoni the centre of attention. I was there representing the Deccan Chronicle. And Dhoni was at his witty best. It took a little while for those ‘goosebumps moments’ to pass and then the journalist took over....

CSK endured their first loss of the season against the Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium and it was the first time in the tournament that MS Dhoni’s men had been completely outplayed with both bat and ball. Their will be some forced changes from the CSK playing XI as Dwayne Bravo has been ruled out for two weeks due to injury. So, keeping all that in mind, here is the strongest possible starting XI of CSK for the match against KXIP:...

Kolkata Knight Riders’ expected playing XI: Unless there is a injury concern around Sunil Narine, KKR should look to play the same team: Chris Lynn, Sunil Narine, Nitish Rana, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Andre Russell, Shubman Gill, Piyush Chawla, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Prasidh Krishna. Kings XI Punjab expected playing XI: Chris Gayle, KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Sarfaraz Khan, Nicolas Pooran, Mandeep Singh, Sam Curran, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Ankit Rajpoot....

KKR won their first match of the tournament against SRH by 6 wickets. They chased down the target of 181 in 19.4 overs with Andre Russell scoring 49 from just 19 balls. KXIP meanwhile won their first match too, against RR, by 14 runs. Chris Gayle scored 79 runs from 47 balls for KXIP. In IPL 2018, KKR finished at third position while KXIP finished seventh. Last year when these teams met each other, both teams managed to win one match each....

Squad: Virat Kohli (C), Ab de Villiers (VC), Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Collin de Grandhomme, Heinrich Klassen, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Tim Southee, Moeen Ali, Parthiv Patel, Umesh Yadav, Pawan Negi, Washington Sundar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj, Shivam Dube, Navdeep Saini, Kulwant Khejroliya, Devdutt Paddikal, Gurkerat Singh Mann, Akshdeep Nath, Prayas Ray Barman, Milind Kumar and Himmat Singh Challengers indeed have a good formidable squad of 25 members and are possible contenders to win the title but again the goddess of fortune will have the final say....

We witnessed immense competition among all the teams to be in the race for the playoffs, especially for the fourth spot in the points table. Anyone of the bottom four teams could have qualified with just only more victory. KKR and KXIP just needed better NRR than SRH to be at fourth spot. Bowling department was the major problem for all the teams which failed to do well in....

Teams can not afford to relax at this time in a campaign as even a small mistake could prove costly. Most franchises will lose its important overseas stars this week as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 nears. At this moment, Chennai Super Kings are the table-toppers while Royal Challengers Bangalore are placed precariously in the last place. With everything to play for in the last couple of weeks, it promises to be an exciting IPL campaign....