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The Whistle Podus have undoubtedly got all their boxes right. The legacy of winning matches from the jaws of defeat is still the same. The run-chase against RCB at Chinnaswamy is sublime proof of that. Returning after a two-year hiatus and then winning five out of the first six matches is another example which shows that the Yellow Brigade has got most of their things right in order to become the champions of the league....

When it comes to IPL, Tatenda Taibu is the only Zimbabwe cricketer to play in the IPL. He was picked up Kolkata Knight Riders in the inaugural edition and managed to feature in only 3 games. He couldn’t make much impact and went unsold in the next season. Similarly, Brendan Taylor was bought by Sunrisers as a backup for wicket-keeper Naman Ojha in the 2014 season but never got a chance to play....

AB de Villiers out – Jos Buttler in Manan Vohra out – Suryakumar Yadav in (uncapped player trick employed) Uncapped player preference order: Krishnappa Gowtham, Ankit Rajpoot, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Gopal, Rahul Tripathi Captain – KL Rahul Captaincy preference order: KL Rahul, Jos Buttler, Chris Gayle, Jofra Archer, Sanju Samson, Mujeeb Zadran Differential – Ben Stokes Multipliers remaining - 2 Guru’s team ahead of RR vs KXIP: KL Rahul, J Buttler, C Gayle, S Samson, V Kohli, S Yadav, J Archer, K Gowtham, M Zadran, S Kaul, B Kumar...

Batting first, Delhi got off to a quick start as they scored 30 from the first 3 overs. But Prithvi Shaw was caught by Parthiv Patel off Umesh Yadav, which brought the skipper Shreyas Iyer to the crease. Shikhar Dhawan and Iyer stitched together a solid partnership which helped DC cross 100 in the 12th over. Even though they lost wickets in the middle overs, last-minute cameos from Axar Patel and Sherfane Rutherford helped them post a commendable 187 on the board....

Led by Indian skipper Virat Kohli, RCB, a few weeks ago, alongside all other franchises, released and retained the players ahead of the auction, giving themselves an opportunity to resettle the squad before they take the field in IPL 2019. Meanwhile, the auction is scheduled to be held at Jaipur on December 18 and teams are already busy with knitting strategies for the same. Similarly, RCB, for whom bowling has been the real concern, would try to rope in some good bowlers to sort out their problems....

With the auction scheduled to take place and the trades already starting to take place, let’s take a look at 5 teams which may have to change their opening combination for the IPL 2019 season. #1 Royal Challengers Bangalore The RCB spent the most money in last year’s auction and had a very good squad on paper. In reality, though, the performances didn’t come and it was mostly up to Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers to do the bulk of the scoring while Umesh Yadav made a few contributions with the ball....

Clearly, from team selection, it was visible that one side read the pitch and the other did not, as CSK picked horses for courses and stacked their team with four spinners. RCB, on the other hand, had four fast bowlers and two spinners in Chahal and Moeen Ali. CSK won the toss and M.S. Dhoni elected to field first, and from ball one we saw the ball turn. Harbhajan Singh, who has spent most of his time in the commentary box recently, was handed the second over and bowled superbly....

Delhi Capitals have surprised a lot of people with it’s performance this year. Despite losing some matches that they should have probably won at the start of the season, the Capitals have done extremely well to get into the playoffs after 6 years. It has been a complete team performance by the Capitals as every player in the team has chipped in with useful contributions. Players to watch out for Chennai Super Kings Mitchell Santner bowled smartly in the game against the Mumbai Indians....

However, CSK will be wary of the fact that they will be up against an in-form Mumbai Indians side - a team that has beaten them twice in the season already. Here is CSK’s predicted playing XI for this crucial encounter against Mumbai Indians. Openers Faf du Plessis has been in sensational form in IPL 2019 having scored 314 runs in 9 matches. Even though CSK isn’t known for making changes in big matches, Kedar Jadhav’s injury might force them to change the team combination....

Mumbai Indians exploited the conditions on offer very early in the match by introducing spin. Skipper Rohit Sharma was brave enough to add Jayant Yadav in the playing XI in the all-important match. Rahul Chahar and Jayant sent the CSK top order back to pavilion in no time. The relentless spin attack had CSK reeling at 32/3 within powerplay. It was Ambati Rayudu & Murali Vijay who took their time to control further damage for CSK....

Royal Challengers Bangalore have been a team to beat since the first edition, even though they are yet to win the trophy. This year too they look the same and as always, the hopes are high on them to win their maiden title. The path to the trophy would be really hard for them as there are certain players in opposition teams who find a special liking for RCB....

Another potential question is about the venue of the IPL. This question arises because India will be having their Lok Sabha elections in summer 2019. On the previous 2 occasions of the IPL and elections over-lapping, IPL was moved to a different country. In 2009, the complete season of the Indian Premier League was held in South Africa, whereas in 2014, each team played their first 5 matches in the UAE....

Popularly called ‘Mankad-ing’, this has become a huge talking point in the cricket world again thanks to the dismissal today, which turned the match in KXIP’s favor. The history of Mankad-ing: As a bowler enters his delivery stride, the non-striking batsman usually backs up. This means he leaves his popping crease and walks towards the other end of the wicket. When such a thing happens, the bowler can run the non-striker out....

RCB find themselves in a difficult position after losing their first four matches, and if they want to make it to the playoffs, they will have to start by winning this game. Apart from this, captain Virat Kohli’s reputation is also on at stake. The difficulty for Bangalore is that neither their batsmen nor their bowlers are clicking at the moment. Although Yuzvendra Chahal holds the Purple Cap for the highest number of wickets in the tournament (8), no other bowler in the team has backed him up so far....

He made this observation while reviewing Kings XI Punjab’s loss to the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in a video shared on his YouTube channel. Aakash Chopra started by pointing out that the Kings XI Punjab innings never gathered momentum despite the flying start provided by Mayank Agarwal, with Chris Gayle playing an uncharacteristically slow knock. The reputed commentator observed that Gayle’s inability to put the foot on the accelerator put the pressure on KL Rahul....

A total of 127 players have been retained by the franchises, out of which 35 are overseas players. If one looks at the number of players released, Royal Challengers Bangalore have been the most active, releasing 12. Sunrisers Hyderabad on the other hand have released the fewest players - only five. Kings XI Punjab now have the highest salary cap available, that of Rs 42.70 crore, while Mumbai Indians have the least with 13....

Although Mumbai performed brilliantly in IPL 2019, the Rohit Sharma-led outfit suffered a 5-wicket loss in the IPL 2020 season opener. The batting department of the Mumbai Indians did not click, as apart from Saurabh Tiwary and Quinton de Kock, all other batsmen let the fans down. The Kolkata Knight Riders will take the field in IPL 2020 for the first time tonight. The Knight Riders retained their core players from the last season and added some more match-winners like Pat Cummins, Eoin Morgan, Tom Banton and Rahul Tripathi to their squad....

There is only one week left for the next edition of the Indian Premier League to begin. The 14th season of IPL will be starting from 09 April. The first match of the tournament will be played between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians while Chennai Super Kings will start their campaign against Delhi Capitals on 10 April. Although Chennai’s performance last season was very poor, this season they have some players who can single-handedly win the title for CSK....

Winning the toss was the only thing that went right for Virat Kohli in his 200th match for RCB. Batting first, the Bangalore franchise capitulated to 92 all out in 19 overs. Varun Chakravarthy (3/13), Andre Russell (3/9) and Lockie Ferguson (2/24) starred for KKR, never allowing RCB to get into any sort of rhythm. RCB’s three big guns - Kohli (5), Glenn Maxwell (10) and AB de Villiers (0) - fell cheaply to put the side in massive trouble....

A scrutiny of past editions of the tournament unveils one homogeneity between the successful teams of the past. ‘A balanced squad’ seems to be the factor that helped the teams to be triumphant. When we speak about team balance, it’s not like a typical test match playing XI. A traditionally preferred balance is something like a combination of six batsmen (wicketkeeper inclusive), three pacers, a proper spin bowler, and one pace bowling all-rounder in a track that supports seam or an extra spinner if it’s the sub-continent....