🏆TATA IPL 2022 : A Cricket Carnival With Bat and Ball 🏏 - Page 11

Stats that matter:

• Only Deepak Chahar (42) and Trent Boult (27) have taken more wickets than Umesh Yadav in powerplays since IPL 2018
  
• du Plessis (1170) is only one of three players to have tallied a combined 1000-plus runs in the tournament since the 2020 season. KL Rahul (1296) and Shikhar Dhawan (1248) occupy the top two spots
• Russell's 75 sixes are the second most in the tournament since 2019. KL Rahul leads the pack with 78 sixes
• Ajinkya Rahane needs 15 runs to become the ninth Indian to score 4000 IPL runs. If he gets there, he will be the fifth-fastest to do so

All the best to AR to make those 15 runs today.👍🏼

Day 6 of IPL 2022 - Preview:

Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants out to prove that positives matter

Both teams lost their opening games of IPL 2022 but some of their players did hit form

Big Picture: Newbies Lucknow Super Giants and oldies Chennai Super Kings both lost their opening games of IPL 2022, but neither side would be fussed just yet. In fact, Super Giants' captain KL Rahul went on to say they "couldn't have started the campaign in any better way".

Obviously it is early days in the tournament but the main reason behind Rahul saying so was Super Giants' middle order stepping up after a top-order collapse. On paper, the middle order is one of their weak areas but Deepak Hooda and Ayush Badoni played crucial knocks and helped them recover from a precarious 29 for 4. One thing Rahul might rue is his use of Dushmantha Chameera. Chameera was Super Giants' most threatening bowler on the night but didn't even get to bowl his full quota.

Super Kings anyway have a reputation for being calm and composed irrespective of the results. But they too found positives in the defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders. MS Dhoni struck an unbeaten 50 off 38 balls and Dwayne Bravo picked up 3 for 20 from four overs. Both have retired from international cricket and their striking form straightaway is a good sign for the franchise.

After getting their feet wet, both sides will now be eyeing first points.

In the news: Super Giants will once again be without Jason Holder, who will only be available from their next match. There is no official word on Andrew Tye though. If available, he could replace Mohsin Khan given they had picked only three overseas players in their last game.

Super Kings will have Moeen Ali back. He missed their first game because of visa issues but is now likely to come in for Mitchell Santner.

Likely XIs: Lucknow Super Giants 1 KL Rahul (capt), 2 Quinton de Kock (wk), 3 Evin Lewis, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Deepak Hooda, 6 Ayush Badoni, 7 Krunal Pandya, 8 Andrew Tye/Mohsin Khan, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Ravi Bishnoi, 11 Avesh Khan

Chennai Super Kings 1 Ruturaj Gaikwad, 2 Devon Conway, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Ambati Rayudu, 6 Ravindra Jadeja (capt), 7 MS Dhoni (wk), 8 Shivam Dube, 9 Dwayne Bravo, 10 Adam Milne, 11 Tushar Deshpande

Stats that matter:

• Since 2018, no one has hit more sixes in the IPL than Rahul. In 56 innings, he has cleared the boundary 110 times.
• In the same time frame, Dhoni has hit the joint-most sixes for an Indian in overs 16th to 20th. Both Dhoni and Hardik Pandya have hit 51 sixes each.
• While Jadeja has never dismissed Rahul, he has conceded only 39 runs off 38 balls to him in all T20s.
• In the IPL, Adam Milne has taken only seven wickets in ten matches, at an economy of 9.47. Outside of the IPL, he has taken 144 wickets in 127 games at an economy of 7.52.

Day 7 of IPL 2022 - Preview:

Kings, Knight Riders face off in battle of power-hitters

Knight Riders have Russell's fitness to worry about, while Kings get a boost with Rabada's availability

Big picture:

A new-look Punjab Kings side, dripping with power and depth, hunted down 206 against Royal Challengers Bangalore to kick off their season in grand style. They now run into Kolkata Knight Riders, who play with similar attacking intent and freedom.

The result didn't go in Knight Riders' way on Wednesday, but they stayed true to their playbook, hitting more boundaries than Royal Challengers.

An intriguing subplot to look forward to on Friday is Andre Russell, if he's fit enough, vs Odean Smith. Russell is still the gold standard of T20 cricket while Smith is the latest big-hitting allrounder from the Caribbean. Smith has modelled his game on Russell and he recently won the T10 league with his idol at Deccan Gladiators in Abu Dhabi. In the last IPL, Smith even worked with Russell as a net bowler at Knight Riders. IPL 2022, however, has pitted them against each other.

In the news

After Wednesday's game, where Russell bowled only three overs, Knight Riders head coach Brendon McCullum said that the allrounder's shoulder was sore after he dived near the boundary. If Russell doesn't recover in time, Knight Riders could instead call up Mohammad Nabi or Chamika Karunaratne.

South Africa quick Kagiso Rabada is out of quarantine and trained with the Kings after having participated in the ODI series at home against Bangladesh. Jonny Bairstow, however, is unavailable for Kings' second game as he is yet to complete quarantine upon arrival from the Caribbean.

Likely XIs

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Venkatesh Iyer, 2 Ajinkya Rahane, 3 Shreyas Iyer (capt), 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Sam Billings, 6 Sheldon Jackson (wk), 7 Andre Russell/Chamika Karunaratne/Mohammad Nabi, 8 Sunil Narine, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Varun Chakravarthy

Punjab Kings: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa (wk), 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Raj Bawa, 6 M Shahrukh Khan, 7 Odean Smith, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Rahul Chahar