Two brilliant games of cricket were witnessed in Saturday’s IPL double header in which Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK) turned out to be the victorious teams. RR beat Delhi Capitals (DC) in the afternoon match while CSK beat Mumbai Indians (MI) to clinch their third win of the IPL 2023. The Sanju Samson-led RR displayed an all-round effort to thrash DC by a huge margin of 57 runs. After DC captain won the toss and decided to bowl first, RR put on 199 for 4 wickets in 20 overs. They were helped by openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (60) and Jos Buttler’s (79) massive opening stand of 89 runs in just 8.2 overs.
Shimron Hetmyer, later, played a blinder to take the hosts to a strong total on the board at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. Chasing the total, DC never looked in competition as Prithvi Shaw, Manish Pandey finished with ducks and the later middle order crumbled under pressure. DC could manage just 142/9 in 20 overs, losing the match by 57 runs.
Insightful post-match conversations ft. MSD & SKY _#TATAIPL | #MIvCSK | @msdhoni | @surya_14kumar pic.twitter.com/bfaxJMbNlu— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 8, 2023
In second match of the day, CSK too opted to bowl but they showed better skills with the ball in hand. CSK restricted MI to a 157 for 8 in 20 overs as Ravindra Jadeja finished as the top wicket-taker with spell of 3 for 20. Ruturaj Gaikwad (40) had a good day with the bat again but the night belonged to Ajinkya Rahane who surprised everyone with a 27-ball 61 that included 7 fours and 3 sixes respectively. CSK chased down the target with 7 wickets in hand.
After these games, RR sit atop the points table with 2 wins from 3 games. In fact, three more teams have won same number of games in equal number of matches but it is the NRR which differentiates the four.
Take a look at the IPL 2023 Updated Points table below:
Orange Cap Leader: Ruturaj Gaikwad still leads the Orange Cap race with 189 runs from 3 matches at an average of 94.50. David Warner has climbed to second spot with 158 runs from 3 games. Buttler and Kyle Mayers are at 3 and 4 respectively.
Purple Cap Leader: Yuzvendra Chahal is the leading wickettaker so far with 8 wickets from 3 games. Behind him are Mark Wood (8 wickets from 2 games), Ravi Bishnoi (6), Varun Chakaravarthy (5).