IPL 2022 in full swing as Chahal takes a hat-trick

By Kersi Meher-Homji

It’s a thrill watching almost all the six-rich IPL 2022 matches at night. The tournament is at half way mark – the Final to be played on 29th May – let us find out the top 5 out of the 10 teams participating this year.

Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bangalore are leading with 10 points each. Then come Rajasthan Royals, Lucknow Super Giants and Sunrise Hyderabad with 8 points each. To my disappointment, my favourite team Mumbai Indians is right at the bottom, losing all their matches so far.

With so many exciting matches played so far, it is difficult to pick my favourite match so far. I have opted for the Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders played at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai on Monday.

Sent in to bat, Rajasthan Royals smashed 5 for 217 in 20 overs. Opener Jos Buttler (from England) hit a spectacular century (103 runs with 9 fours and 5 sixes).

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) started disastrously losing their first wicket for zero. But they recovered as opener Aaron Finch (from Australia) and skipper Shriyas Iyer from India added 107 runs in only 8.6 overs. Finch scored 58 with 9 fours and 2 sixes and Shreyas 85 with 7 fours and 4 sixes.

Wickets then started toppling as India’s spinner Yuzvendra Chahal captured 5 for 40 including a hat-trick – Shreyas, Shivram Mavi and Australia’s Pat Cummins fell in three balls.

In the last pulsating overs, KKR needed 11 runs for a win but lost two wickets for three runs and lost the match by seven runs.

Chahal was made Person of the Match. He said at the presentation, “my celebration was based on the memory that came from the 2019 World Cup. My plan was going wide and full to the right handers. My attempt was to bowl to the longer boundary. I was thinking of the googly for the hat-trick ball but went with the safer option. I thought the googly came well to [dismiss] Venkatesh Iyer.”

The feature of the IPL 2022 matches so far has been the eye-catching performances of little known Indian youngsters with bat and ball.

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