The upcoming clash between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur will be the 37th match of the 2023 Indian Premier League (IPL), meaning the 74-match season will officially be hitting the halfway mark.
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And it sure has been a roller-coaster ride along the way, with the 16th edition of the league perhaps having more twists and turns than any other. Call it the result of the ‘Impact Player’ rule if you will, but the number of last-minute twists and final-ball nail-biters that we have witnessed this season, from Rinku Singh’s five consecutive sixes to epic final overs from the likes of Sandeep Sharma and Arshdeep Singh, has already made this a season to remember and one that stands out from the rest.
Ahead of Round 2 between RR and CSK, we take a look at how the teams have performed so far this season:
The top four
Four-time champions Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and current title-holders Gujarat Titans (GT) currently occupy the top of the 10-team table with 10 points each, with CSK occupying the top spot due to their superior Net Run Rate. CSK especially appear to be on a roll at the moment, having won each of their last three matches after getting off to a shaky start. And it goes without saying that these two sides appear favourites to lock horns in Qualifier 1, the way they’re going about business at the moment.
They’re closely followed by Rajasthan Royals (RR), who appear to have carried on from where they left off after a runner-up finish last year, followed by Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) — the two sides having the better NRR of the four teams tied on eight points each. In essence, the current top four in the Indian Premier League isn’t very different from the teams that competed in the playoffs last year, with CSK replacing Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) being the only difference.
Mid-table
RCB lie immediately outside the top four spots; they would have fancied going past RR and LSG to the third spot ahead of their home game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), only for the Nitish Rana-led side to complete a season double against them in style. RCB have been a mixed bag so far. While they have arguably the most complete top-order this season in Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell and Mohammed Siraj has been an absolute revelation in the powerplay, RCB haven’t quite been able to finish games they way they would have hoped.
It’s been a similar story for the Punjab Kings, who certainly have shown a lot more promise under Shikhar Dhawan and Sam Curran’s leadership this season — the latter taking over after ‘Gabbar’ got himself sidelined with a shoulder injury. They began on a solid note with back-to-back victories — giving the team owners solid hope of finally reaching the playoffs for the first time in nine years — but have had a mixed run since. Their victory over Mumbai Indians, however, underlines the potential that this team has in breaking into the top-four, especially with their power-hitters in the middle order and an exceptional death bowler in Arshdeep Singh.
And at the seventh spot is KKR, who have given their hopes of reaching the playoffs a boost following a convincing victory over RCB that snapped their four-game losing streak. KKR’s strength lies in their stacked spin department — which played a key role in both of their wins against RCB this season — and with a new power hitter in Jason Roy at the top of the order, the two-time champions can still put up a fight in the second half of the group stage.
Bottom half
Five-time champions Mumbai Indians would be extremely disappointed with how their season has panned out so far. Not only would failure to reach the playoffs for a third season in a row be a first for Mumbai and tarnish the legacy of the most successful franchise in the history of the world’s biggest T20 league, it would also demoralise what is a vastly talended squad filled with a number of promising youngsters.
Mumbai after all, did go through a major transition with a number of their old match winnners such as Kieron Pollard, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya either hanging up their boots or joining other franchises. While some of the new recruits such as Cameron Green, Tim David, Tilak Varma, Hrithik Shokeen have shown glimpses of their brilliance this season, the team hasn’t quite been able to fire as a unit. And their three wins in seven games this season have all come against teams lingering in the lower half of the table.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals lie at the bottom of the table with two wins each in seven outings, the latter at the 10th spot due to their inferior NRR. Delhi, however, is the team that is on the mend between the two sides, opening their account with a victory over KKR at home before successfully defending a low total against the Aiden Markram-led side that will have given the David Warner-led and Ricky Ponting-coached side of pulling off a late miracle this season.
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