IPL Playoffs: Mighty Mumbai Indians once again breeze to IPL finals 

Indian Premier League 2020 continues to woo Indian cricket fans and fans from all over the globe too. The IPL Playoffs race was intense with defending Champions MI dominating and making it to the final once again, as well as, no.2 Delhi Capitals steered by Ricky Ponting getting their maiden shot at the IPL title. 

Bharat Army takes a look at all the fascinating encounters that took in the final week of IPL 2020: 

Qualifier 1: Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Capitals

The top 2 teams in the group stages faced each other for a place in the IPL final at stake. DC came into the match with a win against RCB in their last match whereas MI suffered a crushing 10 wicket defeat against SRH in their last match.

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Shreyas Iyer won the toss and put MI to bat first. DC got off to a brilliant start as R.Ashwin got Rohit Sharma for a golden duck. However, the other batsmen were unfazed, as they continued to play their shots to keep scoring at a good rate.

Quinton De Kock and Surya Kumar Yadav stitched together a quick 50+ partnership to set the base of the Mumbai innings. De Kock departed for a quickfire 40 and Surya followed soon too after bringing up his half-century. The DC bowlers did very well to bring themselves back into the game as they took some crucial wickets in the middle overs. Kieron Pollard was next to go as Ashwin got his third for the night.

The MI batsmen were not deterred by the fall of wickets as they just went about their usual business. Any other team would have taken it cautiously after losing some quick wickets, but that’s what makes the defending champions MI stand out. Hardik Pandya and Ishan Kishan exploded as they scored 92 runs off the last 6 overs to take MI to 200.

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Chasing a 200+ target against a bowling lineup of MI's calibre, you need an extraordinary start but what happened was exactly opposite. The top 3 of DC were back in the pavilion without opening their account with DC languishing at 0-3 within the second over.

Trent Boult was the reason for the early damage as he bowled a double-wicket maiden to start off the second innings. Jasprit Bumrah wasn’t to be left behind as he was next to send Dhawan back. DC never really recovered from the early blow as wickets started to tumble.

At 41-5 after eight overs, the chase was all but over but Marcus Stoinis fought a solo battle as he scored 65 before falling prey to Bumrah. The MI bowlers wrapped up the victory to enter their 6th IPL Final.

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It was a complete team performance from MI with all the departments firing. They surely look like the favourites this year for the trophy and it will take some incredible performance from a team or some individual brilliance if someone is to stop them from lifting their 5th IPL title.

DC have one more opportunity to try and entire into the finals and they will look to regroup quickly and look forward challenge ahead.

My Ratings:

·        MI- 10/10

·        DC- 7/10

Eliminator: Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore

Coming into the game, both the teams were in contradictory form. SRH won their last 3 matches to make a place for themselves in the playoffs while RCB were without a win in their last 4 matches.

Batting first, RCB batting lineup failed to deliver on the big occasion. A total of 3 players managed to get into double-digit scores and one of them was bowler Mohammed Siraj. That told the story of their innings. Ab De Villiers was the lone warrior for RCB as he scored a half-century to take his team to a defendable total of 131.

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The SRH bowlers were economical in their bowling with Jason Holder topping the wickets column for the innings with 3 wickets. SRH has been brilliant while chasing this season with their openers setting the platform.

The RCB bowlers made sure that did not happen as both the openers were back in the pavilion before the end of Powerplay. The talking point of the match was the dismissal of David Warner who was given caught behind after a DRS from RCB to overturn the original decision of Not out. There wasn’t much conclusive evidence to overturn the original decision but the third umpire felt otherwise.

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It was an important decision which could have hurt SRH, but thankfully Kane Williamson made sure to avoid any controversy, by taking SRH all the way. Kane showed why he is amongst the Fab 4 of Cricket as he guided SRH towards the target. He and Jason Holder put together 60+ runs partnership for the 5th wicket to eliminate RCB from IPL 2020.

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This brings an end to the campaign for Virat Kohli and his men who started brilliantly but ended the campaign with 5 successive defeats. SRH, on the other hand, go ahead now to face DC with a place in the final at stake.

My Ratings

·        RCB- 8/10

·        SRH- 9/10

Qualifier 2: Delhi Capitals vs Sunrisers Hyderabad

A semi-final of sorts, this match had fans of both the teams excited and nervous at the same time, with a spot in the IPL final 2020 at stake.

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DC batting first, sent in a new opening pair of Marcus Stoinis and Shikhar Dhawan to counter their recent struggles at the top order. The move worked brilliantly as DC got off to a flying start. The runs flowed off the bat as the DC batsmen took SRH holders to the cleaners.

The Opening Pair added 86 before Stoinis departed. Dhawan however, continued to dominate as he scored a match-winning 78 to set DC for a big score. The Delhi management showed their faith in Shimron Hetmyer and he delivered. His quickfire knock helped DC set a target of 190 for SRH to qualify for the finals.

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In the early part of the IPL tournament when DC were dominant in their victories, their fast bowling was one of the crucial factors in those wins. South African superstar Kagiso Rabada arrived at the party as he sent dangerous David Warner back to the hut early. Three blows in the powerplay meant DC had an upper hand early into the second innings.

It was once again up to the last match's pair of Kane Williamson and Jason Holder to take SRH home. They built a partnership but Holder fell before they could go big. Kane however, continued in his style as he eased his way to a brilliant 67. It felt as though, for a second consecutive game, he will take the game away but a fired-up Stoinis got the crucial wicket of Kane to seal the deal.

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The DC bowlers, especially Rabada and Stoinis were crucial to take Delhi Capitals into their first-ever IPL Final as they took 4 & 3 wickets respectively to change the game.

The IPL Final promises to be a cracker as MI will look to defend their title against a young and energetic DC side powered by Ponting.

My Ratings:

·        SRH – 8/10

·        DC- 9/10