Another exciting weekend of IPL 2023 just went by. We witnessed some exciting games that kept us hooked to our television screens and streaming devices.
In the first game of Saturday, Lucknow Super Giants defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad at their den in a high-scoring contest. Heinrich Klaasen's 47 and Abdul Samad's 37* helped SRH in posting a competitive total of 182/6 on the board. The Super Giants got off to a tricky start as they lost two wickets for 54 runs in the ninth over. The required run rate was continuously going up, but the LSG middle-order fired to take them home. Prerak Mankad and Nicholas Pooran remained unbeaten on 64 and 44, respectively, whereas Marcus Stoinis made a valuable contribution of 40 in just 25 deliveries, to get them over the line with seven wickets and four balls to spare.
Punjab Kings took on the Delhi Capitals at their den in the second game of Saturday. They won by 31 runs. Young top-order batter Prabhsimran Singh was the man of the match as he smashed his maiden IPL century to get Punjab to a competitive total. David Warner and Phil Salt got Delhi off to a good start, but Harpreet Brar's excellent spell of 4-0-30-4 derailed Delhi's innings.
In the second match of the day, the Royal Challengers Bangalore visited the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur and they produced another one-sided contest as they defeated Rajasthan Royals by a massive margin of 112 runs. Skipper Faf du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell shone with fifties in the first innings, but it was Wayne Parnell's spell later on that did the trick for RCB. Parnell broke the Royals' back with a new ball spell of 3-0-10-3, which helped RCB in bundling up RR for just 59 runs.
Things were no different on Sunday as another visiting team beat the hosts. This time, it was the Kolkata Knight Riders who beat Chennai Super Kings in tight bowling by the KKR bowlers restricted CSK to 144/6. It was a challenging track and KKR didn't have a good start, losing three wickets for just 33 runs. But Nitish Rana and Rinku Singh combined to put up a match-winning stand of 99 runs for the fourth wicket. Both batters scored fifties, but it was Rinku Singh who was adjudged the Player of the Match for his superb knock.
The trend of visiting teams beating the hosts changed on Monday as defending champions Gujarat Titans humbled the visiting Sunrisers Hyderabad team. Shubman Gill smashed his maiden IPL hundred to propel the Titans to a total of 188/9. Bhuvneshwar Kumar also showed his class once again as he registered superb bowling figures of 5/30. SRH, in response, were knocked out quite early as Mohammed Shami's opening spell reduced them to 59/7. But Heinrich Klaasen hung around and scored 64 off 44 deliveries to get them to a respectable total of 154/9. Both Shami and Mohit Sharma picked up four wickets each as Gujarat won the match by 34 runs.
Predictions
May 16: Lucknow Super Giants vs Mumbai Indians
Both teams are still fighting for a playoffs spot. While Mumbai need just one more win in their remaining two games to assure a berth in the Playoffs, Lucknow must win both of their remaining matches. Now the track in Lucknow has been spin-friendly throughout this season, and it is expected to behave in the same manner this time.
LSG also have a stronger spin attack than Mumbai and their spinners can be expected to tame the MI batters on such a track. Lucknow's batting unit is also quite adept at handling the challenges of this track, hence they will start as the favourites to win this contest.
May 17: Punjab Kings vs Delhi CapitalsÂ
While the Delhi Capitals are already out of the playoff race, the Punjab Kings still stand a chance of making a late entry into the top four if they can still manage to win both of their remaining games. This match will be played in Dharamsala, Punjab's home ground, and that gives them a massive advantage.
The Punjab batting unit is an explosive one, and it can be expected to fire on a flat batting track. Their bowling is also working quite well and they are expected to shine once again. Delhi, on the other hand, have struggled with their batting throughout this season and their struggles don't seem like ending in this match as well. That's why the Punjab Kings are expected to win.