THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER

Long long wait and then you get your wish done. Yes, that can really add an extra flavour of joy to charge up yourself for enjoying the taste of the moment. This is what occurred when runners-up Chennai Super Kings took on the defending champions Mumbai Indians to kick off the IPL 2020 season. It's the return of Ms Dhoni in the Cricket field after 437 odd days, the comeback of all of our Indian players after the tough times created by the unwanted COVID-19 situation. It's not the usual months of April-May of starting the festival of India but September of 2020 really brings smile on everyone's face. 

Before 19th September this year, since morning to night, the whole story of the news channels and the discussion by each & every person is all about the number of active cases or infected persons by the Corona virus. But the start of IPL somehow have changed it as we have witnessed fans posting pics of their teams in the social media and began the rivalry between themselves. This league has the power to change the relationships of best friends or brothers & sisters.  

None the less, it begins and begins with a bang of a closely contest between MI and CSK maintaining the social distancing rules and protocols. CSK winning the toss selected to bowl first. selection of Ngidi over Tahir and Sourav Tiwary over Ishan Kishan raised some eye brows but both of them proved their selection with great performances for their franchises. Mumbai starts off well with boundaries all over the ground but two superb catches and cool tactics of Ms Dhoni pulled things back for the yellow army. Regular intervals at crucial times made it tough for Mumbai and eventually they finished on 162-9. Although, Chennai didn't start well losing both their openers but a steady partnership between Faf & Rayudu, who played an exceptional innings to steal the party from Mumbai to get their team through with a 5 wicket win to begin their campaign.

CONTROVERSY  IN IPL LEADS THE MARGIN WITH A SHORT RUN  

The second clash of IPL-2020 transformed to a mouth watering one between Kings XI Punjab and Delhi Capital with a introduction of its first super over this season. The whole game could be named as Roller-coaster. DC didn't start well but Iyer and Pant steadied the ship with a good solid partnership. Although they are always behind the eighth ball but a excellent innings by Marcus Stoinis, who flied to UAE after playing for Australia, raced his team over 150, thanks to his counter attack against Crish Jordan. Punjab lost half their sides before 10th over but a mature innings with massive responsibility by Mayank Agarwal ( 89) almost took them to the win.

But don't forget this is 2020: everything is possible. And after hit for a six, the man of the moment, Stoinis took 2 back to back wickets in the last 2 balls to end in a tie. A decision of not sending inform Agarwal in the super over proved to be costly as they could not manage 2 runs, the lowest of a super over in the history of the league, which DC chased with ease to start the campaign with 2 points. But another controversy was born when umpire Nitin Menon gave Jordan a run short in the 19th over, which after replays proved to be wrong and that gave KXIP their first loss in UAE. Although if u needed 2runs in 1 ball and couldn't ended up in the right side; you have yourself to blame.

CHAHAL SPINS RCB TO COMEBACK WIN :

The third day of this season's IPL was between two aggressive captain David Warner & Virat Kohli. The former winning the toss invited his opponent number to bat first. Fireworks were cracking everywhere in Dubai when Devdutt Padikkal on debut hit his maiden IPL fifty( 56 of 42 ). But two quick back to back wickets with Kohli opened the mini path of a SRH comeback. A late quick innings by Ab de villers ( 51 of 30) took RCB over the 160 mark. 

                                                                                                Sunrisers began their chase with the most unluckiest fashion losing their skipper by a runout. but a steady innings of Englishman Jonny Bairstow ( 61 of 43 ) was taking SRH near the target but Kohli introduced Chahal into the attack and the rest is history. He spins Shankar to the pavilion after getting Jonny in the previous ball. 0, 7,6,0,9,0,3 yes that was the middle to lower order for Hyderabad franchiese which eventually gifted RCB 2 crucial points. The injury scandal leads up as Mitch Marsh, who was playing before Nabi, during his follow through twisted his ankle. 

These remains the first three superb thrillers of the season. The upcoming week will introduced KKR & RR in this season who will be playing their first games against MI and CSK respectively. Many more rivalries are waiting in this week. We will talk about that in the next blog. Till now, thanks for reading.