Despite captain Sanju Samson’s knock of 86 runs, the Rajasthan Royals fell short by 20 runs against the Delhi Capitals in their 11th match of the season on Tuesday. The Rajasthan Royals were set to chase a target of 222 runs but lost both their openers during the powerplay but Samson and kept the hopes of a victory alive before he was dismissed by Mukesh Kumar.

Abhishek Porel and Jake Fraser-McGurk and scored half centuries as the Delhi Capitals posted 221/8 in their 20 overs against the Rajasthan Royals. Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of the bowlers as he took 3 important wickets off his 4 overs. Yuzvendra Chahal became the first Indian to take 350 wickets in T20 cricket as he dismissed Rishabh Pant.

In reply, Rajasthan Royals were restricted to 201 for 8 with Kuldeep Yadav being the pick of the bowler for Delhi, returning with 2/25. Khaleel Ahmed (2/47) and Mukesh Kumar (2/30) also picked up two wickets each. Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson led Rajasthan’s chase with his 5th half-century of this IPL season. But his splendid knock of 86 runs off 46 balls (8×4, 6×6) went in vain after Shai Hope took a controversial catch at the edge of long-on boundary.

Other than Sanju Samson, openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Joss Buttler could not make an impact during the match. Jaiswal scored 4 runs off 2 deliveries while Buttler was dismissed at 19 runs off 17 deliveries. Other players including Riyan Parag scored 27 runs off 22 deliveries, Shubham Dubey scored 25 runs off 12 deliveries, Rovman Powell scored 13 runs, Donovan Ferreira lost his wicket at 1 run, Ravichandran Ashwin was dismissed at 2 runs, while Trent Boult and Avesh Khan remained unbeaten at 2 runs and 7 runs respectively.

 After yesterday’s IPL match, Delhi Capitals has moved to fifth place with 12 points and a net run rate of -0.316 while RR remained at number 2 with 16 points with a net run rate of 0.476.

Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) players had a terrifying experience as their flight from Lucknow to Kolkata was repeatedly diverted due to poor weather, forcing them to spend the night in Varanasi.

After defeating Lucknow Super Giants by 98 runs on Sunday, the Shreyas Iyer-led team flew for Kolkata at 5:45 p.m. on Monday. The squad was supposed to arrive around 7:25 p.m.

However, bad weather prevented the plane from landing in Kolkata, so the charter flight had to be diverted to Guwahati and then to Varanasi.

At 8:46 p.m., the KKR media team issued an update, stating, the KKR charter flight has been diverted to Guwahati due to inclement weather over Kolkata. The team just touched down here in Varanasi, the statement said.

At 9:43 p.m., there was another update, the team has permission to return to Kolkata via flight from Guwahati. Arrival time estimated: 11 p.m.

The officials were forced to divert the plane to Varanasi in midair after several attempts were made to land it to the scheduled place. However, the nightmare for the players and support team was not yet completed as they had to spend night in Varanasi.

The flight to Kolkata took off from Guwahati, with a landing planned for 11 PM. weather prevented them from landing again, even after multiple tries. Now redirected in midair to Varanasi. Arrived here just now, read the update at 1:15 a.m.

After spending the night in Varanasi, the KKR team is scheduled to depart for Kolkata this afternoon.

The team would be spending the night at a hotel in Varanasi. The final information at 3:00 am came from the KKR media team. Return flight to Kolkata TBD on Tuesday afternoon.

https://twitter.com/KKRiders/status/1787597949746225639

Thankfully, KKR’s next match is on May 11 at Edens Garden against the Mumbai Indians. The final two league games for the two-time previous winners are against the Gujarat Titans in Ahmedabad on May 13 and the Rajasthan Royals in Guwahati on May 19.

The severe heat has provided some relief to the inhabitants in Kolkata thanks to the weather, which is expected to stay gloomy and showery over the next several days.

Just over two weeks after Preity Zinta denied rumors that she wanted Rohit Sharma to lead the Punjab Kings, the owner of PBKS took to social media platform X to praise the former Mumbai Indians captain. Zinta answered questions from her fans and described Rohit as a powerhouse of talent, suggesting that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to nominate him as PBKS leader in the future.

However, for the Hitman, the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 hasn’t gone as expected. The Mumbai Indians are virtually out of the playoff race, which means that Rohit’s squad will likely be eliminated early. This season, some MI players have failed, and even Rohit’s performances haven’t been enough to improve the team’s morale. Even though Rohit is clearly going through difficult circumstances, Bollywood actor and co-owner of the Punjab Kings Preity Zinta had nothing but love for him.

With just three wins in their last eleven matches, the Mumbai Indians are currently in the bottom of the points table and their only option is to move up the standings when they win against Sunrisers Hyderabad today.

Hardik Pandya’s team has lost eight of their 11 games this season, so far, making it seem nearly impossible for them to have things their way given how their campaign has started out. In the majority of their games, they have been unable to put up a cohesive performance and have lost games despite dominating one area of the game.

The Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru are the other two of the original eight clubs that have never claimed an IPL championship, along with Zinta’s PBKS. In 16 years have PBKS made only twice to the Playoffs; their best performance came in 2015, when they were runner-up to Kolkata Knight Riders. Even though it can be excruciatingly difficult to wait for an elusive IPL victory, Zinta manages to remain positive.