Indian Premier League 2018

Finally the time has arrived for the biggest T20 tournament in the world, the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) commenced today April 7th 2018 and will run until May 27th 2018. This year we see the return of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals after they were suspended from the league in 2015. Just to back track a little, the Kings and Royals were handed a two year suspension from the league due to illegal betting and a match fixing probe. Once found guilty co-owner  Gurunath Meiyappan (Chennai Super Kings) and Raj Kundra (Rajasthan Royals) were banned for life from participating in any cricketing activities. Players of the named team were added to other teams for the two years. For the years of 2016 and 2017, Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions took the place of the two suspended teams.

Opening Match – Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings

Playing the first match of this year’s edition of IPL at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai were the returning Chennai Super Kings and defending champions Mumbai Indians. At the toss veteran wicket-keeper/batsmen and captain of the Chennai Super Kings MS. Dhoni elected to have his team field first. Opening the batting for the Mumbai Indians were hard hitter Evin Lewis and captain Rohit Sharma. No fire was ignited at the start of the innings as both batsmen went very cheaply, Lewis going for a duck and Sharma 15, Mumbai Indians 2-20 by the 4th over. Batsmen Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav got the flames going for the Mumbai Indians., creating a 78 run partnership. Eventually, the partnership was broken with the bowling of Shane Watson, Yadav (43 runs) played one and was caught by Harbhajan Singh who recently played for the Mumbai Indians. The Pandya brothers duo guided the Mumbai Indians to the end of the innings, Krunal Pandya being the more dominate of the two hitting a quick 41 runs from 22 balls, Mumbai Indians ending on 165/4 (20 overs), pick of the bowlers for the Chennai Super Kings was Shane Watson who ended with figures of 2-29 (4 overs). 

Chasing 166 for victory, the Chennai Super Kings top and middle order were dismantled by the Mumbai Indians bowling attack, struggling at 6/84, in addition batsman Kedar Jadhav had to retire hurt after he damaged his left hamstring. At this point it seemed like the Mumbai Indians were in full control of the match and victory was sealed. Batting at number seven, champion Dwayne Bravo came firing shots at the Mumbai Indians bowlers, which made the game even more interesting at this point. Blasting balls throughout the stadium, Bravo hit seven sixes and three fours in his match winning performance of 68 runs from just 30 balls. Once Bravo was removed, Kedar Jadhav who had retired hurt earlier returned to the field to complete the task. Sealing the victory for the Chennai Super Kings was Kedar Jadhav who fired a six with the penultimate ball of the final over. Starring with the ball for the Mumbai Indians were Mayank Markande who made his debut in the IPL claiming 3/23 (overs) and Hardik Pandya claiming 3/24 (4 overs).

To concluded this was a fantastic way to commence this year’s season of the Indian Premier League, looking forward to the remaining of the tournament.

IPL 2018 Schedule

For live streaming of the IPL matches you can stream on, Live Stream.

For folks in Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Curacao, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St.Kitts & Nevis, St.Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and Turks & Caicos you can view all the IPL action on FLOW SPORTS 2. 

Thank you for reading. 💖

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