Indian Premier League T20 Cricket - Playoffs - Consistent Ruturaj Gaikwad and Robin Uthappa Powers CSK To Final!!!

Hello Sports Lovers,

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CSK came into the playoff with inconsistent play in their last 3 league matches against Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals and even against Punkab Kings.

While, the Delhi Capitals won 2 and last 1 of their last 2 with winning against Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings but lost against Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Inspite of that loss in the final league match, Delhi were more consistent team going into the First Qualifier today.

That didn't perturb CSK when they played today as CSK rode on the half centuries by Gaikwad and Uthapa to move into yet another final!!!

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Having won the toss, CSK elected to field First as per the trend in Dubai in the matches played so far.

The teams having batted First, have won around 40 matches as against teams batting Second winning more than 60 matches.

DC started off well with their usual openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan, but the latter got out when the score was 36 in just 3 overs as Shaw was going strong at the other end.

DC saw only 2 players crossing Fifty mark with opener Shaw scoring 60 from just 34 balls, while, their skipper Rishabh Pant scored 51 of 35 balls to take his team to 172 from their 20 overs.

It was good to see Prithvi Shaw among runs as he tries get back into Indian national team.

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It wasn't going to be an easy chase for CSK considering the behavior of the pitches in UAE, but, Ruturaj Gaikwad once again, was the main tormentor for DC bowlers with his sedate start.

He didn't have a good partnership with Faf Du Plessis who got out early in the First over itself and CSK sent out Robin Uthappa instead of their usual no. 3 Moeen Ali and Uthappa grabbed the opportunity and for most part of his innings, he outscored the consistent Gaikwad as he reached his half century of just 35 balls.

When Uthappa got out in Fourteenth over, CSK saw a flurry of wickets falling as pinch hitter Shardul Thakur and Ambati Rayudu got out cheaply.

In the end, Moeen Ali and skipper Dhoni played well to support the way Gaikwad played and it was good to see Dhoni hitting those boundaries and Six and that should give him some confidence.

So, CSK won the First qualifier in the last over and Gaikwad and Dhoni were crucial in that chase!!!

With that win, CSK have reached the Final for the Ninth time in Ten IPL editions they played (they were banned for 2 years) and with Dhoni hinting at not coming back in next IPL as a player, it will be a good tribute to him if CSK can lift the trophy one final time under his captaincy.

RCB vs KKR in the Eliminator today:

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In today's eliminator match, Third and Fourth teams from the points table, RCB and KKR respectively, will face each other to move to Second qualifier against Delhi Capitals.

KKR will be hoping that, Andre Russell passes fitness and comes back into playing XI.

KKR even without Russell is a strong unit with openers Shubman Gill and Venkatesh Iyer proving them good starts in most of the matches they played.

Their middle order is too strong too with Rahul Tripathi Nitish Rana among runs too and they will be happy to have some form by their skipper Morgan as they face RCB.

There is no question about KKR's bowling with 2 mystery spinners Varun Chakravarthy and Sunil Narine proving breakthroughs at crucial phases of the play and others have supported them well.

For RCB, onus will be once again on openers and Glenn Maxwell and Srikhar Bharat ads AB De Villiers is kind of out of touch and who knows, he might come BIG in the all important match in eliminator!!!

RCB's bowling has been good too with purple cap holder Harshal Patel along with Yuzvendra Chahal, Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj and even Shahbad Ahmed among the wickets.

If RCB can get some contribution from Dan Christian and George Garton, they will be a tough unit to beat.

RCB and KKR have won 1 game each against each other in Sharjah, so, both teams knows about the conditions and the team which can hold their nerve will be a winner.

With Virat Kohli too announcing that, he will not be playing as a captain of RCB from next edition, RCB will be trying hard to give a winning farewell to their long standing captain.

With both RCB and KKR having some hard hitting batsmen and both teams also having good bowlers, it will be a good contest between bat and ball and let the better team win in today's match, although I will be happy if RCB can win being a fan of RCB :)

That's all I have in this edition guys, I hope you will be there to cheer your favorite team as KKR and RCB plays later today.

Until then, good bye from me.

Wishing you all a great week ahead :)

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