The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 is in full swing in its second week and we can&#8217;t get enough of all the cricketing action! Be it high-octane run chases or underdogs coming out victorious, this season of the glamorous tournament has been keeping us satiated with constantly exciting encounters. While the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) juggernauts have been rolling ahead in full steam, not all teams are without their follies.

With the second week of the IPL 2018 drawing to a quick close, the onlookers have been in for consecutive visual treats with three 190+ first innings scores having been registered in the past week. By now, most teams have played 2-3 games. While the ones in winning positions have not felt the burden of mixing up their team combination, the same can&#8217;t be said for the teams lurking in the bottom half of the points table. There have been ample instances of team decisions going haywire, costing them the match. Let&#8217;s take a look at how some of the franchises went wrong with their approaches this week.

1. RCB not using leg-spin against Rohit Sharma in initial overs

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-237936" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Virat-Kohli-3.jpg" alt="Virat Kohli" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237936" class="wp-caption-text">Royal Chellangers Bangalore (RCB ) captain Virat Kohli addresses a press conference at Eden Gardens. (Photo by Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS)</figcaption>

It&#8217;s no new news that Rohit Sharma isn&#8217;t the most comfortable batsman against leg spin bowling. Neither is the fact that Sharma can prove to be one of the most dangerous batsmen if it&#8217;s his day. If we were to sum up the reasons for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)&#8217;s 46-run defeat to the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday (April 17), the above lines would be more than sufficient.

RCB would&#8217;ve considered themselves to be in with a fair chance at winning in Tuesday&#8217;s encounter when Mumbai were reduced to 0-2 in the very first over, owing to Umesh Yadav&#8217;s terrific bowling. With Rohit Sharma having come in to bat under considerable duress, it was expected that leg-spin would be the obvious choice for RCB skipper, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/virat-kohli-in-awe-of-his-wife-anushka-sharma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virat Kohli</a> as it&#8217;s a long-known weak zone for Sharma&#8217;s otherwise flawless batting skills. However, what ensued was an unfathomable repetition of pacers Chris Woakes, Mohammad Siraj and Yadav till the 9th over, with only one over being given to spinner, Washington Sundar.

By the time Chahal was brought into the attack in the tenth over, Sharma and Evin Lewis had settled in and there was no stopping them at that juncture. The MI skipper went on to score 94 runs off just 52 balls, taking their total to a mammoth 213 runs. The pressure of chasing such a huge score coupled with an abject failure of the RCB middle-order acted as the final nail in RCB&#8217;s coffin.

2. The inability of RR new ball bowlers to dismiss Narine

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-241789" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/f887440ab1d15ce8e570a118b64bef45.jpg" alt="Sunil Narine" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-241789" class="wp-caption-text">Kolkata Knight Riders&#8217; Sunil Narine in action. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption>

When he first stepped into the arena of the IPL, Sunil Narine confounded almost every batsman out of their wits. Fast forward to 2018, the Caribbean cricketer has turned equally lethal with the bat. Promoted to open the batting for the KKR side in earlier seasons by the then-captain, Gautam Gambhir, the side has struck gold with Narine&#8217;s unusual power-hitting up the order and seems to be continuing with the tactic in IPL 2018.

Batting first on Wednesday (April 18), the Rajasthan Royals (RR) could only muster a score of 160 runs in their quota of 20 overs, which was understandably 10-20 runs short of what they would&#8217;ve been hoping for. However, what really crushed the chances of Rajasthan was the quickfire knock worth 35 runs off 25 balls from the willow of Narine up the order. It effectively lowered the required run rate for the KKR and from thereon, winning seemed like child&#8217;s play for the <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/ipl-2018-ranveer-singh-awe-dinesh-karthiks-mind-boggling-effort/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dinesh Karthik</a>-led side.

Although RR is not the only side that&#8217;s been left bamboozled by Narine, it was absolutely crucial for them to have dismissed him early in the innings to have had the slightest shot at winning the match. The fourth over which saw Dhawal Kulkarni getting smashed for a hat-trick of boundaries from Narine revealed the inability on the part of Rajasthan to get the mystery cricketer off the pitch.

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-242502" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shane-Watson-shot.jpg" alt="Shane Watson" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-242502" class="wp-caption-text">Shane Watson plays a shot. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption>

As the age-old saying goes, &#8220;Catches win matches&#8221;. The lesser-known saying goes something like this: &#8220;Drop catches and you&#8217;ll definitely not win the match&#8221;. Rajasthan Royals (RR) had to face the music when they dropped a world-class batsman like Shane Watson twice in consecutive overs in the beginning of the Chennai Super Kings&#8216;s (CSK) innings. The culprit, in both cases, was Rahul Tripathi as he dropped Watson at an individual score of 8 runs and 18 runs in the first and second overs respectively.

Watson went on to play a blinder of an innings as he scored his 3rd IPL century. He made a mockery of the entire RR bowling outfit as he registered 106 runs in 57 deliveries. The fielding effort from Rajasthan, in general, was below par as Sanju Samson also dropped Bravo in the 18th over. These slip-ups enabled CSK to pile 204 runs on the scoreboard. Watson&#8217;s partnership with Raina was instrumental in building the Chennai innings.

In reply, RR lost wickets in quick succession from the very beginning as Heinrich Klaasen, Samson, and the skipper, Ajinkya Rahane were dismissed cheaply. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes tried to stitch a partnership together, but it was rendered useless by the subsequent landslide of wickets. Rajasthan could&#8217;ve had a fighting chance in the game, had they not made the major blunder of dropping one catch too many. CSK ended their first game of the season in Pune on the winning side by 64 runs.

4. DD not playing Manjot Kalra in place of Shreyas Iyer

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-144738" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shreyas-Iyer.jpg" alt="Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-144738" class="wp-caption-text">Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils in action. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption>

Playing against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is always going to be an uphill task, more so if you aren&#8217;t willing to be bold in selecting your batting order. A conservative approach towards constructing their batting order proved to be the reason behind Delhi Daredevil&#8217;s (DD) downfall in Monday&#8217;s (April 16) match. Delhi is currently at the bottom of the points table, with just 1 win out of the 4 matches they&#8217;ve played.

Shreyas Iyer hasn&#8217;t exactly been in the form of his life in this season of the IPL. Further, he&#8217;s been constantly shuffled up and down the order, depriving him of the opportunity to get comfortable in the DD outfit. With below average scores of 11, 0* and 27* prior to Monday&#8217;s encounter, it&#8217;d have been worth a shot for the Gautam Gambhir-led side to include U-19 sensation, Manjot Kalra in Iyer&#8217;s place, which they chose not to.

Faced with a gargantuan target of 201 runs, the Delhi batting wilted unceremoniously, barring the fighting knocks from Glenn Maxwell (47) and Rishabh Pant (43). Iyer&#8217;s average fortunes continued as he was dismissed by Andre Russell for a personal score of just 4 runs. The presence of someone like Kalra in the middle-order could&#8217;ve lent the much-needed batting firepower to Delhi&#8217;s efforts.

5. SRH not promoting Shakib Al Hasan against KXIP

<img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-239976" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shakib-Al-Hasan.jpg" alt="Shakib Al Hasan" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-239976" class="wp-caption-text">Shakib Al Hasan. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption>

You don&#8217;t stand much of a chance when you&#8217;re caught in the middle of a &#8216;Gayle Storm&#8217;. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) understood the truth in that statement first hand when the &#8216;Universe Boss&#8217; smashed an unbeaten knock 104 runs off just 63 deliveries to reach a total of 193 runs. KXIP needed to come in all guns blazing from the very first ball f their innings. Sadly, that didn&#8217;t happen as both their openers, Wriddhiman Saha (6) and <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/shikhar-dhawans-influence-prompted-kane-williamson-change-look/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shikhar Dhawan </a>(retired hurt for 0) departed without making a significant dent to the total.

Although Kane Williamson (54) and Manish Pandey (57*) put in valiant efforts to save the match, it wasn&#8217;t enough. What SRH needed was a significant partnership and experienced batsmen at the crease to work to that end. In such a situation, promoting the veteran, Shakib Al Hasan over the likes of Deepak Hooda in the batting order would&#8217;ve been the prescribed medication for the Hyderabad side.

SRH, however, chose not to bring in Hasan until it was too late. Coming in at the end of the 17th over, Hasan didn&#8217;t have much of a choice and the win was a lost cause by then. The mini-partnership between Pandey and Hasan was indicative of the damage that the duo could&#8217;ve inflicted on the opposition had Hasan been sent up the order; the latter scored 24 runs off 12 balls and remained unbeaten at the end of the innings as KXIP won the match by 15 runs.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 is in full swing in its second week and we can’t get enough of all the cricketing action! Be it high-octane run chases or underdogs coming out victorious, this season of the glamorous tournament has been keeping us satiated with constantly exciting encounters. While the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) juggernauts have been rolling ahead in full steam, not all teams are without their follies.
With the second week of the IPL 2018 drawing to a quick close, the onlookers have been in for consecutive visual treats with three 190+ first innings scores having been registered in the past week. By now, most teams have played 2-3 games. While the ones in winning positions have not felt the burden of mixing up their team combination, the same can’t be said for the teams lurking in the bottom half of the points table. There have been ample instances of team decisions going haywire, costing them the match. Let’s take a look at how some of the franchises went wrong with their approaches this week.
<h3>1. RCB not using leg-spin against Rohit Sharma in initial overs</h3>
<figure id="attachment_237936" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237936" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-237936" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Virat-Kohli-3.jpg" alt="Virat Kohli" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237936" class="wp-caption-text">Royal Chellangers Bangalore (RCB ) captain Virat Kohli addresses a press conference at Eden Gardens. (Photo by Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
It’s no new news that Rohit Sharma isn’t the most comfortable batsman against leg spin bowling. Neither is the fact that Sharma can prove to be one of the most dangerous batsmen if it’s his day. If we were to sum up the reasons for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)’s 46-run defeat to the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday (April 17), the above lines would be more than sufficient.
RCB would’ve considered themselves to be in with a fair chance at winning in Tuesday’s encounter when Mumbai were reduced to 0-2 in the very first over, owing to Umesh Yadav’s terrific bowling. With Rohit Sharma having come in to bat under considerable duress, it was expected that leg-spin would be the obvious choice for RCB skipper, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/virat-kohli-in-awe-of-his-wife-anushka-sharma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virat Kohli</a> as it’s a long-known weak zone for Sharma’s otherwise flawless batting skills. However, what ensued was an unfathomable repetition of pacers Chris Woakes, Mohammad Siraj and Yadav till the 9th over, with only one over being given to spinner, Washington Sundar.
By the time Chahal was brought into the attack in the tenth over, Sharma and Evin Lewis had settled in and there was no stopping them at that juncture. The MI skipper went on to score 94 runs off just 52 balls, taking their total to a mammoth 213 runs. The pressure of chasing such a huge score coupled with an abject failure of the RCB middle-order acted as the final nail in RCB’s coffin.

<h3>2. The inability of RR new ball bowlers to dismiss Narine</h3>
<figure id="attachment_241789" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-241789" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-241789" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/f887440ab1d15ce8e570a118b64bef45.jpg" alt="Sunil Narine" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-241789" class="wp-caption-text">Kolkata Knight Riders’ Sunil Narine in action. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
When he first stepped into the arena of the IPL, Sunil Narine confounded almost every batsman out of their wits. Fast forward to 2018, the Caribbean cricketer has turned equally lethal with the bat. Promoted to open the batting for the KKR side in earlier seasons by the then-captain, Gautam Gambhir, the side has struck gold with Narine’s unusual power-hitting up the order and seems to be continuing with the tactic in IPL 2018.
Batting first on Wednesday (April 18), the Rajasthan Royals (RR) could only muster a score of 160 runs in their quota of 20 overs, which was understandably 10-20 runs short of what they would’ve been hoping for. However, what really crushed the chances of Rajasthan was the quickfire knock worth 35 runs off 25 balls from the willow of Narine up the order. It effectively lowered the required run rate for the KKR and from thereon, winning seemed like child’s play for the <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/ipl-2018-ranveer-singh-awe-dinesh-karthiks-mind-boggling-effort/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dinesh Karthik</a>-led side.
Although RR is not the only side that’s been left bamboozled by Narine, it was absolutely crucial for them to have dismissed him early in the innings to have had the slightest shot at winning the match. The fourth over which saw Dhawal Kulkarni getting smashed for a hat-trick of boundaries from Narine revealed the inability on the part of Rajasthan to get the mystery cricketer off the pitch.

<h3>3. RR dropping Shane Watson twice</h3>
<figure id="attachment_242502" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-242502" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-242502" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shane-Watson-shot.jpg" alt="Shane Watson" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-242502" class="wp-caption-text">Shane Watson plays a shot. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
As the age-old saying goes, “Catches win matches”. The lesser-known saying goes something like this: “Drop catches and you’ll definitely not win the match”. Rajasthan Royals (RR) had to face the music when they dropped a world-class batsman like Shane Watson twice in consecutive overs in the beginning of the Chennai Super Kings‘s (CSK) innings. The culprit, in both cases, was Rahul Tripathi as he dropped Watson at an individual score of 8 runs and 18 runs in the first and second overs respectively.
Watson went on to play a blinder of an innings as he scored his 3rd IPL century. He made a mockery of the entire RR bowling outfit as he registered 106 runs in 57 deliveries. The fielding effort from Rajasthan, in general, was below par as Sanju Samson also dropped Bravo in the 18th over. These slip-ups enabled CSK to pile 204 runs on the scoreboard. Watson’s partnership with Raina was instrumental in building the Chennai innings.
In reply, RR lost wickets in quick succession from the very beginning as Heinrich Klaasen, Samson, and the skipper, Ajinkya Rahane were dismissed cheaply. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes tried to stitch a partnership together, but it was rendered useless by the subsequent landslide of wickets. Rajasthan could’ve had a fighting chance in the game, had they not made the major blunder of dropping one catch too many. CSK ended their first game of the season in Pune on the winning side by 64 runs.

<h3>4. DD not playing Manjot Kalra in place of Shreyas Iyer</h3>
<figure id="attachment_144738" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144738" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-144738" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shreyas-Iyer.jpg" alt="Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-144738" class="wp-caption-text">Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils in action. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Playing against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is always going to be an uphill task, more so if you aren’t willing to be bold in selecting your batting order. A conservative approach towards constructing their batting order proved to be the reason behind Delhi Daredevil’s (DD) downfall in Monday’s (April 16) match. Delhi is currently at the bottom of the points table, with just 1 win out of the 4 matches they’ve played.
Shreyas Iyer hasn’t exactly been in the form of his life in this season of the IPL. Further, he’s been constantly shuffled up and down the order, depriving him of the opportunity to get comfortable in the DD outfit. With below average scores of 11, 0* and 27* prior to Monday’s encounter, it’d have been worth a shot for the Gautam Gambhir-led side to include U-19 sensation, Manjot Kalra in Iyer’s place, which they chose not to.
Faced with a gargantuan target of 201 runs, the Delhi batting wilted unceremoniously, barring the fighting knocks from Glenn Maxwell (47) and Rishabh Pant (43). Iyer’s average fortunes continued as he was dismissed by Andre Russell for a personal score of just 4 runs. The presence of someone like Kalra in the middle-order could’ve lent the much-needed batting firepower to Delhi’s efforts. 

<h3>5.&nbsp;SRH not promoting Shakib Al Hasan against KXIP</h3>
<figure id="attachment_239976" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-239976" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"><amp-img class="size-full wp-image-239976" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shakib-Al-Hasan.jpg" alt="Shakib Al Hasan" width="640" height="400" layout="responsive" style="max-width: 100%; margin: 0;"></amp-img><figcaption id="caption-attachment-239976" class="wp-caption-text">Shakib Al Hasan. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
You don’t stand much of a chance when you’re caught in the middle of a ‘Gayle Storm’. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) understood the truth in that statement first hand when the ‘Universe Boss’ smashed an unbeaten knock 104 runs off just 63 deliveries to reach a total of 193 runs. KXIP needed to come in all guns blazing from the very first ball f their innings. Sadly, that didn’t happen as both their openers, Wriddhiman Saha (6) and <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/shikhar-dhawans-influence-prompted-kane-williamson-change-look/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shikhar Dhawan </a>(retired hurt for 0) departed without making a significant dent to the total.
Although Kane Williamson (54) and Manish Pandey (57*) put in valiant efforts to save the match, it wasn’t enough. What SRH needed was a significant partnership and experienced batsmen at the crease to work to that end. In such a situation, promoting the veteran, Shakib Al Hasan over the likes of Deepak Hooda in the batting order would’ve been the prescribed medication for the Hyderabad side.
SRH, however, chose not to bring in Hasan until it was too late. Coming in at the end of the 17th over, Hasan didn’t have much of a choice and the win was a lost cause by then. The mini-partnership between Pandey and Hasan was indicative of the damage that the duo could’ve inflicted on the opposition had Hasan been sent up the order; the latter scored 24 runs off 12 balls and remained unbeaten at the end of the innings as KXIP won the match by 15 runs.

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 is in full swing in its second week and we can&#8217;t get enough of all the cricketing action! Be it high-octane run chases or underdogs coming out victorious, this season of the glamorous tournament has been keeping us satiated with constantly exciting encounters. While the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) juggernauts have been rolling ahead in full steam, not all teams are without their follies.
With the second week of the IPL 2018 drawing to a quick close, the onlookers have been in for consecutive visual treats with three 190+ first innings scores having been registered in the past week. By now, most teams have played 2-3 games. While the ones in winning positions have not felt the burden of mixing up their team combination, the same can&#8217;t be said for the teams lurking in the bottom half of the points table. There have been ample instances of team decisions going haywire, costing them the match. Let&#8217;s take a look at how some of the franchises went wrong with their approaches this week.
<h3>1. RCB not using leg-spin against Rohit Sharma in initial overs</h3>
<figure id="attachment_237936" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-237936" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-237936" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Virat-Kohli-3.jpg" alt="Virat Kohli" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-237936" class="wp-caption-text">Royal Chellangers Bangalore (RCB ) captain Virat Kohli addresses a press conference at Eden Gardens. (Photo by Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
It&#8217;s no new news that Rohit Sharma isn&#8217;t the most comfortable batsman against leg spin bowling. Neither is the fact that Sharma can prove to be one of the most dangerous batsmen if it&#8217;s his day. If we were to sum up the reasons for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)&#8217;s 46-run defeat to the Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday (April 17), the above lines would be more than sufficient.
RCB would&#8217;ve considered themselves to be in with a fair chance at winning in Tuesday&#8217;s encounter when Mumbai were reduced to 0-2 in the very first over, owing to Umesh Yadav&#8217;s terrific bowling. With Rohit Sharma having come in to bat under considerable duress, it was expected that leg-spin would be the obvious choice for RCB skipper, <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/virat-kohli-in-awe-of-his-wife-anushka-sharma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virat Kohli</a> as it&#8217;s a long-known weak zone for Sharma&#8217;s otherwise flawless batting skills. However, what ensued was an unfathomable repetition of pacers Chris Woakes, Mohammad Siraj and Yadav till the 9th over, with only one over being given to spinner, Washington Sundar.
By the time Chahal was brought into the attack in the tenth over, Sharma and Evin Lewis had settled in and there was no stopping them at that juncture. The MI skipper went on to score 94 runs off just 52 balls, taking their total to a mammoth 213 runs. The pressure of chasing such a huge score coupled with an abject failure of the RCB middle-order acted as the final nail in RCB&#8217;s coffin.

<h3>2. The inability of RR new ball bowlers to dismiss Narine</h3>
<figure id="attachment_241789" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-241789" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-241789" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/f887440ab1d15ce8e570a118b64bef45.jpg" alt="Sunil Narine" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-241789" class="wp-caption-text">Kolkata Knight Riders&#8217; Sunil Narine in action. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
When he first stepped into the arena of the IPL, Sunil Narine confounded almost every batsman out of their wits. Fast forward to 2018, the Caribbean cricketer has turned equally lethal with the bat. Promoted to open the batting for the KKR side in earlier seasons by the then-captain, Gautam Gambhir, the side has struck gold with Narine&#8217;s unusual power-hitting up the order and seems to be continuing with the tactic in IPL 2018.
Batting first on Wednesday (April 18), the Rajasthan Royals (RR) could only muster a score of 160 runs in their quota of 20 overs, which was understandably 10-20 runs short of what they would&#8217;ve been hoping for. However, what really crushed the chances of Rajasthan was the quickfire knock worth 35 runs off 25 balls from the willow of Narine up the order. It effectively lowered the required run rate for the KKR and from thereon, winning seemed like child&#8217;s play for the <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/ipl-2018-ranveer-singh-awe-dinesh-karthiks-mind-boggling-effort/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dinesh Karthik</a>-led side.
Although RR is not the only side that&#8217;s been left bamboozled by Narine, it was absolutely crucial for them to have dismissed him early in the innings to have had the slightest shot at winning the match. The fourth over which saw Dhawal Kulkarni getting smashed for a hat-trick of boundaries from Narine revealed the inability on the part of Rajasthan to get the mystery cricketer off the pitch.

<h3>3. RR dropping Shane Watson twice</h3>
<figure id="attachment_242502" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-242502" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-242502" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shane-Watson-shot.jpg" alt="Shane Watson" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-242502" class="wp-caption-text">Shane Watson plays a shot. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
As the age-old saying goes, &#8220;Catches win matches&#8221;. The lesser-known saying goes something like this: &#8220;Drop catches and you&#8217;ll definitely not win the match&#8221;. Rajasthan Royals (RR) had to face the music when they dropped a world-class batsman like Shane Watson twice in consecutive overs in the beginning of the Chennai Super Kings&#8216;s (CSK) innings. The culprit, in both cases, was Rahul Tripathi as he dropped Watson at an individual score of 8 runs and 18 runs in the first and second overs respectively.
Watson went on to play a blinder of an innings as he scored his 3rd IPL century. He made a mockery of the entire RR bowling outfit as he registered 106 runs in 57 deliveries. The fielding effort from Rajasthan, in general, was below par as Sanju Samson also dropped Bravo in the 18th over. These slip-ups enabled CSK to pile 204 runs on the scoreboard. Watson&#8217;s partnership with Raina was instrumental in building the Chennai innings.
In reply, RR lost wickets in quick succession from the very beginning as Heinrich Klaasen, Samson, and the skipper, Ajinkya Rahane were dismissed cheaply. Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes tried to stitch a partnership together, but it was rendered useless by the subsequent landslide of wickets. Rajasthan could&#8217;ve had a fighting chance in the game, had they not made the major blunder of dropping one catch too many. CSK ended their first game of the season in Pune on the winning side by 64 runs.

<h3>4. DD not playing Manjot Kalra in place of Shreyas Iyer</h3>
<figure id="attachment_144738" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-144738" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-144738" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shreyas-Iyer.jpg" alt="Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-144738" class="wp-caption-text">Shreyas Iyer of Delhi Daredevils in action. (Photo: Surjeet Yadav/IANS)</figcaption></figure>
Playing against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) is always going to be an uphill task, more so if you aren&#8217;t willing to be bold in selecting your batting order. A conservative approach towards constructing their batting order proved to be the reason behind Delhi Daredevil&#8217;s (DD) downfall in Monday&#8217;s (April 16) match. Delhi is currently at the bottom of the points table, with just 1 win out of the 4 matches they&#8217;ve played.
Shreyas Iyer hasn&#8217;t exactly been in the form of his life in this season of the IPL. Further, he&#8217;s been constantly shuffled up and down the order, depriving him of the opportunity to get comfortable in the DD outfit. With below average scores of 11, 0* and 27* prior to Monday&#8217;s encounter, it&#8217;d have been worth a shot for the Gautam Gambhir-led side to include U-19 sensation, Manjot Kalra in Iyer&#8217;s place, which they chose not to.
Faced with a gargantuan target of 201 runs, the Delhi batting wilted unceremoniously, barring the fighting knocks from Glenn Maxwell (47) and Rishabh Pant (43). Iyer&#8217;s average fortunes continued as he was dismissed by Andre Russell for a personal score of just 4 runs. The presence of someone like Kalra in the middle-order could&#8217;ve lent the much-needed batting firepower to Delhi&#8217;s efforts. 

<h3>5. SRH not promoting Shakib Al Hasan against KXIP</h3>
<figure id="attachment_239976" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-239976" style="width: 640px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" class="size-full wp-image-239976" src="https://crictracker-admin-panel-08032022.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/media/attachments/Shakib-Al-Hasan.jpg" alt="Shakib Al Hasan" width="640" height="400" sizes="(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-239976" class="wp-caption-text">Shakib Al Hasan. (Photo Source: Twitter)</figcaption></figure>
You don&#8217;t stand much of a chance when you&#8217;re caught in the middle of a &#8216;Gayle Storm&#8217;. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) understood the truth in that statement first hand when the &#8216;Universe Boss&#8217; smashed an unbeaten knock 104 runs off just 63 deliveries to reach a total of 193 runs. KXIP needed to come in all guns blazing from the very first ball f their innings. Sadly, that didn&#8217;t happen as both their openers, Wriddhiman Saha (6) and <a href="https://www.crictracker.com/shikhar-dhawans-influence-prompted-kane-williamson-change-look/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Shikhar Dhawan </a>(retired hurt for 0) departed without making a significant dent to the total.
Although Kane Williamson (54) and Manish Pandey (57*) put in valiant efforts to save the match, it wasn&#8217;t enough. What SRH needed was a significant partnership and experienced batsmen at the crease to work to that end. In such a situation, promoting the veteran, Shakib Al Hasan over the likes of Deepak Hooda in the batting order would&#8217;ve been the prescribed medication for the Hyderabad side.
SRH, however, chose not to bring in Hasan until it was too late. Coming in at the end of the 17th over, Hasan didn&#8217;t have much of a choice and the win was a lost cause by then. The mini-partnership between Pandey and Hasan was indicative of the damage that the duo could&#8217;ve inflicted on the opposition had Hasan been sent up the order; the latter scored 24 runs off 12 balls and remained unbeaten at the end of the innings as KXIP won the match by 15 runs.

There have been ample instances this week of team decisions going haywire, costing them the match.

IPL 2018: Five Biggest mistakes teams committed this week

The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 is in full-swing in its third week and we can't get enough of all the cricketing action! Be it high-octane run chases