The third round of IPL 2019 saw some exciting matches played were the underdogs of the last season gained some ground in the league table. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Delhi Capitals (DC) got the better of Mumbai Indians (MI) and Kolkata Knight Riders on some good performance by their new signings. While Chennai Super Kings (CSK) won all their three matches played so far, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Rajasthan Royals (RR) have lost all of theirs and continue to languish at the bottom of the table.

David Warner continues to lead the batting averages with a century not out against RCB Source

Match 9: Kings XI Punjab vs. Mumbai Indians

Batting first Mumbai Indians got a good start courtesy of a quick fire 32 (18 balls) by Rohit Sharma and a more impressive 60 (39 balls) by Quinton de Kock. But the loss of Yuvraj Singh (18 off 10 balls) and Pollard for a low score, meant that they could not capitalise on the start. It was left to Hardik Pandya (31 off 19 balls) to ensure that Mumbai compiled 176 runs at the end which was not enough on a batsmen friendly pitch. Murugan Ashwin, a leg spinner for the Kings claimed the wickets of Yuvraj Singh and Hardik Pandya while conceding only 25 runs from his allotted four overs.

KL Rahul saw Kings XI Punjab to their first victory over Mumbai Indian after 2011 Source

Kings XI hadn’t won a home match against Mumbai Indians since the 2011 season of the IPL. But Chris Gayle was in no mood to dwell upon that. He scored a brisk 40 runs (24 balls) as KL Rahul (71 off 57 balls) played a sedate knock to get back into form. Another attacking 43 (21 balls) from Mayank Agarwal and meant that David Miller and KL Rahul saw the Kings XI home with 8 balls to spare. KL Rahul hit the winning runs after dispatching Jasprit Bumrah for two boundaries in the 17 over.

Match 10: Delhi Capitals vs. Kolkata Knight Riders

The DC bowlers reduced KKR to 61 runs for the loss of 5 wickets off the first 9.2 overs. The DC skipper Dinesh Kartik (50 off 36 balls) and Andre Russell then put on 95 runs for the sixth wicket. Andre Russell was particularly severe on the bowlers scoring 62 runs off just 28 balls with the help of four fours and six sixes. Piyush Chawla who got run out of the last ball of the 20th over and Kuldeep Yadav helped KKR reach a tally of 185 for 8 wickets.

Prithvi Shaw played a vital inning of 99 for Delhi Capitals. Source

Although Capitals lost Dhawan early they started with a bang. Young Prithvi Shaw was in good form and him along with the captain Shreyas Iyer took the score to 116 runs scoring at 10 runs an over. Rishab Pant was dismissed cheaply, yet Delhi looked well on their way to achieve the target of 186 runs. Unfortunately for Delhi, Shaw was dismissed on 99 (55 balls) with 9 balls of the innings left, and the Capitals needing 12 runs for victory. Colin Ingram got out off the last ball trying for the victory run and the match ended in a tie leading to a super over.

Kagiso Rabada attempted six yorkers in a row to give Capitals victory in the Super over Source

Delhi opted to open with Shreyas Iyer and Pant in the super over. The former fell after scoring four runs and Delhi finished with 10 runs off the over. The Knight Rider had to face Kagiso Rabada and was required to score 11 runs for a win. Andre Russell miscued an attempted Yorker from Rabada and collected four runs. But Rabada got Russel out on the third ball of the over with a perfect yorker. Rabada continued to bowl yorkers and restricted KKR to seven runs whereby Delhi Capitals won the match. That was a much-needed victory to the young Capitals side.

Match 11: Sun Risers Hyderabad vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore

This match exposed the weaknesses of the Royals bowling department and their reliability on their two stalwarts, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Batting first, the Sun Risers opening pair of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner plundered the RCB bowlers at will. Not only did they post the highest stand for the first wicket in IPL history, they literally batted RCB out of the match. Bairstow scored 114 runs from 56 balls with the help of 12 fours and 7 sixes while David Warner plundered 100 runs off 55 balls hitting five 4s and 5 sixes. When Bairstow got out SRH were 185 for one wicket. Warner with a little help from Mohammed Siraj and Prayas Burman helped the Sun Risers to post a total of 231 runs for the Challengers to chase.

Jonny Bairstow scored a century off just 52 balls against for SRH against RCB Source

The Royal Challengers were never in the race with Parthiv Patel, Shimron Hetmyer, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli dismissed for a paltry 30 runs on the board. It was left to Colin De Grandhomme (19 off 24 balls), PR Burman (19 off 24 balls) and Umesh Yadav (14 off 9 balls) to help the Royal Challengers to a score of 113 before they were all out. The Challengers not only have to win a few games but have to increase the difference in the net run rate markedly. They are currently languishing at the bottom of the table with a negative run rate of 2.413.

Match 12: Chennai Super Kings vs. Rajasthan Royals

Compared to the inaugural match of the IPL 2019, the MA Chidambaram Stadium pitch was much well behaved on this day. In fact, Chennai Super Kings, batting first, had to graft their runs as the pitch improved for batting as the play progressed. They too lost their first 3 wickets for a mere 27 runs. That was when Dhoni and Raina got together and put together a 61 run partnership in less than 10 overs. Upon Raina’s dismissal, Dhoni who was at that time on 28 off 25 balls picked up his tempo of scoring. With Dwayne Bravo contributing 27 runs off 16 balls, Dhoni remained not out with 75 runs scored off 45 balls. Chennai posted a total of 175 for the Royals to chase.

MS Dhoni won the man of the match against RCB for his stellar inning of 75 no Source

But the Rajasthan Royals batsmen batted poorly. Losing their skipper off the second ball bowled to him by Deepak Chahar, they lost wickets at regular intervals to the Chennai pacers despite the dew improving the conditions of bating. Dhoni, wisely bowled only 8 overs of spin and the remaining 16 overs were bowled by his pacers. Imran Tahir, however, bagged two wickets for 23 runs and the Royals inning closed at the score of 167 for the loss of 8 wickets.

The end of round three tells us that there are many surprises in store in IPL 2019. RCB and RR have to really pull up their socks up to be counted. On the other hand Kings XI, Punjab and Delhi Capitals have done well for themselves. CSK, by the virtue of winning all their matches, are leading the league table while SRH with a much better net run rate is right behind them. SRH and KKR and DC batsmen have batted well and have been well supported by their bowlers. They are behind SRH while Mumbai Indians are just above the lagers with two points.