The Game is On: VIVO IPL 2021 Latest Happenings
The VIVO Indian Premier League 2021 is back and it was kicked off by defending champions Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 9 in Chennai. Despite the looming threat of the pandemic, the IPL was able to push through with the opening of the season and most likely go through the whole season without the need to make schedule adjustments.
Well, it’s still hard to confidently say that no schedule change will take place during the whole of this season. For now, fans are just happy that the biggest cricket league is back in India with a full schedule. Day 1 of the IPL was full of actions and made fans look more forward to the upcoming matches.
A Look at the Opening Match of the Season
In the first match of the season as Mumbai Indians (MI) vs Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Virat Kohli and the rest of the RCB were able to win the match by two wickets. RCB scored 160 for 8 and Mumbai Indians scored 159 for 9.
It was Harshal Patel who just made his RCB comeback this season who took the first five-wicket haul against MI. He returned 5 for 27 in four overs with slow balls and inch-perfect Yorkers. RCB took control of the game with 62 needed off 46 and eight wickets in hand.
He started with conceding seven runs off his first legal ball through a no-ball and a free-hit six. This gave him a total of 15 runs in his first over. After this, the ball was thrown to him and it was then his responsibility to bowl towards Mumbai’s hitters.
He was able to get three overs, and in the 16th over, he was able to bowl a dipping full toss towards Hardik. Hardik, however, completely missed his whip. The next great move by Patel was when he landed a perfect yorker to Kishan. The last over was when Krubal and Pollard fell off the first two balls.
Patel was able to bowl over 16, 18, and 20. He was one of the cricketers responsible for having MI end up with below 160 even if they tried to get more than 180. Patel’s wickets were Ishan Kishan, the Pandya brothers, Kieron Pollard, and Marco Jansen.
Mumbai tried to get the hand back but it seemed that they had a hard time getting past RCB’s wicket-keeper AB de Villiers. It was only until the final over when he was run out. De Villiers did enough to place RCB in a position to get over the line. He scored 48 off 27 before being dismissed on the 4th ball final over of the chase.
Overall, this was a great match between the two teams. RCB seems to be doing good with Virat Kohli as the captain but some fans still say that they can still do better when it comes to fielding. While fans are happy to see Kohli, it’s no secret that his fielding standards dropped in the last few IPL seasons.
IPL 2021 Updates
There is still no update on whether the current pandemic situation in India will affect the upcoming matches of the IPL. Before the season started, the BBCI expressed their confidence in the sanctity of the bio-secure bubble. Still, backup plans are in place if in case the first venue of the season will have to be changed.
No further comments from the BCCI have been made even after the highest number of fresh or daily cases in the country have been reported last week, which was over 103,000. Since the season started, there are no new cases that are related to the IPL.
Protocols are in place if ever any cases are reported. Constant testing will take place within the bubble. Even without testing, if anyone experiences any symptoms will be immediately placed in isolation. Anyone who tested positive will only be allowed to return to their teams after isolation and passing two RT-PCR tests.
With the number of cases in the country, likely, the whole season will still take place behind closed doors. This is even if the BCCI initially expressed optimism in eventually welcoming fans back to the stadiums. For now, it’s in the best interest of everyone to just stream the live matches online at home. For any other updates, we will simply have to wait as no change regarding the schedule and venues are announced just yet. With that, the schedule and venues remain as they are.
