Cricket is a humorous sport, particularly in the IPL, where there have been incidents like Rinku Singh hitting five straight sixes to unexpectedly win a game for KKR. Additionally, against youngster Kartik Tyagi, there have been times when a team has been unable to chase down four runs in the final over.
Such anarchy was also seen in IPL 2023‘s 30th game, when the Lucknow Super Giants either miscalculated their innings or gave under pressure. On a difficult Ekana pitch against the Gujarat Titans, they were unable to overtake a low total. At the end of the 15th over, LSG required 30 runs at a run-a-ball with 8 wickets in hand, and they were absolutely cantering towards the score. But the Gujarat Titans managed to come back and win with some outstanding death bowling from Mohit Sharma and Mohammed Shami.
Let’s review 3 IPL occurrences where teams lost a match they had in hand.
3) 2021’s KKR vs MI
It would seem that the day Andre Russell grabbed a fifer, limiting MI’s total to 152, was intended for KKR to record a rare victory over their archrival. However, they still had to bat on the two-paced Chepauk pitch.
Shubhman Gill and Nitish Rana, the opening batsmen for KKR, attacked the MI bowlers right away and scored 72 runs in nine overs. Despite losing wickets, they were comfortably positioned at 122/4 after 15 overs and required 31 runs off 30 balls with 6 wickets remaining.
In this scenario, you should bet on the chasing team to win 9.5 out of 10 games, or even 10 if Dinesh Karthik and Andre Russell are both batting in an IPL match.
However, what happened next had KKR supporters shaking their heads in disbelief. Karthik and Russell both struggled greatly with rotating the strike and were unable to time the ball, let alone muscle it. Even worse, MI fielders dropped Russell twice. KKR lost the match by 10 runs.
2) 2020’s KKR vs PBKS
In IPL 2020, When Sunil Narine dismissed fellow West Indian Nicholas Pooran, the Punjab Kings needed 21 runs off 16 deliveries and had eight wickets remaining. But instead of sending Glenn Maxwell, who happened to be an experienced batter, they ended up sending Prabhsimran Singh, a rookie player who was hit by three straight dot balls.
If that weren’t enough, Punjab now required 20 runs from the final two overs after skipper KL Rahul appeared to be okay with him taking a single off the final ball. Prasidh Krishna demonstrated exceptional death bowling skills by bowling a brilliant penultimate over, allowing only 6 runs while dismissing both of the aforementioned batters. What had once seemed like a stroll in the park for the Punjab side has changed into a challenging pursuit. Glenn Maxwell and Mandeep Singh, two new batters, were needed to score 14 runs in the final over. Narine was slated to bowl the final over.
The cunning tweaker was hammered for a four off his third ball, but he unleashed all of his variations, and suddenly Punjab needed seven off one delivery.
The bigger delivery from Narine was launched at the wide tramline to mid-wicket by Maxwell, who did reach out and slap it, but it just almost missed the rope on a half-volley.
The match, which PBKS could have easily won, lost by just 2 runs, eventually costing them a playoff spot in the IPL 2020.
1) 2016’s RCB vs SRH final
For RCB fans hoping to see their side win their first IPL championship in 2016, it was nothing short of a catastrophe. Before 2016, they had previously failed twice, but they still had a big chance to change the course of history.
At 140/1 in the 13th over, the Royal Challengers appeared to be coasting and only needed 68 runs in 44 balls. They were the clear favorites with an asking rate of almost 9 and nine wickets in hand.
From that point on, RCB had the game in their hands, and they did! They did what they were infamous for: they choked on a simple pursuit.
Under pressure, batsmen like AB de Villiers, KL Rahul, and Shane Watson broke down and chucked their wickets. RCB’s hopes of IPL Trophy were dashed by a mere 8 runs!
The story and history might have been different if they had batted intelligently.
