IPL 2016 Weekly Roundup: Week 6

So the penultimate week of IPL 2016 came to end last night with two rather uneventful matches. Regardless, it was a nerve wrecking week as the final four teams to make the playoffs could not be decided right until the last match of the league stage. The all exciting phase now begins as we enter the final week of IPL 2016 where the top four teams will have to bring their absolute best to lay their hands on the trophy. For now, let us look at the review of the week gone by. The Final Four: Royal Challengers Bangalore. (Photo Source: BCCI) So we finally have our final four teams that have entered the playoffs: Gujarat Lions, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Kolkata Knight Riders. That it took right till the last match of the league stage to determine the final four says how competitive this IPL has been. Now, the real battle begins as Gujarat first takes on Bangalore in the First Qualifier Tuesday; the winner moves directly to the final. Hyderabad will then battle with Kolkata in the Eliminator on Wednesday. The winner of the Eliminator will then take on the loser of the First Qualifier on Friday in the Second Qualifier and the winner of this game will progress to the finals to be played on Sunday. Dhoni’s last over heist: MS Dhoni Rising Pune Supergiants. (Photo Source: BCCI) Mahendra Singh Dhoni had his most disappointing IPL this year, both as a captain and a batsman. The captain of Rising Pune Super Giants though chose to produce his very best in the last game for his team against Kings X1. Coming in with his team at the usual precarious stage – needing about 80 runs from just above 5 overs – Dhoni began creaming the bowlers and looked good for some fours and sixes. However, when the last over began, bowled by Axar Patel, Pune still needed 23 runs for victory. It seemed improbable but Dhoni stunned everyone by smashing one four and three sixes – two of them coming in the final two deliveries – and took his side home to a sensational victory. Dhoni eventually scored 64 off 32 balls, his best of the season. Missed out the onslaught? – Watch: MS Dhoni thwacks Patel for 23 in the last over RCB’s phenomenal resurgence: Yuzvendra Chahal. (Photo Source: BCCI) Several times in the IPL history have we seen a team come back phenomenally from behind and go on to win the trophy. This year could well be RCB’s time to do the same. They were almost done and dusted after 10 games in the season. However, riding skipper Virat Kohli’s mind-boggling form, they have stormed into the playoffs and are in the second position. There are few chinks still that Bangalore needs to address, however they do seem like an indomitable force currently and will be really hard to stop. Gujarat peaking at the right time: Gujarat Lions. (Photo Source: BCCI) For a new team to make the first position in the points table after the league stage is a superb achievement. Gujarat has had a great season thus far and, despite their few hiccups here and there, they seem to have finally found a settled and in form unit; especially after winning two back to back games. Captain Suresh Raina too has come back into form with two consecutive 50s in Gujarat’s last two matches and with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Dwayne Smith, Aaron Finch, Dwayne Bravo and Praveen Kumar looking in good knick Gujarat is likely to be very dangerous in the final stage of the championship. Kolkata need to watch out for inconsistency: Kolkata Knight Riders. (Photo Source: BCCI) It has been a fairly good season for Kolkata. They have entered the playoffs after failing to do last year. However, they have been quite inconsistent in this season; winning a game and then going on to lose another right after. Now that they would be playing in the Eliminator they need to be extra watchful of their inconsistencies. The team has not performed together as a unit and barring a few players – Gautam Gambhir, Yusuf Pathan and Andre Russell – the others have been inconsistent. This needs to be rectified as one more slip will end their IPL journey. Hence, the likes of Manish Pandey, Suryakumar Yadav and Umesh Yadav need to step up their game a few notches if the team has to clinch the trophy a third time. KKR v SRH preview – IPL 9, Eliminator Preview: KKR, SRH lock horns for a place in the finals Hyderabad suddenly looking brittle: Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo Source: BCCI) Hyderabad had had a phenomenal run in IPL 2016 up until the last few games. Courtesy back to back losses, Hyderabad are now no longer in the top two and will remain in the third position. Their batting is looking quite brittle – overly dependent on captain David Warner – and their bowling too seems to have suddenly lost its spark; especially after Ashish Nehra was ruled out of the season. Yuvraj Singh has failed to bail his team out of tense situations and the likes of Kane Williamson, Deepak Hooda, Eoin Morgan and Moses Henriques have just failed to provide any momentum to the team. If they do not pull up their socks and perform as a unit, Hyderabad’s memorable IPL 2016 journey may come to a screeching halt this week.

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