Kings vs Knights
Who will win IPL 2021?
Finally after the scintillating action of the two legs of this edition of Vivo IPL 2021 we have our two finalists the Chennai Super Kings & Kolkata Knight Riders.
The Chennai Super Kings will be playing in their 9th Final out of the 11 seasons of the IPL. The Chennai Super Kings have won the IPL title three times in 2010,2011, and 2018 & the Kolkata Knight Riders have also played two finals and won in 2012 & 2014.
IPL 2021
This year’s IPL began on the 9th of April 2021 on an opening day match of the Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore. Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The Royal Challengers Bangalore beat Mumbai Indians by 2 wickets as they chased down the target of 160 in the opening match of the Vivo IPl 2021.
The Chennai Super Kings were up against the young Delhi Capitals in their first Match.
The Delhi Capitals won the match comfortably by 7 wickets with 8 balls left as they chased down the target of 189 easily.
There was no looking back for the Yellow army as they bounced back from their defeat in the first game and won five straight games out of their next six games before falling short to their arc rivals Mumbai Indians in a close match which Mumbai won by 4 wickets in a high scoring game as they chased down the target of 219.
The Second finalists Kolkata Knight Riders had a shaky start to the tournament as they could only manage to win two games out of the first 7 games they played as the team was struggling to find form and the right team combinations.
There was an unexpected interruption due to the rising cases of Covid-19 due to which the IPL had to be abandoned. This is how the standings looked like after the first leg of the IPL:-
1. Delhi Capitals (12 points)
2. Chennai Super Kings (10)
3. Royal Challengers Bangalore (10)
4. Mumbai Indians (8)
5. Rajasthan Royals (6)
6. Punjab Kings (6)
7. Kolkata Knight Riders (4)
8. Sunrisers Hyderabad (2)
The Chennai Super Kings looked in a pretty solid position after the first leg of the IPl as they had their bases covered but the Knight Riders had to make adjustments in the second leg to make a comeback which they did.
The second leg of the IPL began in the UAE on the 19th of September. The Chennai Super Kings faced the Mumbai Indians on the opening day of the second leg and continued their brilliant form as they managed to beat them by 20 runs.
The Super Kings also won their next three games as they managed to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders, and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
But, also lost three consecutive games as they lost to the Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Capitals, and Punjab Kings.
Early success in the tournament didn’t let the failure of the latter part become an obstacle in the journey of the Super Kings as they finished in second place at the points table which also allowed them to qualify for the finals twice.
The Kolkata Knight Riders had a miraculous turn of fortunes in the second leg of the tournament.
With only two wins from seven games in the first leg the Knights went on to win five games out of the remaining seven games in the second leg of the IPL 2021 and secured a place in the IPL Playoffs.
Road to Finals
The Chennai Super Kings faced the table-toppers Delhi Capitals in Qualifier 1 a team that had beaten them twice in the tournament.
Batting first the Delhi Capitals put up a modest total of 172/5 in 20 overs. With a mighty pace attack of the Delhi Capitals, this Chase wasn’t going to be easy.
Super Kings started well after losing the wicket of Faf du Plessis but a sudden collapse in the middle overs caused a bit of panic.
Captain cool MS Dhoni with a quickfire 6 balls 18 runs finished off the innings and made sure to take his team across the line to their 9th Final as the Chennai Super Kings won the match by 4 wickets.
Kolkata Knight Riders had a mammoth task ahead of them in the name of Royal Challengers Bangalore in the eliminator.
Bowling first the KKR bowlers restricted the mighty RCB batting lineup for 138/7.
The Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 4 wickets and 2 balls remaining.
In the second qualifier, the Kolkata Knight Riders faced the Delhi Capitals. Bowling first the KKR bowlers turned out to be economical again as they restricted Delhi Capitals to 135/5 in 20 overs.
KKR batters batted steadily throughout the match until there was one of the most horrific collapses between the 16th and 19th over when KKR scored only 7 runs and lost 5 wickets.
With all batters back in the dugout, all eyes were on Rahul Tripathi who was the only recognized batsman left. With 6 runs to get off 2 balls, Tripathi slogged Ashwin over Long off for a Six and won the match for his team in a thrilling contest.
The Final
CSK vs KKR final of VIVO IPL 2021 will be played on the 15th of October at the Dubai International Stadium in Dubai.
Chennai is a team full of experienced veteran players who have been to the finals more than any other team in the IPL.
Kolkata is a young dynamic team looking to win its third IPL. It's going to be the experience of CSK vs the energy of KKR. The key players from both teams will be the ones to watch out for in this match as well.
Ruturaj Gaikwad who is the second-highest run-scorer of the tournament & Shardul Thakur who is a consistent wicket-taker for the Chennai Super Kings will be the players to watch out for.
The bowling has been a real asset for the Knight Riders and the duo of Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy have been the protagonists. The continuous pressure from both ends either chokes the run rate of the opposition or creates havoc and forces the fall of wickets.
The History favors the knights as they defeated the Super Kings in the 2012 IPL Final.
Could this year be the same or MS Dhoni and the Chennai Super Kings add another Laurel to their name we will find out?
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