First week of IPL: These players, teams made headlines

The Indian Premier League 2021 got underway amidst the COVID19 pandemic in Mumbai and Chennai on April 9 Six teams barring Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings have played two matches eachmiddaycom looks at the performances that made headlines in the first week of the cashrich T20 tournamentRCB take top spotRCB players celebrate a Sunrisers wicket at Chennai on Wednesday PICBCCI IPLThe ongoing edition promises to have a tough fight for the playoffs spot Royal Challengers Bangalore RCB who are eagerly awaiting their maiden IPL title had a dream start to the season by winning both their opening games to stay on top in Week 1 RCB began their campaign with a bang by beating defending champions Mumbai Indians by two wickets off the last ball in the opening encounter at Chennai Later Virat Kohlirsquos men snatched a thrilling sixrun victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad for its second win in a row RCB fans will hope the team continue its good form to end the title drought this yearItrsquos not over till its overMI players are ecstatic after their 10run win over KKR on Tuesday PICBCCI IPLThe last three encounters saw a nevergiveup attitude from Mumbai Indians MI RCB and Rajasthan Royals RR as they snatched victory from the jaws of defeat against Kolkata Knight Riders KKR Sunrisers SRH and Delhi Capitals DC respectively KKR SRH and DC dominated almost 15 overs in the second innings but the last five overs didnrsquot go their way With 31 required off the last 30 balls and six wickets in hand it looked like a comfortable victory for KKR But MI bowlers conceded just 20 runs off the next five overs to hand the fivetime champions a 10run victory Similarly SRH threw the game away after being in a dominating position needing 35 off 24 balls with four wickets in hand at the end of the 16th over Chasing 148 RR looked in dire straits at 425 They were further reduced to 1047 but IPLrsquos big buy Rs 1625 crore Chris Morris 36 off 18 balls took his team home with two balls to spareSamsons ton in vainRR skipper Sanju Samson celebrates his 100 v Punjab PICBCCI IPLSanju Samson became the first player to smash a century on captaincy debut in IPL In the process he also went on to become the first Rajasthan Royals skipper to score a ton However his efforts went in vain as RR fell short of the target by just four runs Samson deserved full credit for his superb innings after his side conceded 221 runs against Punjab Chasing 222 RR were reduced to 252 and were expecting a big loss But the wicketkeeperbatsman had other plans in mind He stood firm to singlehandedly dominate the innings With five required off two balls Samson refused a single to Morris off which brought the equation to five off the last delivery The skipper tried hard to hit the ball out of the park but was caught on the boundary by Deepak HoodaFifers against Mumbai IndiansRCBrsquos Harshal Patel appeals against MIrsquos Ishan Kishan at Chennai last week PICBCCI IPLNo player had ever claimed a fifer against MI in IPL history but the defending championsrsquo first two matches witnessed bowlers RCBrsquos Harshal Patel and KKRrsquos Andre Russell claiming fivewicket hauls to restrict Rohit Sharma amp Co to an average T20 score Rightarm pacer Harshal 40275 bagged three wickets and conceded just one run off the final over to achieve this feat and reduce MI to 1599 in the opening encounter at Chennai KKRrsquos rightarm fast bowler Russell picked up his maiden fifer 20155 in T20 cricket at Chennai to bowl out MI for 152 In the bargain he went on to create several recordsmdashbestever figure by a KKR bowler best by any player against MI and fastest bowler to claim five wickets in IPL 12 balls His efforts however went in vain as KKR lost the thrilling encounter by 10 runsMaxwell lives up to big price tagRCBrsquos Glenn Maxwell in full flight against SRH on Wednesday PICBCCI IPLDespite being a big flop with the bat in the 2018 edition for Delhi 169 runs in 12 matches and last year for Punjab 108 runs in 13 games RCB showed faith in the Australian at this yearrsquos auction The allrounder who was purchased for a whopping 1425 crore has so far lived up to the teamrsquos expectations scoring 98 runs in two matches at a good strike rate of 14202 The righthand batsman scored 39 off 28 balls three fours and two sixes against MI to take the team closer to victory in the opening contest Maxwell was awarded the PlayeroftheMatch for his 41ball 59 five fours and three sixes against Sunrisers Hyderabad RCB kept losing wickets on the other end but Maxwell who came in at No 4 held fort to take RCB to a respectable total of 1498 after being reduced to 1096 at one stage