#nortje

[champagnelabuschagne-inactive]

five years down the line, when batting all rounder Anrich Nortje walks out on to the pitch, we'll be talking about how he started out his career as a bowler.

[wrong1cricket]

Anrich Nortje has been a phenomenon for Delhi Capitals. #Wrong1 #AnrichNortje #Nortje https://www.instagram.com/p/CHNRqK9nKxi/?igshid=r4l4ej2hg5e5

[boloorsportsmania]

#829 MI and DC strong favorites to end as top 2 teams in IPL 2020 points table; KKR have poor week as they were outclassed by RCB and MI; Quinton and ABD shines; DC outclass RR in a close contest; Nortje bowls 2nd fastest IPL delivery in the process; CSK are back as they outclass SRH to win their 3rd game; Jadeja excels; Punjab beat RCB convincingly though it had a last ball ending and more..:-)

RCB were a confident bunch after outclassing CSK. They took that confidence to match against KKR. Padikkal and Finch had another 50 plus stand, their 3rd of IPL 2020. Platform was set. Russell castled Padikkal for 32. RCB 67-1. Finch was dismissed by Prasidh for well made 47. RCB 94-2. Platform was set for ABD and Virat to excel and they did. They had 100 run stand in 50 balls to take RCB to 194-2. ABD hit a brilliant 73 of 33 balls which had 6 sixes and 5 fours. Virat was happy giving strike to Abd. 2 of ABD sixes hit the driving cars on the road outside the stadium. That was ridiculous to see. KKR were never in the chase. Gill was top scorer with 34. Rusell was dismissed smartly by Udana with a wide slow yorker. RCb used 6 bowlers and all picked up wickets. RCB won by a massive margin of 82 runs. ABD was the difference on a pitch which was 2 paced.

Struggling CSK team faced SRH who were in indifferent form as well. CSK opened with Curran and Faf. SRH had a dream start when Sandeep dismissed Faf for a duck. Curran hit some lusty blows before being dismissed for 31 by Sandeep. Rayadu and Watson hit 40s to take CS past 110. Cameos by MSD and Jadeja took CSK to 167-6. 59 runs came of last 5 overs. CSK needed this momentum. They had chased in all last 7 games. For a change they were defending in which they are master at especially when ball spins. SRH struggled right through. Baring Williamson, nobody had a longer stay at the crease. SRH fell short by 20 runs. They were in the chase till 16 overs. Once Karan dismissed Williamson for 57, match was over. Jadeja starred with the bat and the ball. CSK looks back in rhythm. They look hungry now which is dangerous for other teams.

DC faced RR in Dubai. 57 by Dhawan and 43 ball 53 by Shreyas helped DC to a score of 161-7. Though Butler and Steve smith were dismissed in quick succession  to reduce RR to 40-2, Stokes looked in control. At half way stage RR were 85-2 and were oncourse for a win. Tushar dismissed Tushar dismissed Stokes for his maiden IPL 20 wicket in his debut match. RR 86-3. Samson was castled by Axar the next over. RR 97-4. RR had started choking. They needed Tewatia again to rescue them. Uthappa gave RR some hope with good hitting. RR needed just 39 runs from last 5 overs with 5 wickets in place. It was RR’s game to lose. But match turned from here on. Ashwin just gave 2 runs. RR missed a trick by not attacking him. It came down to 29 from last 3 overs. Nortje then bowled a fab over where only 4 runs were conceded and in the process castled Nortje too. There was no Tewatia magic this time around as Rabada and Nortje are bowlers of different class. DC won the match by 13 runs. In so many matches in last 2 weeks in IPL, teams have lost way in a chase when they were in firm control.

RCB batted against Punjab. RCB batted first after winning the toss. Padikkal and Finch had a good 38 run stand in 4 overs before Arshdeep dismissed Padikkal. Finch was dismissed soon after. RCb 62-2 in 7th over. RCB faltered post this. RCB brough Sundar ahead of ABD to have right – left combo. That slowed the run rate. Once Sundar was dismissed for 14 ball 13, RCB still didn’t learn. They sent Dube ahead of ABD. This was getting ridiculous. RCb lost plot. SHami dismissed ABD and Kohli in the same over. Morris-Udana hit 31 runs of last 9 balls to take RCB to 171. Had ABD come ahead, RCB could have got close to 190. Mayank took the attack to RCB . He attacked all bowlers baring Morris. He scored 25 balls 45 runs before Chahal castled him. He had hit Chahal for 3 sixes. RCB 78-1. Gayle had come in to play his first match since Jan. He took time to settle. Punjab needed 69 runs from last 8 overs. RCB had Udana and Chahal with overs left. But he went ahead to give Siraj a bowl in the death. He gave 35 runs in 2 overs to change the match. For some reason, Punjab took the match to final over. They needed 7 from last 2 overs and 2 from last over. Punjab is never behind a drama. With 1 needed from 2 balls, Gayle was runout for well made 53. Pooran came and hit Chahal for a six to give them their 2nd win in IPL 2020. Pooran’s hit barely crossed the rope. Had he got out, there would have been a super over.

DK decided to step down as KKr captain to focus on batting. Morgan won the toss and chose to bat. They struggled big time against MI bowling. Chahar had dismissed Gill and DK of consecutive balls.  Bumrah dismissed Russell for 2nd time in this IPL. Cummins’s 36 ball 53 and 29 ball 39 by Morgan helped KKR to 148-5. KKR needed early wickets. Rohit and Quinton played freely and with purpose to have 94 run opening stand in 63 balls. That took the match away from KKR. Quinton hit another 50 for MI.  MI eventually won by 8 wickets with 3 plus overs remaining. Quinton was unbeaten at 78. They are the only team who are very comfortable chasing in UAE. Reason is their depth in batting and the amount of power hitters they have. If any team has Pollard-Pandya brothers to come at 5-6-7, a very score would be needed to test them else MI will cruise. And they did cruise to their 6th win in 8 matches to go to top of IPL points table. MI and DC look strong favourites for top 2 spots. CSK, KKR, SRH and RCB would fight for other 2 spots considering current form.