The camera crews covering the CSK matches in the ongoing IPL 2024 know how much the fans like watching Dhoni. As a result, they frequently feature a glimpse of the former captain of Chennai in the dressing room. They are observing the game’s progress during their batting innings. Every time, the crowd goes crazy.

However, on Monday, during the phenomenal partnership between CSK captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shivam Dubey   in the match against Lucknow super giants at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, when the cameraman zoomed in on Dhoni, he was miffed and threatened the person with the water bottle in his hand before camera was back focusing on the match proceedings.

Gaikwad became the first CSK captain ever to score a century in IPL history as he clobbered an unbeaten 108 off 60 balls, while Dube went hammer and tongs against the LSG attack with a 22-ball 50 en route to his knock of 66 as the pair stitched a 104-run stand to power the home team to 210 for four. It was the third-highest fourth-wicket stand for CSK in IPL history after 109* between MS Dhoni and S Badrinath in 2010 and 108* between Dhoni and Mike Hussey in 2014.

Dhoni, too, obliged the loud CSK crowd by walking out to bat with two balls to spare. Gaikwad put him on strike for the final ball, as the renowned cricketer slid across the crease and guided Marcus Stoins’ fuller one for a four through deep mid-wicket.

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Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma, along with other Mumbai Indians players, released a special message ahead of the IPL 2024 encounter between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals. The MI vs DC clash is slated at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, and it will be Mumbai Indians’ annual ESA game. ESA games is the initiative conducted by Mumbai Indians in partnership with Reliance Foundation, during which the franchise open its doors to over 18,000 children, including 200 children with special needs to watch and cheer for their favorite cricketers in IPL 2024.

Ahead of the MI vs DC 2024 IPL match, Mumbai Indians released a video in which skipper Hardik Pandya, Rohit Sharma and other senior members of the Mumbai Indians crew can be seen expressing their privilege for hosting the annual ESA game and making the occasion special for thousands of children.

“It’s always exciting to see 18,000 kids coming to the ground and cheering for us and Mumbai Indians. We’ll be looking to make their day, hopefully with a win. I feel very privileged to be a part of these games and influence their life in a small way,” says Skipper Pandya while expressing excitement about the ESA game.

“The story of each and every kid who will be there at the stadium is inspiring. They have a difficult life. Really impressed with the work being put in by  Reliance Foundation  and Mrs Ambani for giving the children what they need. I have been fortunate enough to hear some of these kids’ stories in the past and I know exactly what they have been through. Coming to the stadium and watching the game can bring a lot of smiles on their faces. It is our duty and responsibility that they go back home with happiness on their face,” says former MI captain Rohit Sharma.

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In this IPL match where Shubman Gill, Kane Williamson, Rashid Khan, KL Rahul, Quinton de Kock, and Nicholas Pooran will be all set for the action, It is both surprising and obvious to say that Mayank Yadav will be the center of attention.That’s what raw pace achieves. The way Mayank conducts himself will be a major factor in Sunday’s IPL 2024 match between the Gujarat Titans and the Lucknow Super Giants.

In his debut match against Punjab Kings, the 21-year-old LSG pacer returned impressive figures of 3/27, stunning England batter Jonny Bairstow with his searing pace. He followed that performance with 3/14 figures against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, blowing away Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell with a 151kmph delivery, and then cleaned up his teammate Cameron Green.

His outstanding achievements have sparked debate in the cricketing community over whether he should be fast-tracked into the Indian side. But only two games can’t be a parameter for a place in the Indian team. For Yadav, the crucial factor would be his consistency, which the national selectors will be closely following. On the batting front, LSG boast of a solid opening pair of Quinton de Kock and KL Rahul. The South African has been in excellent form following a rare off day in the team’s opener, but the skipper needs to get his act together as he has struggled to capitalise on starts.

The big-hitting Nicholas Pooran has been LSG’s go-to-man in the finishing overs while Krunal Pandya was also handy in the last game. But the major concern for the Lucknow outfit remains the form of Devdutt Padikkal and Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis.In bowling, Yadav needs more support from the likes of Naveen-ul-Haq, Yash Thakur, Mohsin Khan, Stonis, and leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi.

LSG, who are placed fourth with two wins out of three games, would also look to keep a clean slate at home and cash in on familiar conditions to register the third successive win this season.

Lucknow vs Gujrat Head-To-Head

Both team have played 4 matches in IPL till Date, in which Gujrat have won all the four matches so today Lucknow will fight for their first win against Gujrat titans.

Gujrat Titans Likely XI  Shubman Gill (capt), Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Sai Sudharsan, Kane Williamson, Vijay Shankar, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahul Tewatia, Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Umesh Yadav, Darshan Nalkande

Lucknow super giants Likely XI KL Rahul (capt & wk), Quinton de Kock, Devdutt Padikkal, Nicholas Pooran, Marcus Stoinis, Krunal Pandya, Ravi Bishnoi, Yash Thakur, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mayank Yadav, M Siddharth

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On Saturday, in Jaipur Jos Buttler finally broke his IPL jinx by scoring an unbeaten century against Royal Challengers Bangalore.Buttler has been in bad form in the Indian Premier League since earning the Orange Cap in 2022, and it appeared that trend would continue this season as well.

Buttler silenced his detractors in style, smashing 100* off 58 balls, which included nine fours and four sixes, as RR reached 189/4 in 19.1 overs in their 184-run chase.

The match boiled down to the final over with RR needing one run to win and Buttler needed six to get to his century. In stepped Cameron Green for RCB and he sent a short of length delivery, on the stumps. Buttler pulled it over deep midwicket boundary for a match-winning six.

Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer had a conversation at the start of the over. with a smile on his face. As soon as the ball went for a six, Hetmyer’s celebration caught everyone’s attention as he continuously jumped up and down.

After the game, the England player disclosed that the West Indies player instructed him to hit the ball for a six over the deep midwicket boundary. “I think Hety’s celebration was better than the shot. He actually told me, go across your stumps and hit it over there. You have got to hit a six,” says Buttler .

In response to his dismal performance previous to this game, he said,  “I am feeling good. Sometimes in cricket, you can get around your head too much.”

He also praised the RR supporters for their continued backing. “Played for Rajasthan for a long time, lots of support and it is great that everyone is wishing you to do well and really happy to contribute to the team and keep the good start we have had to this season,” says Buttler.

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This year’s Indian Premier League has become a popular hunting ground for pitch invaders. On Saturday, a fan donning Virat Kohli  jersey broke into the field at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur to try and meet the former RCB  captain. The fan jumped over the fence and ran onto the field during the run chase.

Play was stopped as security entered the field to catch the fan and remove him from the pitch. Meanwhile, Kohli watched from a distance, as the officials took the pitch invader away.

Something similar took place in RCB’s first home match of the season, as a fan tried to embrace Kohli on the field. He was also taken away quickly by security. Meanwhile on Monday, a fan broke into the Wankhede Stadium field and managed to hug Rohit Sharma. He also hugged Ishan Kishan before being taken away from the field.

Kohli scored his first century of the current season Of IPL  on Saturday. smacking an unbeaten knock of 113 runs off 72 balls, as RCB reached 183/3 in 20 overs. For RR’s bowling department, Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets.Chasing 184, RR reached 189/4 in 19.1 overs, courtesy of an unbeaten knock of 100 off 58 balls by Jos Buttler. Meanwhile, Sanju Samson (69) got a half-century as RR won by six wickets.

Speaking post-match, RCB captain Faf du Plessis said, ” I think we found the wicket tricky in the first innings. I thought 190 was a good score, think we could have added 10-15 runs max. Their spinners bowled well (in the middle overs), good decision by them to bowl first. With the dew batting got easier. Virat was playing well at the back end, with someone like Green coming in, you want to maximise those last overs. We tried to squeeze as hard as we can, but it was tricky to hit against the spinners.”

“It was easier to hit the seamers. The pitch definitely got better, you could feel it, the ball was skidding along nicely. We were excellent in the first four overs. I think that 20 runs over (from Dagar) took the momentum away and shifted the pressure back on us,” added Faf

With eight points from four games, RR is now leading the IPL 2024 points table  not lost a single match . With two points from five games, RCB is now seventh in the table.

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On April 6 During their IPL 2024 match on Saturday at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, against Royal Challengers Bengaluru., the Rajasthan Royals made an unexpected social media reaction. The game was far from over for RR, but the hosts seemed well on track to hand RCB their third loss on the trot in the ongoing season. However, the tweet seemed to brutally target Virat Kohli, who recorded the joint-slowest century in IPL history.

If there was something lacking from the first 18 matches of IPL 2024,Despite plenty of run-scoring from each side, including the record total of 277 by Sunrisers Hyderabad, was a century. On Saturday, Virat Kohli who returned to his formidable best in IPL since the stellar 2016 season, emerged as the first centurion of the season as he smashed a career eighth ton in the league’s history, still the most ever by a batter.

However, Kohli, who also was part of a 1250-run opening stand with Faf du Plessis, scored the century in 67 balls, the joint-slowest in IPL history. In 2008, Manish Pandey had recorded the exact number in a match against defunct Deccan Chargers.

After captain Sanju Samson and opener Jos Buttler recorded their respective fifties in the chase of 184 in Jaipur, RR took to X, previously known as Twitter, to take a dig at Kohli over his post-innings remark. The tweet read: “184 sounds good on a day when 200+ was possible.”

Earlier in the match, when RCB scored 183 for 3, batting first,Kohli said that he felt the target was an effective total , he said the RR spinners’ lack of pace and bounce prevented him from hitting the shots he wanted to.

“The wicket feels like its flat but as soon as you see the ball holding up in the pitch, that’s when you realise the pace is changing pretty quickly and then the big dimensions of the ground come into play. Our target initially was 190, 195, to be honest. But then assessing the pitch and how it was slowing down, we decided if one of Faf [du Plessis] or me get out, then the other had to bat till the end so that we can get that boost closer to 180-185, which we did, which I feel is a very effective total on this pitch,” Kohli said in mid-innings chat.

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The Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) will face off on April 6 at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium. RCB will play their fifth match of the IPL 2024, while this will be RR’s fourth match

Rajasthan is second in the points table, with 6 points from three matches and a Net Run Rate (NRR) of +1.249.Bengaluru, on the other side, has two points from four matches and is ranked eighth, with an NRR of -0.876.

On March 24, RR beat Lucknow Super Giants by 20 runs in their first match of IPL 2024. They then defeated the Delhi Capitals by 12 runs on March 28th, Rajasthan defeated the Mumbai Indians as well on  April 1st. they defeated Hardik Pandya’s team by 6 wickets. RR, except Kolkata Knight Riders, are the only team to win their first three matches.

RCB, on March 22, suffered a loss against Chennai Super Kings by 6 wickets. They won against the Punjab Kings (PBKS) by 4 wickets on March 25. Then, they lost to KKR by 7 wickets on March 29. They lost their fourth match as well, this time against Lucknow Super Giants On April 2, Bengaluru lost by 28 runs.

RR vs RCB Pitch Report

The pitch at Sawai Man Singh Stadium in India benefits batters.However, its huge square boundaries and high temperatures may reduce scores.In the IPL, chasing teams won 34 of 54 matches. The average first innings score is about 160. No team has scored 200 in the IPL on this ground yet. The highest score, achieved twice, is 197 by Rajasthan.

RR vs RCB Head-To-Head Records

Rajasthan and Bengaluru have played 30 IPL matches so far. RR have won 12 of those and RCB 15. Three matches did not produce any results. Rajasthan’s highest total against RCB so far is 217, and Bengaluru’s highest score against RR is 200.

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Cricket analysts are baffled by Captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) decision to send MS Dhoni to bat at number 7 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for only three deliveries,while characterising it as a “significant error” which resulted in their second consecutive loss in IPL 2024.

Shane Watson and Brett Lee advised CSK to send Dhoni up the order.However, Chennai’s pursuit of 192 was unsuccessful despite the spectacular effort.It was believed that Chennai would send Dhoni at number six after SRH captain Pat Cummins packed Dube in the 14th over.

Instead, Daryl Mitchell was given the lead, and the New Zealand batsman struggled to hit the slower deliveries from the Sunrisers’ quick bowlers.He only scored one boundary in 11 balls and 13 runs before being dismissed by T Natarajan.

As CSK reached 165 for five in 20 overs, MS Dhoni was the next to go for just three balls, facing only two deliveries and scoring a single against Natarajan. former Indian player Irfhan Pathan questioned the reasoning behind sending Dhoni later in the match.

“Considering off cutter planning in to the pitch and match up against Bhuvi and Unadkat, Dhoni the right hand batsman should have batted up the order in this match vs SRH,” says Pathan on X.

On Cricbuzz, ex-cricketers  Michael Vaughan and Simon Doull were also surprised over the same. “I’m amazed he did not come out to bat earlier. I can’t understand why he’s been out there for just three balls,” the former England captain said, adding that Dhoni has the ability to hit those slower balls. 

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