IPL 2021: 5 Biggest Chokes In The Tournament

The IPL festival is about to start on April 9 and the teams have always felt the pressure of the big stages over the last 13 editions of the tournament. The IPL 2021 is scheduled to be held in six venues in India namely Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Delhi, and Ahmedabad.

This will be a big year considering the mega auction coming up next year and the franchises will be looking for the players that will be retained ahead of the auction. The last IPL edition was a massive success and the BCCI will be looking to go one step better this year. Here are the 5 biggest chokes in the tournament.

5 Biggest Chokes In The Tournament:

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Royal Challengers Bangalore 2016 final:

The IPL 2016 final was a big day for both the teams who haven’t won an IPL trophy until that and pressure played a huge part in deciding the outcome of the match. Sunrisers batted first and Warner got off to a blistering start with 63 off 38 deliveries. Ben Cutting’s 39 off 15 balls allowed SRH to finish off in style with a massive score of 208 onboard.

RCB had an excellent batting lineup and they believed that the job could be done. They started the chase really well with Gayle and Kohli dominating the proceedings. They were cruising at 114/0 at the halfway mark until Gayle was dismissed and an array of wickets fell post-Gayle’s departure. Eventually, they lost by 8 runs after being on the verge of winning and middle overs was a nightmare for the RCB batsman where they lost a cluster of wickets.

Mumbai Indians vs Chennai Super Kings 2019 final:

This was a very popular final as both the teams had won three IPL trophies until that, and it was time to see who had the edge to move one step forward. A low scoring thriller that went into the final and the nerves of playing in the knockout stages got the better of the teams. Rohit won the toss and Mumbai went in to bat first in Hyderabad.

Chennai Super Kings pulled back things with quick wickets after Mumbai got off to a good start and Kieron Pollard’s 41 off 25 balls helped Mumbai post 149 on the board. CSK started the chase well but slowed down in the middle and Watson’s steadied the ship at one end when wickets were falling at other end. CSK needed 18 off the last 2 overs and brought it down to 2 runs in 1 ball. Malinga dismissed Thakur in the last ball of the match and Mumbai won by 1 run.

Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant 2017 final:

The IPL 2017 final was another low scoring thriller that again saw the match swaying on both sides until the last ball. Mumbai Indians batted first and were struggling at 79/7 at the 15th over. Krunal Pandya revived the team and took Mumbai to 129 with some runs to bowl at.

The chase started with Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith hitting the odd boundaries but lack of intent for big shots slowed down the scoring rate and allowed Mumbai to get back into the game. RPS needed 47 off the last five overs and they brought it down to 11 in the last over. RPS needed a four off the last ball and they lost the game by one run after almost cruising at one stage of the game.

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Kings XI Punjab 2020 Group Stage:

Sunrisers Hyderabad had won the toss and chose to field in a group stage game in the last edition of the tournament. Punjab did not get going at all and Sunrisers Bowlers kept on piling up the pressure on the Punjab batsman to restrict them to a modest score of 126 on the board.

Sunrisers in reply went hard in the powerplay and scored 52 for no loss in six overs. Punjab bowled really well after that and brought things back into control after Warner and Bairstow’s dismissal. Sunrisers needed 27 in the last four overs with seven wickets in hand, but lost by a margin of 12 runs as they were all out for 114 in the end. This could have been an easy win for the Sunrisers who collapsed totally.

Kings XI Punjab vs Delhi Capitals 2019 Group stage:

This was an IPL group stage match in which Punjab were sent in to bat first and they lost three early wickets. Sarfaraz Khan and David Miller stitched a partnership that took to a decent total of 166 for the loss of 9 wickets. Delhi in reply lost the early wicket of Prithvi Shaw for a golden duck.

But the other batsman got going and were cruising to win with 144 for the loss of three wickets in the 17th over. But Delhi never would have expected to collapse that bad and lost seven wickets for eight runs. They were all out in the end for 152 runs after being on the verge of victorious and it was one of the best collapses in the history of IPL. Sam Curran starred with the ball taking a hat trick in the game.