MS Dhoni turns back the clock, SRH set record total — What happened in second week of IPL

Two weeks into the season, The 2024 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) is well and truly picking up pace and the competition for the top four spots is already heating up. Barring Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB) seven-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, the trend of home teams winning games have largely continued.

Also, records were broken and the defending champions were stunned. To say the least, a lot happened in the foregone week in the IPL. Let’s now take a look at some of those key incidents:

With each passing game, IPL 2024 is becoming synonymous with the trend of home teams winning matches. 12 of the 13 matches that have been played so far have been won by home teams, barring just one game when RCB hosted KKR at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Match 10 on Friday (29 March). Even a total of 182/6 in spite of a 59-ball 83 from Virat Kohli was not going to stop KKR from chasing this down.

More from First Cricket News

Harbhajan Singh slams BCCI over India vs Pakistan match in Asia Cup 2025: 'Khoon aur paani ek saath nahi beh sakte' Explained: What is Rs 100 crore defamation suit filed by MS Dhoni that will go to trial after 11 years

In fact, KKR in their reply displayed the kind of aggressiveness and consistency in their batting that most RCB batters lacked. Sunil Narine (47 off 22 balls) and Venkatesh Iyer (50 off 30 balls) were the major orchestrators but even Phil Salt (30 off 20 balls) and Shreyas Iyer (39 not out from 24 balls) showed that a collective batting effort can make all the difference.

This has been the only game so far where an away team has won a match in IPL 2024. Ever since, LSG, GT and DC have all won their respective home games.

Impact Shorts

View All

'Won't require surgery...': Real reason behind Jasprit Bumrah's absence from 5th Test revealed in new report

PCB bans players from WCL over India-Pakistan match controversy

Multiple records were broken on the night of 27 March in Hyderabad. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) hosted Mumbai Indians (MI) and the visitors, led by Hardik Pandya, were taken by surprise. Travis Head, the star of Australia’s ODI World Cup triumph last year, returned to haunt with an 18-ball fifty. At the time he got to the milestone, that was the fastest-ever fifty by an SRH batter, only for his record to be broken by Abhishek Sharma, who registered a 16-ball half-century.

That was not all. Heinrich Klaasen then joined the party with 80 runs off 34 balls that would eventually see SRH break RCB’s record for the highest IPL total —  The Sunrisers posted 277 on the board.

MI did put up a fight in the chase but were restricted to 246/5. The two teams collectively scored 523, which then became the highest aggregate total in IPL history, breaking the record set during CSK vs RR (469) back in 2010.

Cricket fans were treated to something special from “Thala” MS Dhoni on Sunday. Not only did he set the record for most dismissals by a wicketkeeper in T20s, but the 42-year-old proved that he had still got it with the bat.

Also read | MS Dhoni, the batter, back with a bang as CSK leave Vizag with confidence despite defeat

CSK were in trouble at 120/6 during their chase of 192 against Delhi Capitals (DC), and Dhoni came out to bat courtesy to an overwhelming reception. He went onto score 37 runs off just 16 balls, hitting four fours and three sixes in the process. It was a disappointing night for CSK as they lost the game by 20 runs but Dhoni’s performance would have certainly brought a smile on the fans’ faces.

You don’t see team captains become Impact Players for their franchise in the IPL often. Well, that was the case when Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) hosted Punjab Kings (PBKS) on Saturday. To everyone’s surprise, KL Rahul was named their impact player against PBKS with Nicholas Pooran leading the side.

Rahul, however, could not contribute much with the bat after his team batted first. He scored 15 off nine balls, one four and a six, before being dismissed in the fourth over. Later on in Lucknow’s innings, Naveen ul Haq replaced Rahul but the Afghanistan pacer endured figures of 0/43 in Punjab’s chase.

Prithvi Shaw returns

Prithvi Shaw had just managed to score 106 runs from eight matches in IPL 2023, but his wait for playing his first game in IPL 2024 was over when he was named in DC’s playing XI  for their game against CSK. Despite not being able to get to his fifty in his comeback game, Shaw still managed to somewhat live upto the expectations with a 27-ball 43.

Shaw was also involved in a 93-run stand with David Warner for the opening wicket before the latter was dismissed by Mustafizur Rahman in the 11th over.