IPL Pulse: Hedged bets and cracked voice

You know what day it is. You tried for tickets, even set aside a budget, and it probably did not work out. So it is the couch tonight. RCB v CSK on TV, Cricbuzz on your phone, just as Virat Kohli would have it.

Plenty happened yesterday too. Sameer Rizvi turned up again for DC (two in two now!) and RR finally found their nerve in a close finish after making a habit of losing them last season.

Ashok Sharma clocked 154.2 kph, the fastest ball in IPL 2026. A proper throwback to the Umran Malik days and now to see how this one plays out.

The neutral-in-the-house award goes to the Ahmedabad crowd for cheering the game as much as the home side.

The outfield-is-lava award goes to Mohammed Siraj for the boundary juggle drop and then also (very painfully) rolling over the ball, right where it hurts most.

The finally-someone-held-their-nerve award goes to Tushar Deshpande for nailing his yorkers in the last over and closing out a game RR would have lost last season.

We need to talk about GT's middle order. Two collapses in two matches now. Last season, their approach relied on a strong top-three batting deep and shielding a middle order that loved taking risks. That insurance for the middle-order is missing so far this season, whether due to form or availability. Early wickets are now forcing them to come in early and bat longer against spin, a match-up that does not suit their Indian batters.

Sameer Rizvi was candid about having "some problems against fast bowlers" last season and the work he has put in to address it this year. Axar Patel, though, hedged his bets again, noting that "Ashu is also batting really well" when asked about Rizvi's performance.

In Ahmedabad, Ravi Bishnoi spoke about working on his lengths from last season and Rashid Khan acknowledged Tushar Deshpande's "exceptional yorkers" at the death. Riyan Parag was glad to see Dhruv Jurel flourish at No. 3 after the franchise had "not done a lot of justice to the talent that he possesses" by batting him so low down.

Hearing from the birdies that teams are planning to introduce "overtime" for players, especially captains, who are perhaps needed to work after the match is done and the crowd has left. Enough overtime could add up to a comp-off, redeemable for a game of your choice, just that it cannot be a Playoff match (which is improbable but not impossible despite the focus on overtime things that arent's cricket)

SRH host LSG at home. There is no KL Rahul around for a public dressing-down this time, but you just feel in your heart that Rishabh Pant wants to win this one. For very different reasons of course; it's the start of the season after all. Later in the night, RCB host CSK and, given how both the teams have been faring, we all might be in for an early night.

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