The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday night announced that the last two league matches of the ongoing Indian Premier League (Indian T20) 2021 tournament will be played simultaneously on October 8. As per the original schedule of Indian T20 2021, these two last matches of the league stage were supposed to be held on a double-header day, on October 8.
With an 11:00 AM start UAE time, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were scheduled to play Mumbai Indians (MI) in Abu Dhabi whereas on the same day, at 6:00 PM local time, Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were to lock horns with last year’s Indian T20 finalists Delhi Capitals (DC).
Now, as per the revised schedule provided by the Indian cricket board, both the matches will start at the same time, i.e, at 6:00 PM local time on October 8 at their respective venues.
The BCCI said in a release, “In a first for the Indian T20, the last two league matches before the Indian T20 2021 Playoffs will be played concurrently. On the last day of the league stage (08.10.2021) of the ongoing season, instead of having one afternoon match and one evening match, two matches (SRH v MI and RCB v DC) will be played simultaneously at 7.30 PM IST (6.00 PM GST).”
The league phase of Indian T20 2021 tournament is now heading towards his business and with all the teams pushing hard in order to make it to the final four. As things stand, the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rishabh Pant’s Delhi Capitals (DC) look all set to qualify for the Indian T20 2021 playoffs since they have a minimum of 16 points in their kitty.
On the other hand, the Virat Kohli-Royal Challengers Bangalore are also red hot favourites to make it to the final four given that they have started to win matches again and are looking in a great shape for a final push to qualify for the second consecutive Indian T20 playoffs stage.
The other teams in Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Punjab Kings (PBKS), Rajasthan Royals (RR) and even Mumbai Indians (MI), who are the defending champions this year, are in a tight battle for perhaps what could be the final two spots in the playoffs round.
This is the second leg of the Indian T20 2021 being played in the UAE, after the tournament was initially postponed for indefinite time owing to the deadly coronavirus pandemic’s second wave in India earlier this year.
Devarchit Varma is a cricket writer and journalist with an experience of more than a decade, having worked at Hindustan Times (newspaper) and CricketCountry (website). Along with covering international and domestic cricket, he has also interviewed several current and former top players such as Rohit Sharma, Steve Smith, Dale Steyn, Michael Hussey, Jacques Kallis, Brendon McCullum, Shane Watson, Lasith Malinga and many more. He has also worked in other beats as a journalist in Bollywood (Reliance BigOye) and IT (SiliconIndia) industries.
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