Once again the Saturday double-header in the Indian Premier League did not fail to amaze. Some exciting cricket was on show as spectators got to see the first century in this edition as well as youngsters, who started to show their worth.  In the first match, Rajasthan Royals lost the toss but it did not make much of an impact as they totally dominated with the bat. Jos Buttler played an extraordinary innings to score a 68 ball century to help the Royals post 193 on the board.

It looked like a chasable total for MI but in the end, RR bowlers did their job superbly well to not only defend but to win the game by a fair margin. Skipper Rohit Sharma feels disappointed not to chase down 193 but says it’s still very early days.

Image Credits: Sportskeeda

“I thought they batted well to get to 193. Buttler played an exceptional inning, we tried everything we could to get him out. But I thought 193 on that pitch could’ve been chased, especially when we needed 70 in 7 overs. But these things can happen and it’s early days. We can learn,” Rohit said at the post-match presentation ceremony.

Let’s look at some talking points from Rajasthan Royals vs Mumbai Indians-

Buttler scores the first ton of IPL 2022

He started slowly at the beginning and it was only a matter of time before he got going. After reaching the first 12 runs in 14 balls, He smashed Basil Thampi for 26 runs in the fourth over and started dominating MI bowling. His 68 ball 100 was included 5 sixes and 11 fours.

Tilak Verma – MI’s hot prospect in IPL 2022

In the absence of Suryakumar Yadav, MI middle order looked average on paper but it actually isn’t. Tilak Verma came in at number 4 and his fearless cricket showed why MI rated this youngster very high. His 33 ball 61 nearly got MI home but eventually, R Ashwin picked him up.

After Tilak’s dismissal, MI lower-order batters including Tim David and Kiron Pollard could not finish the job as RR beat MI by 23 runs.

In the second game, Delhi Capitals were up against Gujarat Titans. Both the teams got a win under their belt in the first match and it was about continuing the momentum. Rishabh Pant won the toss and unsurprisingly decided to chase. Gujarat batting was all about one man i.e. Shubman Gill. His brilliant 86 off just 46 balls is the only reason behind GT’s total got to 171. Delhi Capitals who are still missing their couple of big players eventually found it very tough to chase it. Rishabh Pant also admitted that they should have chased it down but after losing so many early wickets the target looked much higher than it was.

“I think according to the wicket, the total was not so big. We could have batted well, especially in the middle overs,” the Delhi skipper said during the post-match celebration.

“Every match, it is going to be hard for us to come back after losing so many wickets,” Pant said.

Let’s look at the talking points of this match–

Gill shows he can be a T20 batter in IPL 2022

There is no doubt about how much class Shubman has as a batter but questions were always there about his strike rate in the T20s. The former KKR batter gave an answer to that with an exceptional 46 ball 86 against Delhi. He completely dominated the DC bowling, especially their spinners.

Image Credits: Outlook India

Lockie’s four-for was every impressive

Another former Knight shined with the ball i.e. Lockie Ferguson. The Kiwi pacer picked up 4 crucial wickets in crunch times in the game. He dismissed Prithvi Shaw, Mandeep Singh, skipper Rishabh Pant (43 off 29 balls) and Axar Patel to rock the DC’s run chase of 172.