Expresso IPL 2024 News Update at 4:30 pm on 4 April 2024

Top IPL 2024 News: Kolkata Knight Riders dominate, defeating Delhi Capitals by 106 runs; Gujarat Titans seek to maintain home record against Punjab Kings; Suryakumar Yadav set to return for Mumbai Indians against Delhi Capitals; and more.

Delhi Capitals vs Kolkata Knight Riders IPL 2024 Highlights: Defending the second-highest total in IPL history (272/7), the KKR beat DC by 106 runs at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, 3rd April. While Rishabh Pant and Tristan Stubbs scraped fifties for Delhi, Varun Chakravarthy and Vaibhav Arora’s 3-fers were enough to see through a win for the two-time champions. Kolkata Knight Riders posted a mammoth 272/7 just missing out on Sunrisers Hyderabad’s record score of 277 from last week. Sunil Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi wreaked havoc with half-centuries starting the on-slaught which Andre Russell finished with a blistering cameos.

Sunil Narine swings for the hills and finds great returns as Kolkata Knight Riders pile on the second-highest IPL total ever. Narine at Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, 3rd April guessed the intention of the bowlers correctly. When they pitched short, he either swayed away from the line to swat them either square of the wicket or even straight, or cut or slash balls through the off-side. And Russell used his bat as a sledgehammer, standing deep in the crease to deal with the fuller-length delivery. Khaleel Ahmed and Ishant Sharma were almost unplayable against Chennai Super Kings at the same venue on Sunday, 31st March but were just a bit off in this outing.

News on upcoming Gujarat Titans vs Punjab Kings IPL 2024 match: Having won both of their first two home games this season, the Gujarat Titans will be looking to keep their home record intact as Punjab Kings visit them today, 4th April. While last year’s runner-ups and the 2022 champions, GT have two wins from three games, Punjab have lost two games in a row. Having defeated Delhi at their new home ground in Mullanpur, Punjab have lost to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru and the Lucknow Super Giants. Gujarat on the other hand, walked into the game on the back of a comfortable win against the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday, 31st March.

Next up: A court in Mumbai has addressed the police to investigate social media influencer Sapna Gill’s allegations of molestation against Indian cricketer Prithvi Shaw in 2023. According to PTI, Metropolitan Magistrate S C Tayde has instructed the police to submit a report of its enquiry by June 19. Furthermore, it has dismissed the plea from Gill to seek an action against the police for not registering a First Information Report (FIR) against Shaw. Earlier last year, Gill had raised charges against Shaw for molesting her. Shaw, however, denied all the charges made against him. The social media influencer, who was arrested in February 2023 for attacking Shaw following an argument regarding clicking selfies, is currently out on bail.

Suryakumar Yadav has been declared fit and is likely to feature in Mumbai Indians’ next IPL game against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday, 7th April. The National Cricket Academy in Bengaluru cleared the middle-order batsman, who had missed more than three months of cricket, on Wednesday, 3rd April. A source in the BCCI confirmed and said, “He is fit now. The NCA made him play a few practice games and he looked good. He can join the Mumbai Indians team. We wanted to be sure that when Surya goes back to MI, he is 100 per cent fit and ready to play games."

IPL 2024 Orange Cap: Rishabh Pant took an almighty leap and rose to number 4 in the Orange Cap chart with a blistering 55 off just 25 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday, 3rd April. Meanwhile, David Warner occupied the 5th position with his 18-run innings. Warner was 4th for a moment but lost his place to Pant’s fireworks as LSG’s Nicholas Pooran dropped out of the Top 5. Virat Kohli, meanwhile, still leads the charts after scoring 22 runs in the match against Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday, 2nd April. Last season, current Gujarat Titans captain Shubman Gill won the Orange Cap with 890 runs.

On Tuesday, 2nd April chasing 182 runs, things were looking grim for Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Kolkata Knight Riders until Mahipal Lamror played a blistering cameo of 33 from just 13 balls pulling back the hosts into the game after a top-order collapse. A 6-time IPL winner Ambati Rayudu on Star Sports said, "Your big-name players who are international players who are supposed to take pressure where are they? Are all in the dressing room. This has been happening for over 16 years for this team. A team like this will never win. This is the reason why they have not won IPL thus far.”

Lastly, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Tuesday, 2nd April has announced the rescheduling of two Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 matches. The fixture between Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) vs Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Gujarat Titans (GT) vs Delhi Capitals (DC) have been swapped. The KKR vs RR match, which was earlier scheduled to take place on April 17 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata will now be played a day prior on April 16. The GT vs DC game, which was earlier scheduled on April 16 at the Narendra Modi Stadium will not take place at the same venue on April 17. The BCCI did not specify any reason for the rescheduling of these matches.

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