IPL play-off schedulepublished at 13:32 BST 25 May
13:32 BST 25 May
Image source, Reuters
After 70 games, the Indian Premier League has reached the knockout stage.
Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru are joined by Gujarat Titans, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals, who are all bidding for a second IPL title.
Here's the schedule for the play-offs - all matches start at 15:00 BST:
Opener KL Rahul top-scored for Capitals with 60 from 30 balls, setting a platform that helped his side move past 200 having been put into bat.
Ajinkya Rahane struck 63 from the top of the order in KKR's reply, but his dismissal started the first of two occasions where his side lost three wickets for one run.
Kuldeep Yadav (3-29) had the KKR captain and Rinku Singh caught from consecutive deliveries, then saw Tejasvi Dahiya dropped by wicketkeeper Abishek Porel from the hat-trick ball.
Axar Patel bowled Dahiya in the following over as the home side slipped from 128-3 to 129-6.
More misery was to follow for the hosts as Rovman Powell was run out from the first ball of the 17th over, Anukul Roy was caught and bowled by Mitchell Starc from the second and Kartik Tyagi was caught off the fourth.
Varun Chakravarthy was the last wicket to fall as Lungi Ngidi claimed figures of 3-27, with KKR seeing their final four wickets fall for nine runs as they lost inside 18.4 overs.
Capitals' victory is the last match of the regular season with the top four in the table moving into the play-offs, which start with Royal Challengers Bengaluru facing Gujarat Titans on 26 May.
The England seamer struck 32 from 15 balls in the Royals innings, then returned figures of 3-17 as Mumbai closed on 175-9 chasing 206.
The result helped Archer's side leapfrog Punjab Kings into fourth place and also knocked Kolkata Knight Riders out of play-off contention.
Royals slipped from 33-0 to 33-2 after being put into bat, and lost 15-year-old opener Vaibhav Sooryavanshi for four and fellow opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, caught off the bowling of Will Jacks, for 27.
Dhruv Jurel top scored with 38, while Archer promoted up the order to seven, provided acceleration with three sixes late in the innings as Royals finished on 205-8.
Archer swiftly removed the openers in Mumbai's reply - dismissing Rohit Sharma for a duck from the fourth ball of the innings and bowling Naman Dhir for six in the third over.
Suryakumar Yadav scored 60 for the home side, helping them to recover from 33-4 via 63 and 48-run partnerships with Jacks (33) and captain Hardik Pandya (34).
Archer returned to break-up the latter pairing, having Pandya caught by Nandre Burger, and Yadav was dismissed two overs later as Mumbai lost four wickets for 18 runs on their way to defeat.
Mumbai finish their campaign in ninth with four wins and 10 defeats, while Royals will now face third-placed Sunrisers Hyderabad in their first play-off match on 27 May.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans, who finished first and second respectively, will play each other on 26 May, with the winners progressing straight to the final on 31 May.
The losers face the victors of Royals-Sunrisers on 29 May for the second place in the final.
Shreyas hits first IPL ton to keep Kings' hopes alivepublished at 19:30 BST 23 May
19:30 BST 23 May
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Captain Shreyas Iyer brought up his first Indian Premier League century with a match-winning six as Punjab Kings beat Lucknow Super Giants by seven wickets to keep their play-off hopes alive.
Iyer set up the win with a 140-run third-wicket partnership with Prabhsimran Singh (69) and then brought up his 51-ball ton in style as Kings chased a target of 197 with two overs to spare.
Victory in the final match of their regular season ends a run of six consecutive defeats for Kings, who won six of their opening seven fixtures, with the other game a no result.
They move above Rajasthan Royals into the fourth and final play-off place, but could be overtaken by either Royals or Kolkata Knight Riders, who both play on the final day of the regular season on Sunday.
Lucknow lost Arshin Kulkarni for a golden duck and Nicholas Pooran for two inside the first three overs, but Josh Inglis made 72 from the top of the order as the bottom side reached 196-6 after being put into bat.
Ayush Badoni (43 off 18 balls), Rishabh Pant (26) and Abdul Samad (37 not out) all chipped in runs for the home side, who finish their 14-game campaign with four wins and 10 defeats.
Kings lost Priyansh Arya, caught by Arjun Tendulkar off Mohammed Shami, from the first ball of their reply, and the India seamer bowled Cooper Connolly (18) two overs later.
Shreyas and Prabhsimran settled any nerves as they dominated the Lucknow attack, with their partnership eventually ended when Tendulkar trapped the latter lbw at the end of the 15th over.
Five short of his century and needing three for victory, Shreyas finished the match in memorable fashion, hitting his fifth six of the match high over long-on.
RCB secure top spot in IPL despite heavy defeatpublished at 19:16 BST 22 May
19:16 BST 22 May
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Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured a top-two finish in the Indian Premier League despite a 55-run defeat by Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Both sides had already secured a play-off spot before the match, but a top-two spot - and the opportunity to play in Qualifier 1 to reach the final - was on the line.
Sunrisers posted 255-4 with half-centuries from Abhishek Sharma (56 off 22), Ishan Kishan (79 off 46) and Heinrich Klaasen (51 off 24).
That meant that RCB needed at least 166 to finish in the top two and they posted 200-4 to claim top spot and set up a tie against Gujarat Giants.
Venkatesh Iyer made 44 after being promoted to the top of the order in place of the injured Jacob Bethell, but Virat Kohli - who was playing in a record 281st IPL game - was out for just 15.
Captain Rajat Patidar hit 56, while Eshan Malinga - the tournament's fourth-highest wicket-taker - again impressed with 2-33.
Sunrisers finish third and will find out who they play over the weekend when the league phase's final games are played.
Buttler helps Titans finish in IPL's top twopublished at 18:51 BST 21 May
18:51 BST 21 May
Image source, Reuters
Jos Buttler helped Gujarat Titans secure a top-two finish in the Indian Premier League with a rapid half-century in his side's crushing victory over Chennai Super Kings.
Former England captain Buttler smashed an unbeaten 57 off 27 balls, including four sixes, as Titans piled up 229-4.
The in-form Sai Sudharsan (84) and Shubman Gill (64) were also in the runs as the CSK bowlers toiled.
Sanju Samson was caught behind by Buttler off the first ball of the CSK innings and the visitors struggled to keep pace in the face of some fine seam bowling.
Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada took three wickets each, with only Shivam Dube showing any real resistance as CSK fell to 140 all out.
Defeat eliminates CSK while Titans are through to Qualifier 1 in the end of season play-offs.
KKR beat Mumbai to keep play-off hopes alivepublished at 19:57 BST 20 May
19:57 BST 20 May
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Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians by four wickets to keep their hopes of reaching the IPL play-offs alive.
Mumbai, who are already eliminated, trudged to 147-8 from their 20 overs as Corbin Bosch top-scored with 32 while England's Will Jacks was run out for 14.
Saurabh Dubey, Cameron Green and Kartik Tyagi took two wickets each for Kolkata, who then reached their target with seven balls to spare.
New Zealand's Finn Allen was out cheaply in the first over but Manish Pandey made 45 and Rovman Powell scored 40 as the pair's fourth-wicket stand of 64 set up a comfortable chase.
Bosch was also in form with the ball for Mumbai, taking 3-30.
Kolkata have now won six of their last seven games and sit sixth in the table. They need to beat Delhi Capitals in their last game and hope that Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings lose theirs.
Sunrisers beat CSK to reach IPL play-offs published at 19:07 BST 18 May
19:07 BST 18 May
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Sunrisers Hyderabad booked their place in the IPL play-offs with a five-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings.
Ishan Kishan was the Sunrisers hero with a well-paced 70 off 47 balls which leaves five-time winners CSK needing a number of results to go their way if they are to reach the final four.
Australia's Pat Cummins took three wickets with the ball as Sunrisers restricted CSK to 180-7 - Dewald Brevis top-scoring with 44 off 27.
Sunrisers were always on top once Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen (47 off 26) got going - the pair sharing a destructive stand of 75.
Kishan fell with just six runs needed but Salil Arora and Ravichandran Smaran completed the win.
Virat Kohli struck 58 and Venkatesh Iyer top-scored with 73 not out as the league leaders posted 222-4 having been put into bat.
Jacob Bethell's lean run continued as he was bowled for 11 by Harpreet Brar, but Devdutt Padikkal added 45 and Tim David posted an unbeaten 28 from 12 balls.
Kings fell to 19-3 in reply as Priyansh Arya, Prabhsimran Singh and Shreyas Iyer were dismissed for a duck, two and one respectively.
They rebuilt from that point, with Shashank Singh top-scoring with 56 from 27 balls at number seven, but remained some way off the rate and finished on 199-8, losing by 23 runs.
In Sunday's second fixture, Delhi Capitals kept their hopes of reaching the play-offs alive with a five-wicket win over Rajasthan Royals.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi hit 46 and Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag hit 53 and 51 respectively as Royals started strongly after being put into bat.
The visitors were 161-2 in the 15th over when Mitchell Starc shifted the momentum in favour of Capitals, removing Parag and Donovan Ferreira with successive deliveries and trapping Ravi Singh lbw two balls later.
Royals ultimately lost six wickets for 30 runs, with Starc taking 4-40, closing on 193-8.
Abishek Porel (51) and KL Rahul (56) put on an opening stand of 105 in the Capitals reply, while captain Axar Patel scored an unbeaten 34 as they chased down their target with four balls to spare.
Seventh-placed Capitals move level with their opponents and Chennai Super Kings on 12 points, while Punjab Kings are one point ahead and occupy the final play-off spot.
Kings and and Capitals now have only one fixture remaining, with Super Kings and and Royals have two to play.
Brilliant Allen helps KKR see off Titanspublished at 19:40 BST 16 May
19:40 BST 16 May
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Finn Allen struck a brilliant 93 off just 35 deliveries as Kolkata Knight Riders eased to a 29-run win over Gujarat Titans.
The New Zealand opener hit 10 sixes and four fours as Knight Riders post an imposing total of 247-2.
Angkrish Raghuvanshi weighed in with an unbeaten 82 featuring seven sixes and four fours, while Cameron Green was also not out with 52 off only 28 balls.
In reply, Shubman Gill smashed a dazzling 85 including seven sixes and five fours but Sunil Narine's 2-29 pegged the Titans back behind the stiff asking rate.
Sai Sudharsan was forced to retire hurt early on after being struck painfully by Kartik Tyagi.
Jos Buttler struck 57 from 35 deliveries, but his dismissal in the penultimate over put paid to the faint hopes of the Titans, who finished on 218-4..
Royal Challengers Bengaluru remain on top of the IPL from the Titans on net run rate, while Knight Riders move up into seventh place and keep their play-off hopes alive.
Marsh & Pooran steer Super Giants to victory over CSKpublished at 18:58 BST 15 May
18:58 BST 15 May
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Mitchell Marsh smashed a brilliant 90 off just 38 balls as bottom side Lucknow Super Giants thrashed Chennai Super Kings to record only their fourth victory of the season.
Marsh struck seven sixes in his sparkling knock, which came in a 135-run opening stand alongside fellow Australian Josh Inglis (36 off 32).
Both openers fell in the space of two balls but Nicholas Pooran and Mukul Choudhary saw out the seven-wicket victory with more than three overs to spare - Pooran striking each of the last four balls of the match for six.
The West Indies' left-hander struck Anshul Kamboj for two leg-side maximums before a glorious straight six took the hosts to within one blow of victory, which was achieved when Pooran went aerial through the leg side once again.
Earlier, CSK racked up 187-5, with 20-year-old Kartik Sharma hitting an impressive 71 alongside contributions from Shivam Dube (32 off 16) and Dewald Brevis (25 off 16).
Fast bowler Gleeson joins title-chasing RCBpublished at 14:37 BST 15 May
14:37 BST 15 May
Image source, Getty Images
Warwickshire seamer Richard Gleeson has signed for Indian Premier League leaders Royal Challengers Bengaluru.
The 38-year-old, who has played six T20s for England, will replace Sri Lanka's Nuwan Thushara after he was not granted permission to play by his country's cricket board.
Gleeson, who was named in the team of the tournament at the recent Pakistan Super League, will join fellow Warwickshire player Jacob Bethell at the franchise.
RCB are top of the table with two matches to go. They are looking to win the title for a second successive season.
The IPL final is on 31 May, meaning Gleeson, who has previously played for Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians in the IPL, could miss up to four matches for Warwickshire Bears in the T20 Blast.
Mumbai needed 50 from the last three overs but Jacks hit two sixes and two fours while Varma finished 75 not out from 33 balls.
After being joined by Jacks in the 17th over with Mumbai four down, Varma struck South Africa's Marco Jansen for two sixes and a four to start the 18th.
Varma added another six and Jacks a four to take 22 from the over before Jacks hit a six and a four in the penultimate over.
That left 15 to get from the last and Jacks began with a straight six and Varma hit Australian Xavier Bartlett for two more to complete the win.
Mumbai, who were captained for the first time by bowler Jasprit Bumrah in the absence of Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav, are already unable to reach the play-offs but the six-wicket defeat dents Punjab's hopes.
They were unbeaten after seven matches but have now lost five in a row. They are still fourth but could drop to sixth by the next time they play.
Image source, Reuters
