The 2021 IPL started on the 9th of April and the players treated us to some great cricket to keep us all entertained. However, just as we were reaching the halfway stage of the competition, the country was battling a severe wave of the pandemic that was getting worse, and many were calling for the BCCI to suspend the competition. The BCCI were thoroughly against it to begin with, but when the players started getting impacted by it, they decided to relent and they postponed the tournament on the 4th of May.
The Resumption of the 2021 IPL
We were all disappointed to hear about the postponement of the 2021 IPL, but it was the right thing to do. So, we just had to sit back and wait for any news of a resumption, and the news that we had all been waiting for was given to us by the BCCI at the start of June. They stated that although they wanted the competition to continue in India, they realised that this was not the best option, so the rest of the tournament will take place in the United Arab Emirates to ensure a safer environment for all those involved.
They then went on to declare that 2021 Indian Premier League will resume in the UAE on September 19th, and that the final will be played on the 15th of October. The BCCI held long talks with the Emirates Cricket Board, and both boards are really confident that the remaining games will get played without any extra delays. There will be a 27-day window to play the remaining 31 matches, and two games will be played on the same day if need be. This is something that will obviously have a bit of a negative impact on viewership numbers, since people can obviously not watch two games at once, but there really is nothing that can be done about this. On a more positive note, it is hoped that fans will be able to attend the stadiums to watch the action live.
Will foreign players be available to the teams? This was a question that many were asking the BCCI, and they have said that they have been speaking with cricketing boards from other countries and are expecting some sort of positive outcome. If there are some foreign players that will not be able to make it to the UAE due to other commitments that they have, then a suitable course of action will be planned. However, as it currently stands, they believe that all eight teams will be able to get back most of their overseas players to ensure that the second half of the 2021 IPL is as action-packed as the first one was.
The BCCI are also working closely with the ICC to make sure that none of the T20 World Cup preparations are disturbed. The 2021 T20 World Cup was also scheduled to be played in India, but the most likely scenario is that they will move it to the UAE for player safety. This is obviously not ideal and will disappoint many Indian fans who had been planning to go watch some matches, but the only other option would be to postpone it, and since it was already postponed last year, this really is not a viable option.
We Cannot Wait for the Resumption of the IPL
The first 30 games of the 2021 IPL were thoroughly entertaining. In fact, out of the 29 matches that have been played, we are hard pushed to think of a match that was boring and left us disappointed about what we saw. We are now going to have a quick recap of some of the best things that took place in the first half of the IPL in India.
When it comes to batsmen performances, there are a few that stick out from the crowd. For example, there will not be many, especially those who like to make some IPL predictions at great betting sites such as Betway.com, who will be forget about Jos Buttler’s amazing 124 runs from just 64 balls that he hit against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. Buttler had hit a few low scores before that game, so it was great to see him showing the cricketing world just how good he really is. Another great knock came from Sanju Samson, who hit a scintillating 119 runs from 63 balls against the Punjab Kings, while the likes of Mayank Agarwal was unfortunate to finish on 99* when playing the Rajasthan Royals.
With regard to bowling figures, there has been a number of excellent bowling performances that we have enjoyed. For instance, watching Andre Russel bowl two overs against the Mumbai Indians and pick up 5 wickets for just 13 runs was pure joy to watch. Deepal Chahar getting 4 wickets for only 13 runs against the Punjab Kings was a bowling performance that was also a pleasure to watch. There was also Shabaz Ahmed, who collected 3 wickets for only 7 runs when playing the Sunrisers Hyderabad. A lot of us tune in to watch the Indian Premier League to see the bowlers get smacked to the boundary or out of the park, but we cannot deny that it is just as pleasurable to watch the world’s best bowlers at the top of their game.
There was also plenty of huge hits for us all to enjoy as is highlighted by the fact that an innings score of 200 or more has been hit on 8 different occasions, and we definitely would not be surprised if this figure was doubled come the end of the tournament in the UAE. In fact, since we are now reaching the business end of the competition, we will likely get even more entertainment, and cricket fans across the globe will be eagerly waiting for its resumption. We are just hoping that all of the foreign players will be able to take part as there can be no doubt that the competition would be a lot worse off without their talents on show. We cannot wait for September to arrive, so we finally get to see which team will be crowned IPL 2021 champions on the 15th of October.
