The Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA) on Saturday decided that the playoffs of the 12th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will start from 7:30 pm (IST) instead of the scheduled 8 pm start (IST). The 11th edition of the T20 extravaganza had seen the playoff games beginning at 7 pm (IST). Speaking to IANS, a BCCI executive said that dew will be an important factor down south while the host broadcasters, Star Sports, had already requested for an early start as the playoffs will be followed by an elaborate presentation ceremony. “We have the playoffs in the south where dew is a huge factor. Also, Star had written to us to prepone the timings. If you realise, there is the case of an extended presentation ceremony after the playoffs. Keeping all this in mind, it was felt that we should bring it forward,” a BCCI official said. In the ongoing league stage fixtures, some of the matches got over at midnight, which even drew flak from the fans. “We have taken everything into consideration. Even the broadcasters had written to us, so we decided to tweak the timings,” the official added. Qualifier 1 of IPL 2019 will be played in Chennai on May 7, Eliminator and Qualifier 2 in Vizag on May 8 and 10 while the final will be held in Hyderabad on May 12. The CoA also decided that the first couple of matches and the final of the Women’s T20 Challenge fixtures will be played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur from 7:30 pm (IST), while the third game, scheduled on May 9, will begin at 3:30 pm (IST). “As far as the women’s tournament is concerned, this is just a beginning and we want the schedule to be spectator-friendly,” the official said.<doc-sep>Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by 16 runs in the 46th match of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 at the Feroz Shah Kotla on Sunday. With this win, DC have climbed to the top of the points table for now. Mumbai Indians stand the chance of overtaking them to grab pole position if they win on Sunday as well. However, DC have qualified for the playoffs with this win. For RCB, this defeat has ruled them out of the tournament. Chasing DC’s total of 187/5, Virat Kohli and Co. managed to score 171/7 as the Delhi boys recorded their eighth win to take their tally to 16 points from 12 games. RCB, meanwhile, suffered their eighth defeat of the season and remained at the bottom with 8 points from 12 games. Here’s how Twitter reacted: Brilliant from @DelhiCapitals this season. Ponting, Sourav and the Young Turks doing the trick. Congratulations to them on making it to the playoffs in style #DCvRCB — Hemang Badani (@hemangkbadani) April 28, 2019 Kudos to young @DelhiCapitals team for qualifying for playoffs. Credit to the team and @SGanguly99 for the turnaround — Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 28, 2019 Disappointing result for #rcb they need good Indian all rounder and top notch death bowler… #IPL — Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) April 28, 2019 Delhi Capitals. New name…new game. Finally….a good year in #IPL. ☺️🙌 — Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 28, 2019 Yay ! Into the PlayOffs after 7 years. What a happy feeling ! Great effort by the team and amazing support from @DelhiCapitals fans despite the heat at Kotla. #DCvRCB pic.twitter.com/lTsZDbgpSF — Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) April 28, 2019 Delhi Capitals reaching the play-offs in many ways is the story of the season so far. Young team, full of zest and learning with every match. I hope Prithvi and Rishabh rise to the occasion in the matches to come — Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) April 28, 2019 With play-off qualification sealed and the @DelhiCapitals sitting pretty at the top of the table, the players are all smiles for the #IPLSelfie 🔥🙌#DCvRCB pic.twitter.com/0WiOjodhQO — IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 28, 2019 Congratulations to @DelhiCapitals on qualifying into the Play-Offs. We should've gotten closer, but some great bowling & and key breakthroughs in the middle overs by DC put the brakes on our chase. ☹️ #DCvRCB #VIVOIPL2019 — Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 28, 2019 Teams to lose 100 matches in the Twenty20 format: 112 – Middlesex 101 – Derbyshire 100 – ROYAL CHALLENGERS BANGALORE#IPL2019 #RCB #DCvRCB — Sampath Bandarupalli (@SampathStats) April 28, 2019 Delhi qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2012 season. #DCvRCB — Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) April 28, 2019 Shikhar Dhawan is the Player of the Match. #IPL2019 #DCvRCB Runs: 50 Balls: 37 Fours: 5 Sixes: 2 pic.twitter.com/a8jExnpllm — Cricbuzz (@cricbuzz) April 28, 2019 https://twitter.com/sagarcasm/status/1122500689542823937 DISGRACEFUL scenes at Feroz Shah Kotla. Security forced RCB fans to stay and watch their team's death bowling.#DCvRCB #DCvsRCB #IPL2019 pic.twitter.com/eU8zI8uCfZ — CricBlog ✍ (@cric_blog) April 28, 2019 https://twitter.com/NILESHMAINKAR/status/1122379944728809472<doc-sep>
An all-round Rajasthan Royals (RR) defeated SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven wickets to end their home campaign on a winning note in the 45th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 at Jaipur on Saturday. But the biggest news from the match, or as a result of it, was Chennai Super Kings (CSK) have become the first team to qualify for the playoffs. And they have done it so with two matches remaining in the league round. The three-time champions thus qualified for the playoffs in each of the 10 IPL seasons they have competed in. And their worst finish was fourth in the second edition in 2009. Here's how they have performed over the years: 2nd in 2008, semi-finalists in 2009, 1st in 2010 and 2011, 2nd in 2012 and 2013, 3rd in 2014, 2nd in 2015 and 1st in 2018. They served a two-year ban. Theoretically, RR do have an outside chance to finish in top four, though. MS Dhoni-led CSK have won eight games from 12 outings and are leading the table with 16 points. By virtue of this win, RR have now moved to the sixth position in the eight-team standings with 10 points from 12 games. Despite the loss, SRH have just managed to hold to their fourth place in the table with 10 points from 11 games. But to stay in contention for a playoff berth, RR first must win their remaining two away games against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 30 and Delhi Capitals on May 4 and then hope for favourable results from other matches. Opting to bowl in a must-win match, Rajasthan first restricted Sunrisers to 160 for eight and then chased down the target in 19.1 overs. Chasing 161, Liam Livingstone (44 off 26) and Ajinkya Rahane (39 off 34) got RR off to a flying start with the former taking the attack to the opposition. Sanju Samson hit the winning runs, a four off the first ball of the last over, bowled by Shakib Al Hasan. (With PTI inputs) For in-depth, objective and more importantly balanced journalism, Click here to subscribe to Outlook Magazine