IPL Pulse: Brick-breaking and chase trending

Good morning,

It seamed and bounced and spun last night. No, Afghanistan aren't here for the Test match yet. Yes, it happened in an IPL match. And yes, the Impact Player rule is still intact.

Which is why you must catch up on all that happened through Pulse, your 2-minute morning scan of the IPL universe.

Last night in five lines

1. DC got off the mark with a not-so-composed chase of 142, recovering from 26/4.

2. Sameer Rizvi's unbeaten 70 headlined an unbroken 119-run stand with Stubbs.

3. Ngidi and Natarajan had earlier combined to keep LSG to 141.

4. LSG captain Rishabh Pant started the season with a freak run-out at non-striker's end.

5. Returning left-arm quicks Mohsin and Natarajan made an immediate impact.

Oh, that happened

Rishabh Pant opened.

Marsh-Markram's opening duo might have been one of the best last season but the LSG team management "wanted to explore that lefty-righty option at the top so they couldn't bowl a left-arm spinner," Pant explained. Will he continue to open? "It's 50-50," he said. What also changed was Pooran moving lower down to break last season's top-three further apart. "He [Pooran] is taking the charge in the middle overs," Pant informed.

Pulse awards

The golden-duck-galore award goes to Match No. 5 for producing four of them.

The break-it-like-bricks award goes to LSG for successfully dismantling last year's very successful top-three.

The keeping-a-straight-face award goes to Auqib Nabi for watching a fast bowler steam in on a red-soil pitch with two slips waiting... from the dugout.

The home-alone award goes to LSG for being the only team to lose a home game in this first round of matches.

The press-conference-lottery award goes to both DC and LSG for sending the most random faces to front the press. DC had Dushmantha Chameera for the pre-match presser and didn't play him, while LSG sent debutant Mukul Choudhary post defeat, leaving him with little to offer.

Talking point

LSG were undone last year by a toothless bowling performance in the Powerplay, when they averaged 50 and rarely threatened edges. The fix was deliberate: bring in Bharat Arun and trade in Mohammed Shami. The early signs are encouraging. Against DC, Shami set the tone and Mohsin Khan added left-arm variety. Prince Yadav's lengths and discipline reflected a more thought-out approach. As a result, LSG bossed the Powerplay but lost their way later without Digvesh Rathi (who couldn't be brought in as Impact Sub owing to the earlier batting collapse).

Who's saying what

Sameer Rizvi, DC's Impact Player, was preferred over Ashutosh Sharma and revealed he had been told he "will bat at No. 4 this season".

Axar Patel, though, left the door ajar. "The plan was to play Rizvi, but also keep Ashutosh as an option. Maybe if we hadn't lost early wickets, things could've been different. But yes, last year Ashu won us the first game, this time Rizvi. He works hard and is always asking how to improve."

Stat Snack

This was DC's fifth successive win over LSG, a joint-record for them.

What's the latest gossip?

With all five matches in this first round won by teams chasing, authorities are considering a change in playing conditions. My little birdies reckon that after 10 overs in the first innings, the batting captain can go to the umpire and ask the ball to be dunked in a bucket of water, just you know to keep things a bit even.

Tonight's watchlist

KKR vs SRH. All eyes on the Eden Gardens surface and if it's finally dry after years of KKR demanding that. Keep an eye out on Varun Chakaravarthy, who's in the middle of another difficult stretch in his career. In the first game against MI, he conceded 48 runs and, for the first time in 17 T20 games, went wicketless. In five of his last six T20s, he's had an economy rate of over 10.

Reckless prediction for tonight's match

The only spin on show will be in an Ajinkya Rahane post-match chat, not in the middle.