Sports Update: Veteran Sunil Chhetri will retire, Mumbai and Lucknow will play their last match in IPL 2024
IPL 2024: Mumbai and Lucknow would like to bid farewell with victory
Mumbai Indians, who are out of the race for the IPL 2024 playoffs, will aim to end this year’s IPL season with a win when they play their last match against Lucknow Super Giants at Wankhede Stadium on Friday. For Lucknow too, the doors to the final four are almost closed.
If Lucknow, after scoring more than 200 runs against Mumbai, beats Mumbai by a margin of more than 100 runs, then they will get 14 points, but the run rate will remain -0.351. In such a situation, only a miracle can take the Lucknow Super Giants forward. The run rate of seventh-placed Lucknow is -0.787, while the run rate of sixth-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore is +0.387.
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The five-time IPL champion Mumbai Indians were the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race. The team’s performance this season with the new captain, Hardik Pandya, has been very poor. The team has been able to win only four out of 13 matches. A win in the final match can save the team from being at the bottom, and that too if Punjab loses its last match.
Before the IPL 2024 season, there was a lot of anger among the fans of the Mumbai Indians due to handing over the captaincy to Hardik Pandya in place of Rohit Sharma, which also affected the performance of the team. The batsmen were completely disappointed, and the best bowler in bowling, Jasprit Bumrah, could not inspire the other bowlers to perform well. Apart from him, only Gerald Coetzee could have some impact. Hardik Pandya has been able to take only 11 wickets with an economy of 10.58.
How the Mumbai Indians’ batsmen are disappointed can be gauged from the fact that they do not have any players in the top 10 bowlers. Tilak Verma, the batsman who scored the most runs for the team, is in 12th place with 416 runs. Openers Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma failed to give a good start to the team this year.
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Ishaan could score only one half-century, while Rohit scored only one century. Apart from this, he could not even touch the figure of 50. After returning from injury, explosive batsman Suryakumar Yadav certainly played some good innings, but he did not get the support of other teammates. Mumbai’s foreign players also failed miserably. Team David was able to score 241 runs in 10 matches. His highest score was 45 runs.
This is the last match before the World Cup. In such a situation, all eyes will be on the performances of Indian captain Rohit and vice captain Hardik. Apart from these two, the focus will also be on Jasprit Bumrah and Suryakumar Yadav. Rohit Sharma has failed in the last six innings, in which his highest score has been 19 runs. Hardik Pandya also could not play the role of all-rounder at all.
The retirement of India’s legendary footballer, Sunil Chhetri, will be deeply missed
World legend and India’s star footballer, Sunil Chhetri, who has been carrying the reins of Indian football on his shoulders for almost 20 years, has decided to take retirement. Sharing the video on X, Chhetri said that he will play his last match against Kuwait on June 6. Chhetri’s stature can be gauged from the fact that the international football organization FIFA has made a documentary on him named ‘Captain Fantastic’.
It is very difficult to fill the place of charismatic Sunil Chhetri ji in Indian football. As soon as Chhetri announced his retirement, FIFA posted on X, in which it was written, ‘Retiring a legend’. In the post, FIFA has shown Sunil Chhetri standing with great footballers Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. FIFA said through this post that among the active players, after Messi and Ronaldo, only India’s Sunil Chhetri has scored the most international goals.
Sunil Chhetri, born on August 3, 1984, in Secunderabad, Telangana, inherited football. His father, Kharga Chhetri, had played for the Indian Army, and his mother, Shushila, had played for the Nepal national team. Chhetri learned to play football in Delhi. Sunil Chhetri ji also played for City Club of Delhi from 2001 to 2002.
In the year 2001, Chhetri caught the attention of the fans with his football skills at the famous football club Mohun Bagan of Kolkata. Impressed by Chhetri, the then Mohun Bagan coach Amal Dutta predicted that he would become the next Baichung Bhutia of India. Sunil Chhetri is the only footballer in the world who has scored a goal in his 25th, 50th, 75th, 100th, and 150th matches. Sunil Chhetri considers Baichung Bhutia Ji as his idol.