IPL 2023

"Home bound for the national duty! We'll be whistling for you, Stokesy! Until next time!" said the franchise a day after sealing their playoffs spot with a crushing 77-run victory over Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Right from the word go, Virat Kohli hit ground running after a long wait of 55 minutes for the game to start due to rain and unleashed a masterclass in carrying the bat through the innings in front of a hugely supportive home crowd through his unbeaten 101 off 61 balls.

After Virat Kohli slammed his second consecutive hundred of IPL 2023, and carried his bat through the innings to power Bangalore to a competitive 197/5, Gill shined with his scintillating strokeplay to hit five fours and eight sixes at a strike-rate of 200 to break countless hearts of crowd at the stadium by hunting down the total with five balls to spare.

Right from the word go, Talismanic batter Virat Kohli hit ground running after a long wait of 55 minutes for the game to start due to rain and unleashed a masterclass in front of a hugely supportive home crowd through his unbeaten 101 off 61 balls, also his seventh IPL hundred.

With Mumbai defeating bottom-ranked Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium by eight wickets, thanks to an unbeaten 47-ball century from Cameron Green and now at fourth place with 16 points, Bangalore have to beat table-toppers Gujarat to get into the playoffs.

Mumbai Indians needed to win the match to maintain their chances of reaching the Playoffs, and their progress will now depend on the result of the last preliminary league match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans at Bangalore. If RCB win, they will go through with a better net run rate.

However, once the auction is done and dusted, these professionals should ideally accept the reality and concentrate on producing match-winning performances for their franchise. But IPL history suggests that more often than not, players with big price tags couldn't deliver as per expectations and same has been the case in the ongoing IPL 2023 season.

With some of the biggest names in cricket battling it out, fans are being treated to a showcase of skill and talent. However, as with any competition, there are always teams that fail to live up to the expectations. Three teams -- Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Punjab Kings -- have been eliminated from the playoff race. Capitals were the first team to be eliminated, followed by Sunrisers and Punjab Kings.

The spat, which started as an exchange of verbals between Kohli and Naveen-ul-Haq during the match at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow escalated into a full-fledged altercation with Gambhir and his former Delhi Ranji teammate Virat Kohli coming face to face and needed to be pulled away by LSG skipper K.L Rahul and some other players.

Injuries of star bowlers like Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer, as well as top batters, including KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer, have left a mark on this season's IPL so far. Let's dive deeper into list of top injured players who missed the entire season or left the lucrative league mid-way through the season.