The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on tuesday announced that the last two matches before the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 playoffs will be played concurrently.
“In a first for the IPL, the last two league matches before the VIVO IPL 2021 Playoffs will be played concurrently,” a press release from BCCI read.
“On the last day of the league stage (08.10.2021) of the ongoing season, instead of having one afternoon match and one evening match, two matches (SRH v MI and RCB v DC) will be played simultaneously at 7.30 PM IST (6.00 PM GST),” the statement added.
The release also stated that information regarding “IPL Media Rights tender for the cycle 2023-2027 will be released immediately after the appointment of two new IPL teams which is scheduled to be announced on 25th October 2021″.
Notably, it will the first time that the last day of the league stage in IPL will have matches being played concurrently.
As per the earlier schedule, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) were to face defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI) in an afternoon game at 3:30 PM IST in Abu Dhabi while the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) was to take on last season’s runners-up Delhi Capitals (DC) at 7:30 PM IST Dubai.
However, now both the affairs will be held in the evening at 7:30 PM IST.