The bat dominated the ball in the first five games of the 18th edition of Indian Premier League. The bowlers made a mark in the 2nd week of the season.
Ashwani Kumar makes history
Noor Ahmad’s 4/18 vs MI was the only four-wicket haul in the first 6 matches of the season, until Shardul Thakur opened the floodgates. Shardul registered his best IPL figures (4/34) in match 7 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad. Delhi Capitals pacer Mitchell Starc registered his maiden five-wicket haul in T20s on Sunday. Sri Lankan Spinner Wanindu Hasaranga broke the back of CSK with a four-wicket haul of his own in the Sunday encounter between RR and CSK.
However, the standout moment of the week came on Monday in Mumbai, where the Mumbai Indians hosted the defending champions, KKR. Ashwani Kumar, the 23-year old left-arm pacer from Punjab made history by taking a wicket off his very first ball in IPL. He became the 10th bowler to achieve the unique feat. He didn’t stop with that. He added 3 more wickets to his tally and registered the best ever figures (4/24) by an Indian on IPL debut.
Expensive signings continue to struggle
Rishabh Pant started his tenure as LSG skipper with a duck against his former team, Delhi Capitals. He followed this up with two more low scores – 15 vs SRH and 2 vs PBKS.
KKR’s Venkatesh Iyer encountered another failure, when he made 3 runs against Mumbai Indians. Venkatesh has 9 runs from 2 innings this season.
Punjab Kings captain Shreyas Iyer continues to buck the trend by smashing his 2nd fifty in 2 innings. He also became the first Indian captain, and third overall to smash fifties in the first two innings as captain of a team.
Thumping wins and fewer close finishes
Teams batting first managed to win 3 of the last 8 games. RCB thrashed CSK by 50 runs, whereas GT defeated MI by 36 runs. CSK’s narrow defeat to Rajasthan Royals by 6 runs was the only game which remained alive till the last over.
Chasing teams won 5 of the 8 games and the teams chased the target with 15, 23, 24, 43 and 22 balls to spare.
Win the powerplay, win the match
Rajasthan Royals lost to Kolkata Knight Riders despite scoring 14 more runs in the powerplay. Apart from that, the remaining 7 games went in favour of the team which won the powerplay. SRH scored 6 more runs than DC on Sunday, but lost 4 wickets compared to Delhi’s 0 wickets.
3 toppers and 6 laggers
RCB, PBKS and DC remain unbeaten with 2 wins from 2 matches. CSK, MI, KKR, RR, SRH and LSG have all managed to win only one of their three matches.
CSK’s drop was the most dramatic of the lot. The men in Yellow were at a comfortable position on Friday evening. Two defeats in three days raised quite a few questions about their bowling combinations and batting depth. SRH are in a similar situation like CSK, by losing their last two games. Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals snapped their two-game losing streak with a home win.
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