IPL 2017: Player Of The Week 1

Apr 5, 2019 at 12:59 PM

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IPL 2017: Player Of The Week 1

The much anticipated tenth edition of IPL is here and the action in the first week is coming in thick and fast. The league has already thrown a lot of surprises on block and thus resulted in many nail-biting finishes.

The season kickstarted with a lot of injuries and lots of surprise bids and buys by diffferent franchises. It definitely has lived up to the hype.

Bowling spells, big show batting displays, ‘heavenly’ sixes, some great fielding and youngsters taking up the charge.

Let’s look at the players of the week:

RASHID KHAN:  IPL 10 has found its ‘Superstar’ in teenage Afghanistan leg spinner, Rashid Khan. After being picked up in the auction by Sunrisers Hyderabad, defending champs no less, few would have expected for him to be chosen in the playing XI ahead of some superstar names.

Credit to Hyderabad, they obviously saw something in Rashid that not many had noticed and brought him straight into their playing XI. Being the costliest buy among uncapped players and the first Afghani to play in IPL, he never let that distract away from his game! Rashid has already taken more wickets (5) in his first eight overs of this season; more than Sunrisers Hyderbad’s leading spin wicket-takers last year: Deepak Hooda and Bipul Sharma (3). He has bowled with control and skill, conceding runs at just 6.87 runs per over and varying leg breaks and googlies with regularity.

CHRIS LYNN : Kolkata knight Rider’s had a dream start to their IPL 10 journey, thanks to this man : Lynn. The decision to let him open the innings with Gautam Gambhir was indeed a smart move and grabbed a lot of eyeballs around. The players performace in the Big Bash league with fastest fifty in 18 balls only was repeated in their first match against the Lions. Lynn has historically struggled against spin so getting him in as early as possible when teams are keen to give the new ball to seamers suits his game. 184 is also the highest opening stand in history of the IPL. They won the game by 10 wickets with 31 balls to spare. Aussie, Lynn (93 off 41) was left seven short of what would have been a spectacular hundred. The Aussie reached his half-century first, off just 19 balls in what came across like a very hostile batting stint.

HARDIK PANDYA: Players like Nitish Rana and Hardik Pandya are the next breed of Indian T20 batsmen; not as classical as Manish Pandey and Lokesh Rahul but less refined and more powerful. Hardik’s innings vs Kolkata and Pune is deeply enticing and just what the T20 is about giving a depth to the camps lower batting order.

Pandya was the star for Mumbai Indians as his 15-ball-35 took the two-time winners to 184/8 in the first game. But loss came over, though in next one vs Kolkata the team was taken over the line by quickfire innings. The tormenter-in-chief,

Pandya took six off the first two balls; Suryakumar Yadav misfielded to concede a four. Next ball, he aired one towards deep square leg but Rishi Dhawan couldn’t hold on to it. Needing three runs off two balls, Pandya swatted the ball towards the fine-leg fence to pull off a sensational chase.

KEDAR JADAV : If something is positive about the Royal Challenger’s Bangalore cameo this season is Jadhav. In the absence of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers and with Chris Gayle still looking short of his best, Jadhav has stepped up brilliantly, scoring 31 (16) and 69 (37) to elevate RCB’s batting. Jadhav’s form in the middle order means RCB can, when Kohli and de Villiers return, match the batting depth of last season when Rahul batted in the middle order.

RISHABH PANT: Pant’s innings against Bangalore was one of the great IPL innings. His father died earlier in the week and for him to play that innings, on that stage, in that match, at just 19 years of age, after all that had happened to him, was simply staggering.
Pant displayed a mental toughness in that innings that makes the power of his batting all the more exciting. A week of grief but an evening of brilliance indeed.Pant’s very first ball, from slow left-armer Abdulla, was plucked off leg stump, elevated by his whiplash wrists, and sailed serenely over the fence at corner. Pant looked exhausted and a touch bewildered as headed back with 57 off 36 to his name.

IMRAN TAHIR: Tahir went unsold in the IPL 2017 auction but was eventually picked up by the Rising Pune Supergiant just a few days before the tournament begun. With his performances in the first couple of matches, he could go on to challenge for the Purple Cap. He has taken 5 wickets in 2 matches at an economy rate of 7.12.

TOP PLAYER OF THE WEEK:
RASHID KHAN: If you go above among all these players achievement and displays already the first week, they all are unique in their own way but this man has been exceptional.
In the IPL 10, there is a certain Afghan sharpshooter going by the name of Rashid Khan who is causing some mayhem. From a country coming like Afghanistan, playing his first IPL game and then bamboozling big names with his leggies is an achievement. He has been in talk since the auctions and to make him a part of the Risers camp has been the best decision of the franchise.
He took two wickets against the RCB but bettered that against Gujarat by taking three wickets and giving away just 19 runs. He also has the best bowling figures so far this season and has the second-best bowling average. He has bamboozled batsmen with his googlies and variations and will be looking to continue to be the strike bowler for the Sunrisers as the season progresses.
He has taken the tournament by storm with 5 wickets in 2 matches. He currently sits on top of the list of highest wicket takers and holds the Purple Cap as well.The beauty about playing an unknown bowler in such a tournament is that it can do two things to batsmen – make them a bit tentative and calculative or lure them to dominate straight away.
And both these approaches come with the risk of a wicket.Laxman said: “Even in the practice sessions, none of our batsmen is able to pick him. In fact, we had our wicket-keepers Naman Ojha and Eklavya Dwivedi do two practice sessions with him just to see if they were able to pick his wrong ‘uns and other variations.
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