Krishnamachari Srikkanth, former Indian cricketer has opined that Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) leg-spinner Rashid Khan is so far the most valuable cricketer in the history of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
The Afghan leggie may not have scalped any wicket against Mumbai Indians but his superb spell saw the opposition batters struggling against him.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth: Rashid Khan Is The Most Valuable Player In IPL History Ever
The likes of Quinton de Kock and MI captain Rohit Sharma played knocks of 40 and 32 respectively, but the Sunrisers managed to maintain a stranglehold on the defending champions. As a result, MI was restricted to 150/5 in the allotted 20 overs after batting first in Chennai.
Rashid Khan returned with the figures of 0/22 and was the second most economical bowler for SRH. His excellence impressed Krishnamachari Srikkanth as the former cricketer heaped praise on the Afghanistan leg-spinner. He also mentioned that Chennai is becoming the epicentre for nail-biting finishes in this year’s IPL.
@rashidkhan_19 you are by far the most valuable player in the IPL ever! Absolute amazing bowling which helped the @SunRisers to restrict @mipaltan to 150 odd! Chepaulk becoming the epicenter for thrillers this #IPL2021 #SRHvMI pic.twitter.com/H5wIKOETA5
— Kris Srikkanth (@KrisSrikkanth) April 17, 2021
Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan, with 20 wickets in 16 matches, was the highest wicket-taker for David Warner’s men last season. Rashid Khan has picked 4 scalps so far bowling 12 overs averaging 16 and at an economy rate of 5.33-the second-best in IPL 2021 after Jaydev Unadkat.
Krishnamachari Srikkanth isn’t the only person praising Rashid Khan. Former Indian opener-turned-commentator Sunil Gavaskar stated earlier that the one bowler that all the captains want in their team is Rashid Khan.
Sachin Tendulkar had earlier tweeted that Rashid Khan is the best spinner in the world in T20 format besides having some batting skills as well. So Krishnamachari Srikkanth’s praise of Rashid Khan is nothing new.
Sunrisers Hyderabad Suffer Another Batting Collapse To Succumb To Their 3rd Consecutive Defeat
The Sunrisers, however, failed to execute their batting plans as they went through a horrendous collapse while chasing a 151-run target. Jonny Bairstow smashed a 22-ball 43 to give SRH a rollicking start, while David Warner too managed 36 off 34 balls but once the duo was dismissed, the middle-order again failed to come to the fore.
All-rounder Vijay Shankar (28 off 25) cracked a couple of sixes off Krunal Pandya to keep SRH in the hunt but he kept losing his partners. Abdul Samad (7) was sent packing by Hardik Pandya with another direct throw and then Trent Boult produced a perfect yorker to rid get of Rashid Khan (0). Vijay Shankar too perished in the next over as SRH fell short once again to suffer their third successive loss.
SRH decided to make some wholesale changes to their playing XI. Four changes were made to the line-up as Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, and Khaleel Ahmed were picked for the MI match.
Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Holder, Shahbaz Nadeem, and T Natarajan were dropped from the playing XI. Still, Kane Williamson wasn’t considered but after the team suffered yet another batting collapse, he may return to action soon.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 150/5 (Quinton de Kock 40, Kieron Pollard 35*; Vijay Shankar 2/19) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 137 all out (Jonny Bairstow 43, David Warner 36; Rahul Chahar 3/19) by 13 runs.