Life is treating Virat Kohli well. He began the year as a new husband, stormed to the top of the overall rankings before going on to have a couple of months rest and relaxation. Last week he sat at the bottom of the top ten of the overall rankings alongside AB De Villiers and Kane Williamson and I speculated that the three would be evenly paced throughout the IPL. Kohli has treated that statement with disdain and delivered two performances over 50 and picked up a further 70 points for his strike rate in that time. Inarguably the highlight of his week (other than being Cricketer of the Week and being named in TIME magazine's 100 most influential people) was his rare feat of carrying the bat in a T20 innings with his 92 in the loss to Mumbai. His performances have seen him shoot up to seventh in the table, leapfrogging Mitchell Marsh and Jeetan Patel. He has also put a cushion between him and De Villiers and Williamson. Neither batsmen had poor weeks scoring, as they both did, points in the triple figures but they stay in the passenger seat compared to Kohli.
It has been a topsy turvy IPL for high flying Sunil Narine. Last week his table topping 182 points came predominantly from the bat. This week his score of 215 has been with his more favoured implement - the ball. The self exiled West Indian got six wickets in his six games and coupled it with a low economy that sees him second in the weekly table as well as move into third place on the overall table. He also crossed an IPL landmark in the game against Delhi when he became the first international spinner to take over one hundred wickets. The dream for the player would be to combine wicket taking with explosive batting rather than it being a 'one or the other' situation. If he were to achieve this Simon Harmer or even Rashid Khan might start to feel uncomfortable.
The week has also thrown up some surprise reversals in fortunes. Rashid Khan and Jeetan Patel have been performing out of their skins when they have played in 2018 but this week put the handbrake on this with startling suddenness. Jeetan Patel's weekly score of 40 for his opening wicketless performance for Warwickshire is the lowest he has got in a week he has played in since Week 2. Rashid Khan's week was not much better. The Afghanistan spinner got just a single wicket over his two games for Hyderabad and, to add insult to injury, got absolutely turned over by Chris Gayle in the process. His yield of 20 points is the lowest for him since Week 2. The damage for Rashid at the top of the table has been limited - he has benefited by Simon Harmer's game for Essex against Yorkshire being a wash out and has a 350 point cushion on third place Narine - however Kohli has pushed Patel down a place to ninth.
It is always laudable for a player to be performing consistently. Two players who may feel slightly underwhelmed by their consistency this week are Jos Buttler and Hashim Amla. In Rajasthan, Buttler has racked up an impressive 174 points however scores of 22, 23 and 24, whilst numerically pleasing, did not do much to aid his team. What was impressive for the English wicket keeper is the strike rate he achieved these totals in - most notably his 14 ball 23 against Bangalore. More consistently yet more disappointingly, Hashim Amla's debut for Hampshire compromised two scores of 36 with a strike rate differential separated by a mere 1.42. This represents a poor run of form for the South African veteran. Before the game against Worcestershire he had scored 350 in his last ten games at an average of 25. Many fancy Amla as a key part of Hampshire's title challenge this year and whilst no one is hugely disappointed with his scores in this opening game, it will be important for Craig White to get some bigger totals from him.
Club cricket can directly have an effect on your chance to play for your country and, at this rate, Ravi Jadeja might have a real problem getting back into national colours. I mentioned last week that Jadeja will be looking for faith from his coach Stephen Fleming and this is something that has not happened. In the last two games for Chennai the spinner has bowled just one over - a continuation of his poor form that started at Saurashtra. Jadeja sits at the bottom of our table and, Warner and Smith aside, will remain there on this current form.
Week
Virat Kohli - 300
Sunil Narine- 215
Kane Williamson- 194
Shakib Al Hasan - 181
Quinton de Kock - 180
Jos Buttler - 179
Ravi Ashwin - 157
AB De Villiers- 148
Hashim Amla - 82
Ravi Jadeja - 41
Jeetan Patel - 40
Aaron Finch - 24
Rashid Khan - 20
Jofra Archer- dnp
George Bailey - dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Dean Elgar- dnp
Simon Harmer - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh - dnp
Shaun Marsh - dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Overall
Rashid Khan - 2198
Simon Harmer - 2011
Sunil Narine- 1847
Nathan Lyon - 1789
JP Duminy - 1671
Joe Root - 1615
Virat Kohli- 1572
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Jeetan Patel - 1454
Kane Williamson -1366
AB De Villiers- 1342
Jos Buttler - 1290
Quinton de Kock - 1075
Ravi Ashwin - 1065
Aaron Finch - 1023
Shakib Al Hasan - 935
Dean Elgar- 932
Hashim Amla - 805
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631
Shaun Marsh- 565
Jofra Archer - 550
Ravi Jadeja - 496
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