Many players relish the opportunity to be the hero. Think Lala Amarnath in 1933, think Botham in 1981 and start thinking Rashid Khan in 2018. The thing about the heroism of the Afghanistani player is he seems to enjoy contrasting some world beating performances at the end of tournaments with some pretty mediocre showings just before. He has done this already this year. Afghanistan seemed out of the World Cup Qualifiers earlier in the year but rose Phoenix like and managed to qualify - led, of course, by captain Rashid Khan. This week we have seen a similar pattern. Whilst the Hyderabad bowler's performances this season have been important to his side, he has often lacked consistency and oscillated between non-eventful showings and match-winning displays. This has been epitomised in his three games this week. He began the week with something he manages to do quite often and scored 0 points from the final group stage game against Kolkata. This acted as a counterpoint to the two games that followed where he claimed eight wickets and kept his economy startlingly low, whilst also holding his nerve to help his side into the final. His eight wickets this week weren't any old wickets, however. Not many bowlers would be able to match a weekly haul boasting the likes of Robin Uthappa, Chris Lynn, MS Dhoni, Dwayne Bravo, Virat Kohli, AB De Villiers and Moeen Ali. This performance has not been enough to overhaul Simon Harmer from the top of the overall table, however he has halved the South African's lead and now sits 193 points below the Essex bowler.
His performances over the last fortnight have been so impressive but Kane Williamson has proved himself to be something of an inverse Rashid Khan in the IPL this week. Whilst his Hyderabad team mate stepped up to the plate, the New Zealander got his lowest weekly yield of points for the entire tournament. This will not overly distress him however as he has used the showpiece to boost his position in the overall table - climbing from 11th to 5th on his way to tomorrow's final. He has also come out on top of the trio of batsmen with whom he has been vying over the last month - finishing 167 points above Virat Kohli and 328 above AB De Villiers. Both Bangalore players have had something of an eventful week - and one that will effect their point scoring over the coming months. Kohli's neck injury has seen him forced to cancel his spell with Surrey and put an end to his run of 7 consecutive weeks of point scoring. On the other hand AB De Villiers announced his international retirement which may increase his chances of playing more domestic cricket and T20 competitions - something which will boost his points going forward.
Dean Elgar needs special mention before we wrap up with his highest score for 8 weeks. We are used to praising bowlers Simon Harmer and Jeetan Patel for their domestic performances but this week both Elgar and fellow countryman Hashim Amla have used the bat and the plethora of games in the Royal London One Day Cup to propel them into the top five for the week. Both South Africans languish outside the top ten but will continue to play very regularly over the coming weeks whilst their IPL playing compatriots will now be resting.
Week
Rashid Khan - 284
Dean Elgar- 211
Sunil Narine - 209
Simon Harmer - 168
Hashim Amla- 159
Jeetan Patel - 150
Kane Williamson - 133
Shakib Al Hasan - 120
AB De Villiers- 103
Shaun Marsh - 96
Ravi Jadeja - 83
Jofra Archer- 50
Ravi Ashwin - 40
Aaron Finch - 4
Virat Kohli - 4
George Bailey - dnp
Jos Buttler - dnp
Quinton de Kock- dnp
JP Duminy - dnp
Nathan Lyon - dnp
Mitchell Marsh- dnp
Joe Root - dnp
Steve Smith - dnp
David Warner - dnp
Overall
Simon Harmer - 3095
Rashid Khan - 2902
Sunil Narine- 2617
Jeetan Patel - 2433
Kane Williamson -2338
Virat Kohli- 2171
Jos Buttler - 2064
AB De Villiers- 2010
Nathan Lyon - 1789
Joe Root - 1752
JP Duminy - 1737
Hashim Amla - 1524
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Ravi Ashwin - 1370
Dean Elgar- 1367
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Shakib Al Hasan - 1268
Aaron Finch - 1243
Shaun Marsh- 1011
Jofra Archer - 965
Ravi Jadeja - 941
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631
No comments:
Post a Comment