Simon Harmer - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Simon Harmer has had a good week. Not only did he get his sixth fivefer in his last ten games; not only did he finish top of the weekly points league with almost double the points of such luminaries as AB De Villiers, Kane Williamson and Virat Kohli; not only did he get his fourth Best cricketer of the Week title and first since March but most importantly he finally managed to reel in Rashid Khan to become statistically the best cricketer of 2018 so far. He has topped this league before. Rashid Khan displaced the South African bowler half way through March and has been at the top of the table ever since - but his poor performances for Hyderabad coupled with Harmer bringing his Sunfoil Series form back to Essex has seen Harmer claim a 309 run lead on the Afghanistan spinner. With Harmer playing almost as many games as Rashid Khan over the next week we could see him further extend his lead this week. 

At this point of the IPL we start to see strike rates rise as net run rate starts to play a bigger part on the overall table. We have certainly seen this play a key feature with the triumvirate of batsmen we have been paying close attention to throughout the tournament. At the start of the tournament Kohli, De Villiers and Williamson (in that order) were sat 9th, 10th and 11th. They have matched each other stroke for stroke this year and have now reversed their order and now sit in 5th, 6th and 8th. Two other players that have joined this big hitting party are Jos Buttler (7th) and Sunil Narine (3rd). These 5, plus three rather unexpected intruders, have all given at least one big hitting performance this week. Below is a table to exemplify this quick hitting trend over the last week.

Sunil Narine - 21 off 7 against Rajasthan
Sunil Narine - 75 off 36 against Punjab 
Ravi Ashwin - 45 off 22 against Kolkata
AB De Villiers- 72 off 37 against Delhi 
Kane Williamson - 81 off 42 against Bangalore 
Jos Buttler - 94 off 53 against Mumbai
Jos Buttler - 39 off 22 against Kolkata
AB De Villiers- 69 off 39 against Hyderabad
Virat Kohli - 70 off 40 against Delhi 
Virat Kohli - 48 off 28 against Punjab 
Aaron Finch - 34 off 20 against Kolkata 
Ravi Jadeja - 27 off 18 against Delhi 

The first thing that stands out here is the fact that so many of these clattering performances are from the same games. To see one score over 20 with a strike rate 150+ in a game is rare but when times are hard these performers can grab them seemingly with ease. At the top of this table sits a double performance from Sunil Narine who has sealed his position as a devastating if not always long lasting opening batsman that can give the rest of the batting line up the chance to build off of his exploits. After two torrid weeks of poor performances and illness, AB De Villiers is back to his best with two performances way over 50 and coupled with a great strike rate. Another player back from the brink is Aaron Finch who has got three decent scores now he is back in the Punjab team one with a strike rate just over the 150 mark. Two anomalies come from Ravi Jadeja and Ravi Ashwin, two bowlers who are really struggling with wickets in this tournament but both showing they have some surprises up their sleeve with the bat. 

Yorkshire and England batsman Joe Root wanted his spell in domestic cricket to set him up for his national performances - and many will fear it has done just that. Last time out for England, Root's performances with the bat were underwhelming and he would oftentimes yield more points with the ball than he would with the bat - and this is just how he has ended his spell with the White Rose. As he turns his attention to Pakistan and a return to his more familiar spot batting at three, one hopes he will reignite his year and keep his rightful place in the overall top ten. 

Week

Simon Harmer - 400
AB De Villiers- 271
Kane Williamson - 242
Virat Kohli - 240 
Sunil Narine- 236
Jos Buttler - 213 
Aaron Finch - 186
Jeetan Patel - 157
Ravi Ashwin - 145
Hashim Amla- 141
Dean Elgar - 102
Joe Root- 102
Ravi Jadeja - 97
Shaun Marsh - 94
Rashid Khan - 90
Jofra Archer - 76
Shakib Al Hasan - 8
JP Duminy- 0
George Bailey - dnp 
Quinton de Kock- dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Simon Harmer - 2927
Rashid Khan - 2618
Sunil Narine- 2408
Jeetan Patel - 2283
Kane Williamson -2205
Virat Kohli- 2167
Jos Buttler - 2064
AB De Villiers- 1907
Nathan Lyon - 1789
Joe Root - 1752
JP Duminy - 1737
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Hashim Amla - 1365
Ravi Ashwin - 1330
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Aaron Finch - 1239
Dean Elgar- 1156
Shakib Al Hasan - 1148
Jofra Archer - 915
Shaun Marsh- 915
Ravi Jadeja - 858
David Warner - 752
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631