Virat Kohli - The Best Cricketer of the Week

Many say that County Championship is losing it's lustre but this week Surrey signed the best cricketer of the week and the fourth best overall. Virat Kohli will join up with Surrey to make his glittering debut in the cricketing wonderland that is Beckenham - but until then he is effectively proving his worth in a low profile competition called the IPL. This week has seen him jump to the very top of the chasing pack behind the top three and also quietens his competition from the three IPL batsmen that he has been challenging throughout the season. Kane Williamson would have thought that his displays with the bat would have been enough to give him the edge and in both of his games his figures have matched Kohli. Whilst the Indian got 68 against Kolkata, the New Zealander got 63 against Rajasthan. Then the Delhi born Indian captain got 32 against Mumbai only for the Taurangan to match that against Delhi. It might have been Williamson's week if it wasn't for the extra game that Kohli has played. The last of the batting triumvirate had something of an underwhelming week. After his table topping performance last week, AB De Villiers has been limited to one appearance and one point due to illness. The three are now spread fairly even through the top ten with Kohli 4th, Williamson 6th and De Villiers 9th. 

There were many high scoring performances in this week's round up but there was also a startling amount of low scoring performances. JP Duminy's 4 week sabbatical from the game did not end with a huge yield of points from his three games for Mumbai. He began by getting 0 points from the game against Chennai before getting a paltry 33 points from his other three games. His bowling has been particularly disappointing and he looks a very likely candidate to drop out of the top ten very soon. Duminy was not the only low scoring contributor with Shakib Al Hasan getting just 6 runs across his two games and showing nothing with the ball at all. Ravi Ashwin will also be disappointed. His only contribution was an economy below 6 against Mumbai - this despite bowling his full allocation in his two games. The plight of Ashwin's team mate Aaron Finch has reached it's natural conclusion. After his poor form - chronicled last week - he has now been dropped from the Punjab side. Finch very possibly could be experiencing the worst IPL season of anyone in this year's competition. 

Another player who would have had a real claim for the title of worst IPL campaign before this week would have been Ravi Jadeja. He could even have been a candidate for worst year to date - sitting, as he did, at the foot of the table. The spinner has had the opportunity to gain some momentum this week with Chennai playing 4 games - therefore playing more than any other in our list. The progress the spinner has made is undoubtable. The week began in the manner we have become accustomed, with Jadeja getting 0* and not being trusted to bowl. From there he was given a chance and bagged a wicket apiece against Delhi and Kolkata before ending the week with a threefer including the wicket of his national captain and weekly top scorer, Kohli, in the game against Bangalore. Jadeja has added to these 5 wickets with some decent fielding points - grabbing 4 dismissals and dropping at least 2 more. The shocking sight of Jadeja as the second best of the week has also dragged him off the bottom of the overall table. The root of the table now belongs to George Bailey and Steve Smith - something that may be the case forever more - but the spinner now also has a 21 point lead over Shaun Marsh. The battle at the bottom is looking just as interesting as the one at the top. 

Week

Virat Kohli - 198
Ravi Jadeja - 192
Sunil Narine - 169
Jos Buttler - 157
Kane Williamson - 155
Jofra Archer - 111
Simon Harmer - 106
Quinton de Kock - 96
Hashim Amla - 82
Rashid Khan - 81
Dean Elgar- 58
JP Duminy - 33
Ravi Ashwin - 10
Shakib Al Hasan - 6
Shaun Marsh - 4
AB De Villiers- 1
George Bailey - dnp 
Aaron Finch - dnp 
Nathan Lyon - dnp 
Mitchell Marsh - dnp 
Jeetan Patel - dnp 
Joe Root- dnp 
Steve Smith - dnp 
David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 2507
Simon Harmer - 2421
Sunil Narine- 2103
Virat Kohli- 1838
Nathan Lyon - 1789
Kane Williamson -1734
Jeetan Patel - 1709
JP Duminy - 1704
AB De Villiers- 1631
Joe Root - 1615
Jos Buttler - 1473
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Quinton de Kock - 1292
Ravi Ashwin - 1145
Shakib Al Hasan - 1105
Dean Elgar- 1054
Aaron Finch - 1053
Hashim Amla - 983
Jofra Archer - 759
David Warner - 752
Ravi Jadeja - 741
Shaun Marsh- 720
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631