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

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

Sunil Narine - The Best Cricketer of the Week

I feel that at this time of year cricket does not know what it wants. The razzmatazz or the traditional? The superstars or the future stars? The bright colours and the flashing lights or the white, the red and the tranquility. This week it is the IPL stars that win out due to the fact that the County Championship season will (theoretically) start today. It will be an interesting battle in itself to see whether those participating in the four day games in England will get the better of their lower scoring but higher paid compatriots over in India. It is Sunil Narine who has taken to the competition like a duck to a County ground with some electric performances for Kolkata. Narine seems to have something of an affinity with the IPL whereby he manages to imbue himself with batting capabilities that he seems otherwise incapable of in other competitions. This week saw him open the batting for his franchise twice; once he crapped out and the other time he scored a 19 ball half century at a strike rate of 263.15. This highlights the affinity that the West Indian has for this competition. This was his second fifty in the IPL whereas his highest score in the less glitzy PSL stands at a mere 17. For a player who cemented themselves in the top ten with prolific wicket taking for Trinidad and Tobago, it seems unusual to credit him for high impact batting but if he were to perform as he did against Bangalore rather than Chennai he will soon be leapfrogging the non-IPL playing JP Duminy and Nathan Lyon and challenging for a top three place. 

There is a naturally distilled pressure cooker-style quality that these short T20 competitions lend to proceedings. The fact that you are never more than a few days away from your next game allows you to build up form or to continue poor spells with the ball or the bat. It also breeds a natural competition between players. During January's BBL competition my eye was continually drawn to the tussle between Rashid Khan and Jofra Archer who were jostling for position at the bottom of the top ten for the whole month - from there their two paths have dramatically diverted with one at the top of the overall rankings and the other second bottom. This time out I can see three top batsmen all wedged together who could be involved in a three way dog fight over the course of the competition. Hyderabad's Kane Williamson (on 1172 points) joins Bangalore's Virat Kohli (1272) and AB De Villiers (1194) in ninth to eleventh positions with exactly 100 points between them. As it stands it is Kohli who has overall dominance over the other two, however he only got 41 this week from his one game - this is slightly less than the per game average of Williamson who averages 46 points across his two games and is dwarfed by de Villiers' who got 94 points in his one game against Kolkata. At the moment it is the two Bangalore team mates who are  butting heads at the foot of the top ten but Williamson will soon find himself in the mix. 

If rest leads to good performances there are a group of four players that are due to hit the ground running in this tournament. Jos Buttler, Ravi Ashwin and Shakib Al Hasan have all not played a game since the middle of March whilst Ravi Jadeja has not played since the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy at the end of February. So who of these very well rested four has been using their time effectively? The best performing of these four is Hyderabad's Shakib who got 92 across his two games. Shakib thrives in T20 competitions and loves playing games hot on the heels of one another - something that the IPL more than caters for. The player was riding high in January before his injury and subsequent tumble down the overall table. Potentially his return to fitness will see him crawl back up. Jos Buttler was not too far off Shakib's pace either with a Narine-like double with one poor showing against Hyderabad yielding just 6 runs but then got 29 off 18 balls in the truncated game against Delhi. Buttler's spell away from the game has seen him settle just outside the top ten and he would be eager to put himself along side Kane Williamson and contribute to the batting battle discussed above. Two players whose form is slightly more worrying are the two Indian bowlers. Ravi Ashwin has only played one game in the IPL but yielded just one wicket from it. It is unfair to judge the Punjab captain on one performance but he will be looking to change a run of poor form that dates back to the start of February. It is coming up to two months since Ashwin last got anything more than two wickets in a match, something he will be desperate to redress. Another player who is in a slump is Ravi Jadeja. It seems like 2018 might be a fairly moribund year for the spinner. Despite Saurashtra's journey to the final of the Vijay Hazare Trophy, it was an ignominious ending for Jadeja who was eventually not given a chance with the ball whatsoever. Before his most recent game for Chennai this week, his last wicket in any game for any team was all the way back in Delhi for India against Sri Lanka on the 2nd December last year. He will hope for a little more faith from his coach Stephen Fleming than he was shown by Saurashtra otherwise he will start to fear for his position in the Indian team. 

Week 

Sunil Narine - 182

Rashid Khan - 100

AB De Villiers- 94

Shakib Al Hasan - 92

Kane Williamson - 92

Jos Buttler - 85

Ravi Jadeja - 43

Virat Kohli - 41

Ravi Ashwin- 30

Quinton de Kock- 14

Jofra Archer - dnp 

Hashim Amla - dnp 

George Bailey - dnp 

JP Duminy - dnp 

Dean Elgar- dnp 

Aaron Finch- dnp 

Simon Harmer - dnp 

Nathan Lyon - dnp 

Mitchell Marsh - dnp 

Shaun Marsh - dnp 

Jeetan Patel - dnp 

Joe Root - dnp 

Steve Smith - dnp 

David Warner - dnp 

Overall

Rashid Khan - 2178
Simon Harmer - 2011
Nathan Lyon - 1789
JP Duminy - 1671

Sunil Narine- 1632
Joe Root - 1615
Mitchell Marsh - 1425
Jeetan Patel - 1414
Virat Kohli- 1272
AB De Villiers- 1194
Kane Williamson -1172
Jos Buttler - 1111
Aaron Finch - 999
Dean Elgar- 932

Ravi Ashwin - 908
Quinton de Kock - 895
Shakib Al Hasan - 754
David Warner - 752
Hashim Amla - 723
Steve Smith - 706
George Bailey - 631
Shaun Marsh- 565
Jofra Archer - 550
Ravi Jadeja - 455