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Top 5 Most Evolved Surprise Packages of IPL 2020 | The 5 players who evolved the most from previous IPL seasons

The Indian Premier League recently completed its thirteenth year as the best T20 league in the world with Mumbai Indians retaining their Title. We witnessed so many nail biting finishes, some terrific individual performances, a glimpse of the local talents etc.

Apart from these, there were some players who performed exceedingly well in this season unlike their performances in the previous seasons. As a result, they turned out to be the surprise packages for us in IPL 2020. In this article, I am going to name five such players, who have had a major turnaround in this year’s IPL. Here we go.

5. Mayank Agarwal (KXIP)

Mayank Agarwal has been playing in the IPL since 2011. Despite being a top order batsman, he had crossed the 50-run mark just five times in 72 innings before 2020. Can you believe it?

His overall average and SR were just 18.34 and 128.13 respectively prior to this season. He would hit 3-4 gorgeous shots and then get out cheaply, so the consistency was not there at all. Preliminarily being counted as a Test specialist these days, Agarwal showcased his adaptability as an all-format batsman by playing some really impactful knocks in IPL 2020. He rescued KXIP in their very first game against DC and took it to the Super Over by playing a tremendous innings of 89 runs off 60 balls. Also, he scored a magnificent 45-ball hundred against RR, made a resolved fifty versus KKR and was instrumental in providing KXIP a quick start in almost every game he played.

His efforts are well reflected in his stats as he finished with 424 runs at a really good average of 38.55 and a brilliant SR of 156.46. Therefore, he deserves to be in my list of one of the most evolved surprise packages of this season.

4. Eoin Morgan (KKR)

Eoin Morgan is a big name in international cricket. But as far as IPL is concerned, he was nothing short of an underperformer considering all seasons prior to 2020. If I go by numbers, he had 854 runs to his name overall with a poor average of 21.35 and a SR of mere 121.13 prior to IPL 2020.

But, in this season, he amassed 418 runs with a terrific average of 41.80 and a healthy SR of 138.41. He consistently scored quick 40s and played a big part in the finishing job for KKR. His splendid knock of 68* off just 35 balls was instrumental to defeat RR in their last league match and thus kept the playoff hopes of KKR truly alive. So, definitely I find Morgan to be much more effective as well as successful in this season unlike the previous seasons he was a part of. Therefore, he is in my list of one of the most evolved surprise packages of IPL 2020.  

3. Jason Holder (SRH)

Another prominent name to have sparkled in this season for the very first time is Jason Holder. What I could term ‘’funny’’ is he wasn’t even a part of the IPL as he went unsold in the auction. But when Mitchell Marsh was ruled out because of injury, SRH signed him as a like-for-like replacement.

This move surprisingly did wonders for their team as Holder played a crucial role with the ball by taking 14 wickets from 7 games with a brilliant avg of 16.64 and SR of 12. Also, he scored 66 runs including 2 vital knocks of 26* and 24* ; both against RCB, which ensured a SRH-victory. In the previous seasons, he had taken just five wickets from 11 matches, with a disastrous bowling avg of 61.2 and SR of 43.2. It clearly shows the evolution of the Windies captain as a player in this IPL; for which he is a part of this list.

2. T. Natarajan (SRH)

If I have to say the finest discovery in this IPL, my answer would be T Natarajan. His evolution as a bowler is nothing short of spectacular. Natarajan made his debut in the IPL back in 2017, in which he had an unimpressive outing. He took just two wickets from six games at an average of 57.50 and a SR of 38.00. The economy was also over 9. So, he was barely noticed.

But the comeback was tremendous in this season. He led the bowling attack especially in death overs and his ability to nail yorkers consistently and accurately has been one of the major talking points this season. If I consider stats, he has picked 16 wickets from 16 games at an average of 31.50 and a SR of 23.56. Despite bowling numerous overs at the death, he has a good economy of 8.02. The way he troubled guys like Pant, Pollard, AB etc, was remarkable.

1. Rahul Tewatia (RR)

We all are well aware of the exploits of Rahul Tewatia in IPL 2020. His sensational six hitting against Sheldon Cottrell, domination against Rashid Khan are still fresh in my mind.

But it took quite a while for Tewatia to make his mark in IPL. He has been playing in the league since 2014, but didn’t have a noteworthy season prior to 2020. In the 20 games before this year, he had got a chance to bat in 12 games, in which he scored 111 runs at an average of 18.5 and had a modest SR of 124.71. But, in this season, he has smashed 255 runs at a brilliant average of 42.50 and SR of 139.34. More importantly, he finished really well for RR when their much anticipated finisher Riyan Parag was struggling. Apart from his efforts, the credit must be given to the RR management for trusting his abilities and using him properly.

So, this is my list of five most evolved players who came as a surprise package for all of us in IPL 2020. Do you agree? Have your say!

Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today.

IPL 2020: Rating the 5 Most Expensive Players from the Auction | Rating the 5 most expensive players from the IPL 2020 Auction

The price that a player attracts in the auctions acts as an additional weightage to his outings in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Naturally, the franchises must harbor high expectations from those individuals too, given the amount of capital that is invested in them. However, the players fail to live up to those projections on multiple occasions.

Whether they are bogged down by the inseparable price-tag is unknown, but on several instances it seems like the team-managements tend to overestimate a player’s potential and performances. The cricketer can’t be termed guilty in such a scenario, but he has to take all the criticism lying down; firstly, because he is the one raking all the money and secondly, such is the nature of the system. In this article, we analyze and rate the performances of the five most expensive players from the IPL 2020 auctions. 

1. Pat Cummins – INR 15.5 crore: 5/10

It was rather surprising to watch Kolkata Knight Riders break the bank to secure Pat Cummins, considering that his credentials in the T20 format are modest at best. That was visible in the season as the world’s top-ranked Test bowler struggled to carve an impact that his price-tag suggested that he would. Cummins ranked at the 19^th spot in the list of the highest wicket-takers, despite playing all 14 games for his team. He managed to scalp only 12 wickets, but did so at an impressive economy rate of 7.86.

He finished wicket-less in eight out of the 14 encounters that he played, which included a run of five successive matches October 3 to October 16 when the pacer failed to secure even a single dismissal. Perhaps the true demonstration of his potential came in the last match of KKR’s campaign, which was a must-win one for the team. Cummins took four key wickets of the Rajasthan Royals but in retrospect it seems to be too little, too late. The Aussie turned out to be quite handy with the bat though, scoring 146 runs at a strike rate of 128.07 that included a solitary half-century too.

2. Glenn Maxwell – INR 10.75 crore: 1/10

Glenn Maxwell’s underwhelming returns in the IPL continued as Kings XI Punjab bore the brunt for spending INR 10.75 crore on the Aussie maverick. The dynamic middle-order batsman scored a total of 108 runs in 13 matches this season, at a strike rate of 101.88. Maxwell didn’t score a single six during the entire duration of the tournament! Jofra Archer, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar…these are the players who ended up with more runs to their name than Maxwell in IPL 2020.

It can be argued that the former Mumbai Indians player wasn’t utilized properly, or rather given enough deliveries to settle in the crease. The batsman played over 20 balls in only one of his 11 innings this season. However, Maxwell didn’t manage to create any influence in any of his other outings either. He simply struggled to get going at any point of time, which made the Kings drop their most expensive purchase of the auctions in their final must-win encounter against the Chennai Super Kings.

3: Chris Morris – INR 10 crore: 6/10

Royal Challengers Bangalore will rue Christopher Morris’ fitness issues that made him participate in only nine of the team’s 15 encounters this season. Morris did seem to have added an extra bit of incisiveness and edge to the team’s bowling attack. He bowled the back of length deliveries extremely well and the additional bounce that he obtained due to his height toughened things up for the batsmen initially.

However, even his performances for RCB can be divided into two halves, as it seemed that the opposition had found a way to tackle him as the tournament progressed. In Morris’ first four games, he bowled 16 overs at an economy rate of 5.25 and scalped nine wickets in the process. In his next five games, the Protea pacer delivered 15.4 overs at an economy rate of 8.83.

Moreover, he took only two wickets in these five matches and had to sit out of RCB’s crucial Eliminator game against the Sunrisers Hyderbad due to fitness concerns. Some might argue that the Virat Kohli-led side would have fared well had Morris played all the encounters. That’s a fairly viable proposition but given the way his performances faltered as the season progressed, it is rather tricky to accept that conjecture.

Also read: Who was the best uncapped Indian player in IPL 2020?

4: Sheldon Cottrell – INR 8.5 crore: 4/10

Sheldon Cottrell was deemed to spearhead Kings XI Punjab’s bowling unit, and hence the franchise spent a sizable INR 8.5 crore on him. However, the left-arm pacer underwent an inconsistent journey of six games as he was dropped thereafter and didn’t participate in eight of the 14 matches that the team played.

In Cottrell’s three of the first four games (against DC, RCB, MI respectively), the Caribbean pacer delivered 11 overs at an economy rate of 5.54 and scalped five wickets in total. In his other three matches (against RR, CSK, SRH respectively), the fast-bowler bowled nine overs at an economy rate of 12.77 and could dismiss only a solitary batsman.

The team’s poor form as a whole made them drop the bowler from the lineup for the second-half of the tournament. Though they attained considerable success thereafter, it seemed like the management could have persisted with the West Indian pacer considering that his counterpart and teammate Chris Jordon didn’t set the stage on fire when in the XI either.

It can also be argued that the Kings XI relied on Cottrell to solve their death-bowling woes, a skill that he necessarily does not excel in as such. Nevertheless, the fast-bowler would have left the UAE slightly disappointed; both with himself and the team’s think-tank too.

Also read: IPL 2020 Team of the Tournament

5: Nathan Coulter-Nile – INR 8 crore: 6/10

Given the fearsomeness of Mumbai Indians’ bowling unit, Nathan Coulter-Nile might seem like a viable alternative for the opposition to milk runs from during the innings. Hence, Mumbai Indians bidding INR 8 crore for the Australian quick was intriguing in all honesty. Maybe, they valued his prowess with the willow towards the fag ends of the innings?

That could be a possibility, but is fair to say that Coulter-Nile reinvented himself to not become a punching bag for the other team in the later stages of the tournament. In his first game of IPL 2020, the fast-bowler conceded 51 runs in four overs and took only a solitary wicket. However, he bowled 18 overs in his last five games and gave away runs at only 6.77 rpo, taking four wickets in the process.

It is true that the duo of Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah did most of the damage upfront and made the job easier for Coulter-Nile in the middle-overs. But, the 33-year-old did live up to the franchise’s expectations from him despite not starting the season ahead of James Pattinson earlier on.

Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter today.

5 Unexpected Indian Underperformers in IPL 2020 | Which Indian players didn’t play to their potential in IPL 2020?

The thirteenth edition of the Indian Premier League has provided us with so many points to talk about. One of those major points is the dismal returns from certain highly-rated Indian players. Their performances were much better in the previous seasons, but they have failed to live up to the expectations in IPL 2020. In this article, I am going to mention five of those names and show how their performances in this season differ contrastingly from those in previous seasons. Here we go.

5. Riyan Parag (RR)

Riyan Parag came to the limelight by playing some really delightful knocks in IPL 2019. So, we all had expected a breakout season from him in 2020, hadn’t we?

But, to be very honest, Parag was unimpressive throughout the tournament apart from one good knock of 42* against SRH at Dubai. His numbers also vary significantly from those he had in the last season. He scored 160 runs from five innings with a decent average of 32 and SR of almost 127 in 2019. His respective runs, average and SR are 86, 12.29 and 111.69 in 2020 despite being given the chance to bat before the 15^th over four times (apart from the game vs SRH in Dubai) out of the eight times he batted. He was supposed to carry the finishing job for RR this year, but unfortunately it didn’t happen.

4. Deepak Chahar (CSK)

Deepak Chahar has been the major weapon for MSD in the powerplay phase for quite a while now. Being a genuine wicket taker in the PP, he has played a vital role in the success of CSK in past, especially in 2019.

But was he that impactful in the PP phase in 2020? The answer is ‘No’.  I have drawn a table below showing how his bowling avg and SR in the PP have differed in 2020 from those in 2019.

The difference in his wicket taking ability is clearly visible as he has conceded almost 40 runs and bowled almost 32 balls to pick a wicket in the PP in 2020. Also, his overall avg, SR and economy rate all are on a higher side this season as compared to 2018 and 2019. So, I feel Deepak performed much less than his best in this season for sure.

3. Navdeep Saini (RCB)

Navdeep Saini had a decent IPL in 2019. He has the pace, hits the deck hard and gets some contrast swing too. So, it was quite obvious to expect a good season from him and establish himself as the premier fast bowler of RCB.

But, I must say it was a poor season from Saini considering the potential he has. He was impressive in patches, but overall his wickets column looks deserted. He took just six wickets from 13 games this season contrary to 11 wickets from the same number of games in 2019. His bowling avg and SR are thus 63.17 and 45.67 respectively, which is very unimpressive. So, he definitely didn’t live up to the expectations in IPL 2020.

4. Rishabh Pant (DC)

Rishabh Pant was speculated to carry the finishing job on his shoulders for the Delhi Capitals. Due to the image he had created before this season by his swashbuckling batting, it was hugely expected from him to score tons of runs in IPL 2020 with a terrific SR. But, he was not able to replicate his success this time. Although he managed to have a decent avg of over 31 (thanks to the knock in the final), his SR of just around 114 was nothing but poor as per his standards. I have compared his ‘balls per boundary’ ratio (BPB) in the year 2020 to that in 2019 in the table below.

From the table, it is clear that he has played almost the same number of deliveries in both the seasons; in fact one delivery more in 2020, scoring 145 runs less than 2019 having a significantly higher BPB. Therefore, he is in my list of unexpected Indian underperformers of this season.

1. Shreyas Gopal (RR)

Touted as the second-best leg-spinner in T20 cricket in India for a long time now, Shreyas Gopal was certainly expected to wreck havoc on the UAE tracks, as they have something for the spinners. But his performances were nothing short of abysmal this year. I have compared his average, SR and economy rate in 2020 to those in 2018 and 2019.

The differences in the mentioned parameters are clearly indicated in the table. Thus, Gopal was really ordinary in IPL 2020 unlike the other Indian leg spinners viz. Yuzi Chahal, Rahul Chahar, Ravi Bishnoi and Murugan Ashwin.

This is my list of five Indian cricketers who didn’t stand up to the expectations this season. Do you agree? Share your thoughts!

Written by Debashish Sarangi. Follow Debashish on Twitter today.

IPL 2020: 5 Players Who Knocked the Door for a India Call-Up/Comeback | Indian Premier League 2020: Players who can get selected for India

Every season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) concludes with a bunch of cricketers knocking on the door for a selection to the Indian national team. Some of these individuals are uncapped players, striving to debut for the Blues and fulfill their lifelong aspirations. Others are seasoned internationals, unfortunately out of the current scheme of things due to multiple factors.

Anyways, this edition of the tournament saw some individuals make a strong case for themselves and prove their mettle in arguably the most competitive T20 tournament in the world. In this article, we have avoided the names of obvious contenders like Varun Chakravarthy, T Natarajan and Suryakumar Yadav, as a lot of calls have already been made for their induction in the national team setup.

Including them would have made this a rather mundane piece, where the reader would know the names comprised in the list even before reading it. So, without further ado, let us have a look at the five individuals who have knocked the door for a call-up or comeback to the Indian team.

Ishan Kishan

Ishan Kishan was pivotal to Mumbai Indians’ success this year as the southpaw seemed to have delivered performances at the optimum potential that he holds in the T20 format. Kishan was dynamic, attacking and displayed a fearless attitude even against the most remarkable pacers. His most startling quality was to clear the ropes even in the hard-length deliveries, which is sort of a mandatory skill to succeed in the current limited-overs game.

More importantly, Kishan played brilliantly both at the top and in the middle overs too, even taking the game until the concluding stages on occasions. Kishan scored 516 runs at an average of 57.33 and a strike rate of 145.76. With Rishabh Pant looking out of touch and Sanju Samon falling behind in bringing consistency in his performances, it might be time to test Ishan Kishan in the white-ball formats at least.

Also read: Was Ishan Kishan the best uncapped Indian player in IPL 2020?

Sandeep Sharma

Sandeep Sharma might not come across as the most fearsome of pacers, but he has shown an innate knack of getting the job done at a laudable consistency too. He can swing the ball either way, which provides him with an edge in the initial couple of overs.

However, Sharma turns out to be even more efficient as the ball turns old. He utilizes his knuckle deliveries and variations quite well, cramping the batsmen for room and bowling according to the field setting that plugs the flow of runs. Sharma can bowl the occasional yorker too and he does so on appropriate occasions, thus adding further fuel to his armory.

The pacer took 14 wickets in 13 matches at an economy rate of 7.19, which is no mean feat considering that he is the sort of  bowler that the opposition players might try and take on for plenty for runs. However, the 27-year-old has prevented that from happening and made a pretty good case for him to be tried out at higher levels at some point in the future.

Axar Patel

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Axar Patel has slowly slipped into the sidelines in terms of a spot in the national team. However, the left-arm spinner seems to have reinvigorated his abilities and puts forward a solid package that should be exploited effectively in the T20 format.

Axar Patel has developed an incredible consistency in his bowling. He carries an additional height advantage over his peers and that allows Patel to hit the back of the length spot or a slightly fuller one where it is difficult for any batsman to get under the ball. Patel took only nine wickets in 15 matches, but he did so at an economy rate of 6.41 despite bowling in the powerplay on majority of occasions. Furthermore, Patel looks like a much better batsman now; someone who is further confident in his abilities and can smack a few deliveries out of the park when needed.

Hardik Pandya will probably play only as a batsman for the near future. The team keeps oscillating between either Krunal Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja for T20Is and Axar Patel can very well make a backdoor entry to stake a claim for that spot in the team. 

Also read: IPL 2020 Team of the Tournament

Ravichandran Ashwin

Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t even been considered to play white-ball cricket for India since the Champions Trophy defeat in 2017. However, the off-spinner looks to have spent a considerable period of time in reinventing himself and become more effective in the shorter formats of the game. Ashwin is prone to experimenting with variations often, but on some occasions he seemed to have gone overboard with it too. The off-spinner tried many leg-spinning deliveries in the previous IPL, something that arguably took the sheen away from his bowling.

However, Ashwin was much cleverer this time around. He used his conventional off-spinning deliveries regularly and mixed them up with other variations that always kept the batsmen on their toes. The veteran cricketer astutely managed his lengths too and used his carom balls to good effect as well. He took 13 wickets in 15 matches at an economy rate of 7.66 and dot-ball efficiency of 33%. Given his understanding of Indian wickets/pitches and Kuldeep Yadav’s lack of form, Ashwin can be a valuable addition to the team for next year’s World T20.

Murugan Ashwin

Even if the Indian team management is apprehensive of trying out the senior Ashwin, they can provide an opportunity to his state-mate Murugan Ashwin too. Playing for Kings XI Punjab, Murugan Ashwin took 10 wickets in nine matches at an economy rate of 7.46.

The leg-spinner bowls the stock delivery exceptionally well, and he is more than capable of using the googly well. He tends to bowl almost all the variations that a leg-spinner possesses and is extremely wily in terms of altering his pace too. Discipline is perhaps one of his remarkable traits, as Murugan Ashwin hardly gives away any loose deliveries to the batsman. He maintains a line that is hard to get away with, compelling the batsmen to improvise and thus put their wicket at risk. He has become increasingly impressive over the past few seasons, and can arguably be in the queue of spinners aspiring to make it to the Indian T20I side.

Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter today.

Top 10 Batting Performances of IPL 2020 | Looking back at the top 10 best batting performances of IPL 2020 | Indian Premier League 2020

The biggest and the toughest T20 league saw some brilliant batting performances by the players for their respective teams. The three grounds on which the games were played were true and provided ideal opportunities for the batsman to score big. Especially on wickets like Sharjah in the early stages of IPL 2020, every ball seemed to clear the ropes as the batsman dominated.

However, not all the masterly innings resulted in triumphs. But, the performances were noteworthy to get some recognition. Here’s a look at the top 10 knocks from the tournament.

10. Sanju Samson 74 (32) vs CSK

Sanju Samson, the dynamic wicket-keeper batsman came into bat at no.3 after the departure of their opener Yashasvi Jaiswal in the powerplay. And when he was in the zone, he made the most of the ground dimensions, going after opponent’s experienced spinners and made sure that his team comfortably got to a 200+ score. His innings of 74 came in no time with a strike rate of 231.25, which included nine mammoth sixes with most coming the V-region over the bowler’s head.

He dominated the experienced spinning duo and took the game away from CSK. He added 121 runs for the second wicket with captain Steve Smith before getting out to Lungi Ngidi.

9. Ishan Kishan 99 (58) vs RCB

Playing his first game of the season, Ishan Kishan, the young sensation, came into bat when his team was struggling while chasing a total of 200+ vs RCB. The required rate was already above 10 RPO when Ishan took the charge of increasing the run rate for his team. He constructed his innings brilliantly and with Kieron Pollard at the other end, he went all guns blazing against RCB’s quicks in particular. He stitched a crucial partnership of 119 runs off 51 balls with Pollard which leveled the scores at the end of the 20 overs. He missed out on a well-deserved hundred and his efforts with the bat went in vain as his team lost the match in Super Over.

Also read: Was Ishan Kishan the best uncapped Indian batsman in IPL 2020?

8. Ambati Rayudu 71 (48) vs MI

Chasing a modest total of 163, the Chennai Super Kings didn’t get off to a good start as they lost both their openers for six runs. Then in walked Ambati Rayudu, who, along with Faf du Plessis, negotiated the spells of MI’s pacers and reconstructed the innings. Rayudu never allowed the required run rate to get out of CSK’s control, with his footwork good against MI’s spinners.

He even took on MI’s lead bowler Jasprit Bumrah in one over. Rayudu got support from the other end as Faf rotated the strike pretty well. The duo added 115 runs for the third wicket which proved to be a match-winning partnership for CSK. Rayudu scored 71 runs off just 48 deliveries which included six fours and three huge sixes.

Also read: Twitter reactions when CSK finally beat MI after a run of losses

7. Faf du Plessis 87 (53) vs KXIP

KXIP posted a 179-run target after they opted to bat first. Chennai badly needed to win this game to put the side’s campaign back on track. Before this match, there was talk about openers not scoring enough runs and putting pressure on the middle order. In this game, the Chennai openers came out all guns blazing.

While Watson took some time to get going, Faf went after the bowling in the powerplay. In one of the powerplay overs, he smashed Chris Jordan for three boundaries, and thereafter taking calculative risks to get to his fifty. After reaching a personal milestone, he changed gears and didn’t allow their spinners – Harpreet Brar and leggie Ravi Bishnoi to settle, employing the sweep shot effectively to find boundaries at will. He ended up with 87 not out off 53 balls along with his partner Shane Watson to bag a comfortable 10-wicket win for CSK.

6. Suryakumar Yadav 79*(43) vs RCB

Suryakumar Yadav, Mumbai Indians’ number three, again had an incredible season with the bat. He proved to be one of the big reasons why Mumbai went to clinch their fifth IPL title. In the game versus the Royal Challengers Bangalore, he played a sublime knock of 79 not out which included 10 fours and three sixes to help his team seal the playoffs berth.

Chasing a total of 165, MI lost three wickets for 72 runs against an in-form RCB bowling lineup, but Surya kept taking those calculative risks to win the game for his side.

5. Nicholas Pooran 77 (37) vs SRH

Nicholas Pooran, the West Indian batsman, was on fire against Sunrisers Hyderabad where he notched up a fifty off just 17 deliveries to complete his first fifty of the season. This fifty was the the fastest half-century of IPL 2020. Pooran targeted Abdul Samad’s first over, smashing the uncapped Indian player for 28 runs, which included four sixes and a four to reach the landmark. His efforts with the bat weren’t enough to take his team home as KXIP lost that game by 69 runs. But this game will be remembered for the artistic strokeplay from the bat of the Caribbean batsman.

4. Shikhar Dhawan 78 (50) vs SRH

Shikhar Dhawan, the Delhi Capitals opener, was the second-highest run-getter of the tournament. Shikhar was one of the consistent performers with the bat, which helped his team make it to the Final of the league for the first time in tournament history.

It was his knock of 78 in the Qualifier 2 which guided his team to the IPL 2020 Final. Batting first, Shikhar provided a blistering start with his new opening partner, Marcus Stoinis, and that set the stage for a big first innings total. This was his sixth half-century of the season, and it comprised of two sixes and six fours. Most importantly, it came in a virtual knockout, as he surpassed the 600-run mark in the 13th edition of the IPL.

3. Rohit Sharma 68 (51) vs DC

It’s not always easy to come back from injury and perform in the most crucial game of the tournament. Rohit Sharma, the Mumbai Indians skipper, was looking out of touch since he made his comeback to the team after an injury layoff. Many questioned his approach at the start, and MI’s skipper silenced them all when he struck a fifty to chase down a modest total of 156/7 to win the trophy for a record fifth time.

Rohit came to open the innings with his regular opening partner Quinton de Kock and straight away took the attack to DC’s bowling. He lofted one six over long-on off Ashwin’s bowling and after that, it was a typical Rohit Sharma show. Also, he thanked his teammate, Suryakumar Yadav, as he sacrificed his wicket for his skipper in the 11th over when Rohit was batting on 47.

Rohit’s knock made sure that there wasn’t much to do for the batsman to come after him.

2. Ben Stokes 107* (60) vs MI

Before this game, Ben Stokes was struggling big time find his best form. He hadn’t hit a single six in the tournament, and was struggling with his timing. Many were doubting his ability to cope with the pressure of opening the innings, because this role was new to him as there was pressure on him with the regular opener Jos Buttler batting in the middle order.

Against an in-form bowling lineup of MI, the target of 196 wasn’t going to be easy for RR. Stokes started his innings by targeting their best new-ball bowler Trent Boult by putting on his dancing shoes against him and minimizing his effect in the powerplay. When the run rate started to hover around 11 runs per over, that’s when Stokes and his partner Sanju Samson took the attack to the MI bowling. During his innings of 107* runs, Stokes hit 14 fours and three sixes to see off the chase for his team.

1. KL Rahul 132 (69) vs RCB

KL Rahul, the Kings XI captain, produced one of the finest knocks in the history of the IPL as he smashed a swashbuckling inning of 132 not out which included 14 fours and seven sixes against RCB. Rahul took his time early in the innings and reached his fifty in 36 balls. Then, he required only 26 balls to get to the three-figure mark.

He had his share of luck in the innings, as he was dropped a couple of times by RCB skipper Virat Kohli. But, he made the most of these opportunities as he powered his team to a total of 206/3. The hallmark of this innings was how he paced his innings at the halfway point of the 1st innings, which was followed by a brutal display of range hitting in the death overs.

The KXIP skipper bagged a few records to his name:

• KL’s unbeaten 132 is the highest individual score in the T20 format in the UAE.
• His unbeaten 132 is the highest score by an Indian player in IPL history.
• He the fastest Indian (60 innings) to reach 2,000 IPL runs, overtaking Sachin’s record (63 innings).

Written by Vaibhav Tripathi. Follow Vaibhav on Twitter today.