Finally the IPL is back in India.
Which means finally, The IPL is back to its home. For the last 15 days it went
to a foreign land. But I don’t think except the grounds, players found anything
foreign. People came in massive numbers, most of them being Indians; players
must have felt playing on Indian ground.
But still there is a difference in playing on
your home ground and playing on a foreign pitch. And we got to see the
difference as most of the Indian batsmen struggled and foreign batsmen did
well. Surprisingly Indian bowlers did well than the foreign bowlers.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Sandeep Sharma made Steyn and Johnson play second fiddle
to them. Things will change though as the tournament returns to its home.
Batsmen will have familiar pitches and bowlers will have to deal with flat
track batting paradise.
So this is just the right time to
see which players did well and which players didn’t in the first leg of the
tournament.
Top 5 Batsmen:
1)
Glen Maxwell – I knew Maxwell is going to
be a player to watch out in this tournament when I saw him hitting current best
spinner in the world, Saeed Ajmal out of the ground with ease. He light up the
tournament with a brilliantly made 95 against CSK and since then he has been
the talk of the Tournament. He has almost single handedly won his team 3 games
out of 5. If he keeps on playing like this for the rest of the tournament,
there will be no stopping for KXIP.
2)
Dwayne Smith – Another MI export. He
forms such a formidable opening pair with McCullum that these two have already
contributed 4 out of 5 times in CSK wins. His long reach and sensible batting
at the top has given CSK a great replacement for Hussey.
3)
JP Duminy – A player in form of his life
has done everything he could for DD. He has thrashed his countrymate and has
done the job of building an innings too. 2 victories out of 5 for DD have come
because of Duminy. With KP back in the side and Vijay, Kock doing well at the start,
DD can find success in the tournament. If only DD can make more use of Duminy’s
superb form.
4)
David Miller – It has been a MaxMiller
show for KXIP. Miller has batted sensibly. He gives all the strike to Maxwell
at the start and lets him score. Then after Maxwell’s dismissal, he takes the
full charge of the game and finishes the job in style. Perfect strategy!
5)
Ajinkya Rahane – The only Indian in the
list. He knows his job well and does it superbly. His role is to anchor the
innings and play till the end. With a couple of fifties he has already made his
mark on this tournament. He was the only Indian player who was consistent at
the top.
Top 5 bowlers:
1)
Sunil Narine – It seems his mystery is
still intact. With an economy rate of less than 6 and a current holder of
Purple cap, he has done no harm to his reputation. He has been so good that KKR
have over relied on him and that has hurt them.
2)
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar – He has taken more
wickets than Steyn and has bowled more economical too. This is an enough
indication about how well he has bowled. Bowling up front was always his
strength but in this IPL he has done well at the death too.
3)
Varun Aaron – He has bowled fast. But he
does that everytime. What is good to see is that he has been accurate. And when
you have a combination of Pace and accuracy it makes you a genuine threat to
any batsmen. What adds to his impressive performance is that other fast bowlers
like Johnson, Starc and Yadav haven’t been that impressive.
4)
Mohit Sharma – He impressed everyone in
last year’s edition and he’s doing it again this year. He has been smart and
deceptive, has used the back of the hand slower ball with great execution and
that’s what has given him success.
5)
Laxmipathy Balaji – Except the first game
against CSK, Balaji has bowled really well so far. He has been accurate and has
bowled to his field. With Johnson struggling for line and length Balaji has
taken care of KXIP’s bowling performance.
Special shoutout for Sandeep
Sharma. He has been brilliant in last couple of games. He’s young and has got a
very good inswinger. He’s someone to look forward to.
While these players have found
success there are some players who still haven’t turned up for this tournament.
Gambhir and Hussey had a torrid time at the start. Yusuf
Pathan has continued his poor form from last year. The big buy Corey Anderson
has had a terrible tournament so far with not a single good performance with
either bat or ball. After making a name for himself in recently concluded World
T20, Amit Mishra has been hit for sixes by Maxwell and Pollard. Ojha
has been poor too. Allan Donald said Ashoke Dinda is one of the best
death bowlers in India. Dinda did everything to prove him wrong. Albie
Morkel, Umesh Yadav, Awana adds to the list of poor performers. But there
is still a lot of time left in the tournament and in familiar environment these
players have enough chance to turn their fortunes and do well for themselves
and their teams.
With tournament returning to India
expect close finishes, noisy crowd, big scores scored, big scores chased,
individual records broken and lots of more. Eventually one team will come on
top. But what is interesting to see is who will be the stand out player of this
edition of IPL. At the end of the first leg Glen Maxwell is the clear winner.
