Sunrisers Hyderabad claimed their maiden IPL title by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in Bengaluru on Sunday. While RCB went into the game as favourites, by virtue of it being their home ground and their impressive finish to the league stage, SRH's win certainly wasn't something that no one saw coming, especially given their impressive bowling attack.
Yet, there were some things that happened in this year's IPL that no one saw coming. While Virat Kohli's numbers were certainly incredible, given his form coming into the tournament, it wasn't something especially out of the blue.
Here are 5 things in IPL 2016 that no one saw coming:
Under-rated Australian all-rounders
Australia have always had players flourish in the IPL. From the likes of Matthew Hayden and Mike Hussey to the likes of David Warner and Shane Watson currently, they have had a rich history of providing quality players in one of the premier domestic T20 competitions in the world. Yet, this year it wasn't about the established internationals, rather about the unsung, under-rated ones.
While the likes of James Faulkner and Glenn Maxwell didn't exactly cover themselves in glory with their performances in IPL 2016, Moises Henriques, Marcus Stoinis and Ben Cutting towards the latter stages of the tournament showed that while the stars may not have performed, Australia still have plenty of strength in depth.
Henriques was an integral part of the SRH side that won the tournament with his ability to contribute with the ball, aside from batting at No.3. Although Cutting only came in towards the end of the tournament, it was his exploits in the final with both bat and ball that won them the trophy, as he became the second foreigner to win a Man of the Match in an IPL final. Stoinis, was one of the few bright sparks in what was an otherwise dismal season for Kings XI Punjab.
Pune's poor performance
Chennai Super Kings may not have been part of IPL 2016 but the brains behind the team was still present and that is what makes Rising Pune Supergiants' performance in this year's tournament all the more surprising. For the first time in MS Dhoni's career, he failed to make it to the IPL play-offs and RPSG only just managed to avoid claiming the Wooden spoon courtesy of a win in their final game over Kings XI.
It all began so well for IPL's newest franchise. They had defeated the defending champions, Mumbai Indians, on their own turf, quite convincingly as well. But from then onwards, it was all downhill for MS Dhoni's side as injuries and a lacklustre bowling attack meant they were languishing near the bottom rather than the top as is usually the case with Dhoni's team.
It took an MSD special in the final game against Kings XI to ensure that RPSG's poor season started and ended with a victory. The pitfalls of not having a good Auction were clearly evident in RPSG's side as players began falling like flies, to injuries. The lack of a world-class T20 bowler, a big-hitting opener and someone to finish the innings, aside from Dhoni all meant Pune didn't get off to a great start in their IPL career as a franchise.
Form of India's Test openers
While it is true that Murali Vijay and Shikhar Dhawan have played T20Is for India, the pair, along with KL Rahul have been a more regular part of the Indian Test team. And one of the major surprises of IPL 2016 was the performance of the trio.
Although all three have shown themselves to be capable of playing the shortest format of the game, the consistency of their performances in the 2016 edition was one that few would have seen coming. After his poor performances for India in T20Is in 2016, the most surprising of the trio was Shikhar Dhawan and the fact that he was one of only five batsman to have scored more than 500 runs in this year's tournament.
Murali Vijay was Kings XI's backbone at the top of the order and KL Rahul impressed both at the top of the order and in the middle order for RCB. The pair were in the top 11 run-scorers in the tournament and had a healthy average and strike rate as well. So it was surprising to note that only Rahul made it to the Indian limited-overs squad for Zimbabwe.
RCB having two of the top three wicket-takers
Throughout the history of the tournament, if there is one thing that has been holding Royal Challengers Bangalore back, it has always been their bowling. They have had some of the finest T20 batsman to have ever played the game don their colours and yet their inability to accrue an IPL title to their name was arguably thanks to their bowling.
So it was certainly surprising to note that not one but two RCB bowlers had an opportunity to claim the Purple Cap going into the final against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Although neither managed to grab that opportunity, the mere fact that two of the top three wicket-takers in this year's IPL came from RCB is definitely not something that many would have foreseen prior to the start of the tournament.
If it was Shane Watson who impressed at the start of the tournament, it was Yuvzendra Chahal, that racked up the wickets towards the end of the tournament. Unfortunately for RCB, neither were on top form during the final and combined for figures of 86/1 in their eight overs and that made the difference in the end.
Performance of India's spinners
India were expected to take the World T20 by storm by virtue of their home advantage. Although they came really close to achieving that, the performance of Indian spinners in this year's IPL would have been an area of concern for the selectors as the international performers failed to light up the tournament.
In fact, among the spinners in the tournament, it was the uncapped Yuvzendra Chahal, that emerged as the pick of the bowlers, while the relatively inexperienced Adam Zampa picked up more wickets than all but two Indian international spinners despite only playing five matches.
The usually reliable Ravichandran Ashwin had a poor season by his lofty standards. Although his economy rate was still good, he only picked up 10 wickets in the entire season and was overshadowed his Rising Pune Supergiants spin-partner Zampa. Amit Mishra and Axar Patel both picked up 13 wickets but neither were especially impressive despite having a couple of good games.
Piyush Chawla only picked up 11 wickets but arguably the most disappointing was Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja, neither of whom managed to get into double digits for the season despite playing for the entire season. While Karn Sharma continues to prove that his Indian Test cap is an aberration as he picked up no wickets in his five matches, as part of the victorious SRH set-up.
Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download Cric Rocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more!
