IPL 2019: Top 4 individual knocks from the Week 1

The Indian Premier League and controversies go hand in hand and it has been not so different in the 12th edition and we are only into the first week of the tournament.

R Ashwin sparked a debate in the cricketing world when he ran out Jos Buttler at the non-striker's end when the batsman had left his crease little too soon and later RCB were at the wrong end of an umpiring howler against MI which saw Virat Kohli’s men lose their second consecutive game in IPL 2019.

Amid controversies, IPL 2019 has been full of entertainment for fans as there have been quite a few high scoring games so far. As far as the results in terms of batting first or second, it has been even so far, with 4 results going each while defending a score and chasing them down.

Even though its early days, the top 3 teams that look like a settled unit have to be Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders. While CSK and KKR have won both their opening games, SRH lost their first match by a close margin and then got off the mark with a resounding win in the second game against Royals.

There have been some scintillating batting performances already in IPL 2019 and lets look at the top 4 of them.

#4 David Warner - 85(53) vs KKR

After his one year ban, the whole world was waiting for the Aussie opener to see how he goes about in this edition of IPL. Lets not forget that he’s a legend of this league already and in terms of runs too, the left hander is the most successful overseas batsman.

Even though SRH managed to reach the finals without their star batsman in 2018, they had missed the fireworks at the top.

The southpaw expressed himself in the opening game against KKR at the Eden Gardens and showed no glimpses of nerves after coming back into top cricket. Dinesh Karthik opened the bowling with leg spinner Piyush Chawla in order to not provide pace to Warner at the top but the batsman was smart enough to use his reverse sweeps to unsettle the bowler.

Warner smashed all the bowlers with disdain and just when he was looking good to score a hundred, he was dismissed for 85 and that came off just 53 balls, which included 9 fours and 3 sixes. He was back in the limelight for all the right reasons.

#3 Andre Russell - 49(19) vs SRH

The Jamaican all-rounder is considered to be one of the fiercest hitters of a cricket ball in this generation and he didn’t disappoint the home crowd in KKR’s first home game.

Against one of the better bowling attacks in the IPL, Andre Russell’s pyrotechnics helped KKR snatch a win from the jaws of defeat to get a winning start in this year’s campaign for the men in purple.

After Warner’s power hitting, KKR needed 182 to win the match. The match was soon going out of their grasp and especially when Nitish Rana (68 off 47) was dismissed by Rashid Khan in the 16th over, SRH looked like they had the match in their bag.

Andre Russell had different ideas though. Needing 53 off the last 3 overs, the powerful right-hander got the measure of the wicket and scored 19 off the 18th over which included a couple of sixes and a four off Siddarth Kaul to give the home side more than a glimmer of hope.

Even at that stage, SRH would have hoped to win because Bhuvneshwar Kumar had the ball for the penultimate over. But when Andre Russell keeps his head still and does not look to over hit the ball, he sends them a long way. Bhuvneshwar was right in the hot spot as he gave away 21 runs and that left 13 to get off the last over.

Although Shumban Gill finished the game with two sixes in the final over, Russell’s 19-ball 49 was too good on the day for the Men in Orange.

#2 Sanju Samson - 102(55) vs SRH

There has been no doubt about Sanju Samson’s ability with the bat and once again last night he showed why he is one of the most talented batsmen in India right now. If ever there was an innings in T20 that was all timing and not power, it has to be Samson’s hundred against SRH at Hyderabad. This was also the first of IPL 2019; second in the league for the stylish right-hander.

After Royals lost an early wicket, a big one at that of Jos Buttler, Samson joined his skipper Ajinkya Rahane and started to steady the innings. While it was Rahane who started to score briskly at the beginning, Samson took his time in getting used to the conditions.

At the halfway stage, Royals’ score read only 75-1 and at that stage, 150-160 was looking a likely target for the home side until Samson decided to get into overdrive in the final 5 overs.

Samson showed his class when he took on one of India’s best death bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar to cleaners He scored 24 runs in the 18th over and followed it up with another 21 in the final over. The bowler, home team and the crowd were left shell shocked as Royals plundered a massive 76 runs in the final five overs.

Even though Samson’s hundred eventually ended up in a losing cause, nothing can be taken away from the quality of his batsmanship.

#1 Rishabh Pant - 78(27) vs MI

Rishabh Pant may not be doing well with the bat in 50 overs cricket, but the left-hander is a very dangerous batsman in the T20 format. It was once again on show for the Wankhede crowd albeit against their home side.

Coming into bat in the 13th over, Pant took few balls at the start to gauge the nature of the surface and also because a well set Shikhar Dhawan was at the crease.

In the 15th over which was bowled by Ben Cutting, Pant decided enough was enough, knowing that Delhi needed plenty of runs to defend on a beautiful batting wicket against a strong MI batting line up. The 17-run over was the start of something extraordinary to come for the Delhi Capitals.

India all-rounder Hardik Pandya was taken to special treatment in the next over when he smashed a couple of sixes and a four to give the innings a much-needed momentum.

The best part of this innings was the way he smashed India’s and probably world’s best white ball bowler at the moment, Jasprit Bumrah. The fact that Bumrah was not having answers at the death makes this innings from Pant the best in this season so far.

Pant’s 27-ball 78 ensured Delhi breach the 200 run mark and in the end, proved to be a match winning knock.

Brand-new app in a brand-new avatar! Download CricRocket for fast cricket scores, rocket flicks, super notifications and much more! 🚀☄️