IPL 2018: Who Will Win The Orange Cap and Purple Cap? 

As we head into the pointy end of the tournament, everyone is looking forward to the winners of the orange and purple cap of the 11th season of the IPL. As far as both, the bowling and batting departments are concerned, the two players who are at the top of the table are not going to have a chance to improve their stats. So now it will be interesting to watch the scramble that will determine who emerges on top as the highest wicket-taker and run-scorer this season.

PURPLE CAP WINNER PREDICTION

Andrew Tye looks to be the clear favorite. With 24 wickets in 14 matches, he has put daylight between himself and the chasing pack. He cannot, however, improve his wicket tally further as Kings XI Punjab could not make it to the playoffs. Umesh Yadav and Siddarth Kaul are at number 2 and 3 respectively with 20 and 19 wickets. The Vidarbha seamer is out of the competition while Sid Kaul still has a slim chance to upstage Tye.

ORANGE CAP WINNER PREDICTION

Kane Williamson Sunrisers Hyderabad

As far as the best performing batsmen this season are concerned, it is starting to look like the super consistent Kane Williamson will be the Orange Cap winner. The Kiwi is at the top of the pile having amassed 685 runs in 15 matches and he will get at least one more match to play if his team doesn't make it to the finals. Rishabh Pant was the only one close to him with 684 runs and his journey ended here for this season as Delhi couldn't qualify. Ambati Rayudu is the only one who could give Williamson some competition. He sits on 586 runs and he needs to score more than 100 runs in a single match he would get to play, which is the final. So, this practically puts the SRH skipper in the clear.

Who else has a realistic chance of outdoing these two players?

Rashid Khan, Siddarth Kaul and Sunil Narine are the only bowlers in with a fighting chance. Khan has taken 18 wickets in 15 matches and Siddarth Kaul has taken 19 wickets so far, both of these players are from Sunrisers Hyderabad and although they have lost their qualifier, they are still alive in the tournament and may get to the finals. In that case, Sunrisers will play 2 more matches and Rashid and Kaul have very a good chance to trump Andrew Tye.

In the batting department, there are 4 players who can still dethrone Williamson from the No.1 spot. Players from CSK, KKR and SRH are there on the list who can get to the top position if they perform exceptionally well. These 4 players are MS Dhoni and Watson from CSK, skipper Dinesh Karthik from KKR and Shikhar Dhawan from SRH. At the very least, every team will get at least one match to play, and all the players are way behind Williamson and all of them are hovering around the 450 runs mark currently. Shikhar has the best chance to get to the top as he may get two more matches to play if SRH makes it to the finals. As of now, Shikhar has scored 437 runs but he is behind Karthik, Watson who is at 438 runs and Dhoni who is at 455 runs.

Nothing is impossible in cricket but it is nearly impossible for these batsmen to beat Williamson in the runs tally this season. Let's hope for the healthy performances from all these players in upcoming matches so that they can keep themselves alive in the race to win the orange cap.

Any other contenders that come to mind? Have your say. Leave a comment below.