Top 5 batsmen of CLT20 2014

The sixth edition of the Champions League Twenty20 (CLT20) came to a fantastic end on Saturday with Chennai Super Kings (CSK) getting the better of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) by 8 wickets, courtesy of a dazzling hundred from Suresh Raina, to win their second CLT20.The tournament was dominated by batsmen, as is the norm in T20 cricket, with two of the top 5 totals in CL T20 history being notched up during this year’s tournament. While CSK scored 242/6 against Dolphins at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore, which is the second highest total in CLT20 history, Kings XI weren’t too far behind, amassing a total of 215/5 against New Zealand’s Northern Knights at Mohali.Although the likes of Raina and Robin Uthappa will earn plaudits at the end and rightly so, as they played instrumental roles in getting their side to the final, the performances of the likes of Anton Devcich (206 runs), Umar Akmal (189) among others deserve a mention at the least. Here are the top 5 batsmen of the 2014 CLT20:

#5 Shoaib Malik

Shoaib Malik might be considered surplus to requirements as far as Pakistan’s T20 team is concerned after a poor World T20, but Malik has shown that he has still got what it takes to succeed at the top level with his performances for Hobart Hurricanes in the CLT20.

Malik, Hurricanes’ sole overseas recruit, scored 172 runs in 5 matches at an average of 86 and was one of the principal factors behind Hurricanes’ entry into the semi-finals. He started off poorly with scores of 14 and 8 in their first two matches but eventually made his vast experience of subcontinent conditions count with scores of 45*, 39* and 66* in the final three games.

It was unfortunate that his innings of 66 not out from 46 deliveries in the semi-final against KKR didn’t get the rewards it deserved. Coming in at 2/13, Malik would have wanted someone to bat alongside him and build a substantial partnership, but the Hurricanes kept losing wickets at the other end. He was stifled for a majority of his innings, as a result, and couldn’t accelerate the scoring rate as early as he would have wanted.

When given the license at the end, Malik showed exactly what he is capable of, as he smashed chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav for 21 runs off the penultimate over of the innings to at least take them to a competitive total of 140.

#4 Jonathan Carter

Cricket fans outside of those in the West Indies might have known very little of Barbados Tridents’ Jonathan Carter before this year’s CLT20, but that is certainly not the case anymore. Carter, who finished up amongst the top 5 run-getters in the tournament, scored 203 runs from a mere 4 matches at an average of 67.66 and strike-rate of 136.24, and was one of the few shining lights in the Tridents campaign.

Significantly hampered by the loss of senior players of the ilk of Kieron Pollard and Shoaib Malik to other teams, it was imperative for one of the local players to step up to the plate and Carter did exactly that. His 111*, out of a total of 174, from 68 deliveries against Cape Cobras, in particular, was one of the highlights of the tournament and will be remembered for a few years to come.

#3 Kane Williamson

New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson is viewed as one of the brightest young prospects in the world game today and he, through the CLT20, has only gone on to reaffirm that view.

Playing for the Northern Knights, the T20 champions from New Zealand, Williamson scored 244 runs from 7 matches at 40.66 – including a career-best 101* - to finish up as the leading run-scorer in the tournament. The outstanding feature of his batting was the fact that, despite not possessing the game to play brutal strokes, he scored at a strike rate over 150, thereby displaying his expertise at rotating the strike and finding gaps.

He has been pigeonholed, rightly or wrongly, as a Test match specialist for a majority of his career until now. But he has shown through his showings in both the World T20 in March and the CLT20 that he has the ability to adjust to the demands of the shortest format as well, and could be the mainstay of the New Zealand middle-order for the next decade or so across all the three formats of the game.

#2 Robin Uthappa

KKR’s Robin Uthappa had a poor few months following a successful 2014 IPL campaign, where he finished as the leading run-scorer with 660 runs from 16 matches at an average of 44 and strike-rate of 137.78 to help KKR win their second IPL title. His IPL form had prompted the selectors to include him in the India squad for their ODI series against Bangladesh and for the A tour of Australia, but Uthappa wasn’t able to capitalize on those opportunities. He managed just 134 runs from 7 matches at an average below 20 in Australia and hadn’t fared too much better against Bangladesh either, leading to him being ignored for the ODIs in England.

Uthappa will be thankful, then, that he has managed to surrender his poor run of scores by scoring 210 runs from 5 matches at 52.50 in the CLT20, and will be hoping to continue his good form in the upcoming domestic season leading up to the ICC World Cup in February and March of next year.

The highlight of his tournament would have undoubtedly been his 85* in the group stages against Dolphins not just for the fact that it was his highest score but also for the situation in which he scored those runs. They had lost the wickets of skipper Gautam Gambhir and Jacques Kallis early on in the innings to leave them 34/2 within the first 5 overs, but Uthappa, along with Manish Pandey, ensured no further damage by taking a cautious approach initially before accelerating towards the very end.

Uthappa has been criticized in the past for not being responsible enough at the top of the order, but that was certainly not the case on that occasion. His efforts meant that KKR ended up on an impressive 187/2 after 20 overs, with his and Pandey’s unbeaten partnership of 153 being the highest in the tournament’s relatively brief history.

#1 Suresh Raina

Suresh Raina has been consistency personified for CSK ever since the inaugural IPL season in 2008. It’s no surprise, then, that he continued his good form for the IPL franchise in this year’s CLT20 by scoring 234 runs in just 5 matches at 58.50.

Following on from a successful ODI series in England, Raina made 90 off just 43 balls in CSK’s second group stage encounter against Dolphins, thereby helping his side post a mammoth 242/6 from 20 overs and register a comfortable 54-run victory. His best, though, was yet to come.

In the final against a KKR side which had won 14 games on the trot, he scored an imperious 109* from 62 deliveries with six fours and eight sixes and helped them to their second CLT20 title. Coming in at 1/9 in their run chase of 181, Raina would have been under some pressure without doubt but he hardly let it show. He went on a rampage against KKR ‘s main spinners, in particular, as he repeatedly charged down the track and lofted them into the stands with minimal effort, never allowing them to settle in the process. While Piyush Chawla went for 38 runs from 3 overs at 12.66, Kuldeep Yadav fared only marginally better, conceding 44 from 4 overs at 11 per over.