Top 5 death overs batsmen in the IPL

T20 batting was a mystery when the format first came along. The obvious approach was to hit it out for 20 overs and post as much as you possibly could, a style that was deadly any time it worked. But styles aren’t meant to last in sport and soon there was a method to batting that wasn’t fundamentally different from the start-rotate-slog format that was the norm in 50-overs cricket. Consequently, the difference between specialists in the two formats has diminished.

In this list, we look at five such specialists in the IPL who have slapped ownership tags on slog-overs batting:

5. Kieron Pollard

Kieron Pollard might happily accept that India’s premier T20 tournament puts him on the map. He is now an IPL veteran in every sense and there are reasons why the Mumbai Indians have retained him for six seasons; and they aren’t different from the reasons why he has played in every T20 league in the world.

Pollard is a modern giant of whose ability there isn’t much to be said, because his performances are of the boisterous, attention-grabbing variety. Especially in the death overs where he has found his feet for Mumbai more comfortably than in the top order.

4. David Miller

Miller is on the path to becoming one of the most memorable destructive limited-overs finishers of the game. It’s rare that a young batsman is given the responsibility of closing out the innings, but Miller seems to have been bred for the role.

There are few who can hit the ball as hard as him, and that is saying something considering the others who can are men who would belong in boxing rings. Miller is in the same vein as Yuvraj in his prime, and many IPL teams will only be too aware of that.

3. James Faulkner

The reason Australia consistently dominate world cricket is that they adapt quickly. After producing the likes of Michael Bevan and Michael Hussey, who will remain legends forever, Australia quickly transitioned and made do with who they have and what the game now demands. What it demands are players who can score 80 runs in the last five overs, and who they had was James Faulkner.

Not since Lance Klusener has a player proved to be as dynamic or as threatening as Faulkner. There was evidence of this in plenty when Australia last toured India, but his reputation has only amplified after his showing in the IPL with the Rajasthan Royals, who might never let him leave while it is in their power. Faulkner’s career strike-rate in T20s is 125, but you can tell he’s going to finish much higher.

2. Mahendra Singh Dhoni

Mahendra Singh Dhoni has crafted a career – indeed, a personality – using cunning, calm, and aggression in judicious amounts. It is these skills that give him a strong case to be among the all-time greats of one-day cricket. However, one mustn’t forget that it was his explosive innings’ that put him at the forefront of Indian cricket during his early days.

While it can be argued that he doesn’t have the same propensity for destruction these days (with the constraints of captaincy and his position in the batting order), he remains one of cricket’s foremost threats at the back-end of an innings.

1. AB de Villiers

AB de Villiers is a man of so many skills that he could be placed in a variety of lists – most dogged match-saver, most innovative players, seemingly supernatural human beings, to name some; but the role that his outrageous batting at the end of an innings has played in enhancing his reputation cannot be brushed aside.

In fact, it is likely that his brand of ‘Distort & Destroy’ cricket may be the only thing he might be remembered by in the decades to come. And there is nothing wrong with that.

De Villiers is a maverick bordering on revolutionary. He is a force that few, but himself can stop. But most importantly, he is the only man on the planet who can add a minimum of 30 runs to the target every time he’s not out at the end of the innings.