IPL 2019 | Studs and Duds from Week 6 ft. David Warner, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant

IPL 2019 | Studs and Duds from Week 6 ft. David Warner, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant

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The 12th season of the Indian Premier League is approaching its fag end and as the race for qualification heats up, players are giving their 100% and then some more. While the battle within the battle is on with full flow, we compiled the heroes and duds from the last week in our fresh edition.

Studs

David Warner: At times, batting can be viewed as an existential tragedy in miniature as the batsman walks to the crease and finally succumbs to the inevitable sentence of time. For David Warner, it was something more than just biding his time in the middle. He had a lot to prove and also at the same time show to the world that he hasn’t lost a bit that had made him, briefly yet incandescently, the IPL’s best batsman four years ago. In his last game this year, which was also a must-win game for Sunrisers Hyderabad to stay relevant in the league this season, Warner finished off his campaign with a fine innings of 81, helping them to a strong total of 212 and ensuring they remained alive to fight for another day. He went berserk at the top, taking on Punjab's bowlers and ensured Hyderabad finished with 77 runs in the powerplay, which was the highest powerplay score this edition, and set the team for a long haul. More than that innings, Warner made this IPL an immersive experience for everyone.

Hardik Pandya: A player of enormous ability, there is nothing impossible for Hardik Pandya when the ball was in the slot. Probably the best power-hitter against spin bowling going around, Hardik almost threatened to take the game away from Kolkata Knight Riders’ grasp. While the lack of partnership from the other end resulted in Mumbai eventually losing out of steam and had to wait for another day to secure a play-off berth, Hardik made one ball disappear over the bowler's head while two others were sent over deep midwicket for sixes. Another most important task that made Hardik’s innings special was the fact that the required rate was more than 15 and instead of fearing it, he just picked up his bat and sent them for sixes nonchalantly.

Manish Pandey: Manish Pandey, right now, is oozing with confidence, and displaying the maturity of a man that has long evaded him for the major part of his career. After making a return to the side against Chennai Super Kings, he has since put up scores of 83*, 61, 36 and 71*. That became possible for the simple fact that Pandey batted with a sense of freedom which was never a part of his domain in the last couple of years, and as Tom Moody explained, due to the Hyderabad surface that tended to be unpredictable and often two-paced most of the times. However, by doing away with the things that had put a monkey on his shoulders, Pandey unleashed himself and it would be fair to say that he has become Sunrisers Hyderabad’s biggest hope for the last league game.

Andre Russell: As the curtains come down and credits roll in this season’s IPL, Andre Russell will have an entire page for himself. How good was he! Ahead of the game against Mumbai Indians, all the talks were centred around where should the Caribbean superstar bat, and his desire to bat up the order came to fruition as Russell came in around the 10th over to play a near-chanceless knock. While he dominated the entire proceedings, the most important fact of the matter was that he accelerated in a dramatic fashion towards the backend of the innings. His six and a four off Jasprit Bumrah's over to take 15 runs off the 19th over, and then ensuring another massive one of Lasith Malinga's 20th, which was embellished with two sixes and two fours, to eventually get to an unbeaten 40-ball 80 that not only took the game away from Mumbai at the very moment, it added a beautiful chapter to his rapidly-growing legend.

Duds

Kane Williamson: Kane Williamson led the team with expected grits and unexpected smarts, but at the core of it, the Kiwi superstar has missed out on a very simple yet an important point - that his batting is as important to the team as of a David Warner or a Jonny Bairstow. While his poor display with the bat was overshadowed with the top two brilliance, but in the last week, especially after Bairstow’s departure, he was exposed big-time. With scores of 13, 14, and 3 in the last three matches, Williamson left a lot to be demanded for. A team that desperately needs to win their last game to have a crack at the qualification, can’t afford to see their superstar captain misfiring on a regular basis.

Lasith Malinga: If your team has Jasprit Bumrah then two things can happen. First, every opposition batsman may succumb to the pressure and other bowlers seem good at that moment, or the batsmen will go after the others due to their inability to score runs against Bumrah. Malinga suffered the worst, however, in the wrong way as Malinga gave away as many as 48 and 43 in his four-over spells across two matches with the scorecard still having two solid zeroes next to his name on the wickets column. Mumbai expect better from their talisman.

Vijay Shankar: “Hopelessly overrated” is how a Twitter User described Vijay Shankar after World Cup selection and in the current circumstances, this can’t be farther from the truth. An existential comedy could’ve been avoided had Vijay Shankar done something productive with the bat this season of the IPL. However, as things stand, he threw away all the goodwill he received and racked up scores 12, 7* and 8 - all with terrible strike rates. What he has got up in the sleeves for the next tournament? Well, time will tell.

Rishabh Pant: There is never any doubt about Rishabh Pant’s power-hitting ability, but his shot selection this season has been quite questionable. Against Super Kings, Pant hit Imran Tahir for a four to the extra-cover boundary off a flighted delivery, but on the very next ball, he went flat and hard at another tossed-up leg break, which found Dwayne Bravo at long-off and that culminated his fourth single-digit score in the last five games. Delhi’s chances of winning this tournament depend a lot on Rishabh Pant and if he doesn’t realise this, nothing can help them at this moment of despair.

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