Seven days, eight matches, and already the Indian Premier League is motoring along. The teams are still fiddling around with their combinations, the pitches are still being tweaked around a bit and the crowds are still getting a feel of things, but amidst all these factors, there have been performances which merit attention.
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Now, it has to be mentioned here that these performances have not come from the usual marquee players, but have come from rather unsuspected quarters.
We thus take a look at five such surprising performances from the first week.
Nitish Rana getting rid of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers
There are no better sights in cricket than watching Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers wielding their magic together all in cohesion.
The two modern-day greats were locked in a crucial partnership against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens when Dinesh Karthik introduced Nitish Rana’s rather innocuous off-spin.
AB de Villiers promptly dispatched the first ball over long on for a maximum, but then Rana hit back with his wicket, which was a mistimed slog and was taken by mid-wicket.
The next ball was even better as the bowler dished out a yorker aimed at the stumps and Kohli was nowhere close to the ball and lost his wickets.
2 wickets in 2 balls and RCB slipped away as KKR walked away with the match.
Dwayne Bravo match-winning innings against the Mumbai Indians
For all his panache and flair, Dwayne Bravo has become more of a bowler than a match-winning batsman.
However, he dispelled all these notions in his breathtaking knock of 68 runs in 30 balls to snatch a win from the jaws of defeat against the Mumbai Indians in the first match of the season.
Bravo hit 7 sixes and 3 fours in this innings and played perhaps one of his best T20 innings.
Sam Billings stupendous effort against the Kolkata Knight Riders
The man from Kent, England is a top order batsman, but CSK chose to use him in the middle order and he vindicated that decision with some aplomb against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
Not many people know Billings’ ability, but in his innings of 56 runs in 23 balls he made sure that the cricketing world would only talk about him.
CSK were chasing a target of 203 and on the back of Billings’ tremendous knock, they romped home in the final over and made it two wins in two matches in the season.
Mujeeb ur Rahman’s mystery takes the IPL by storm
The young Afghanistan spinner was part of the U19 team just a couple of months earlier and here is now amongst the big boys on the biggest stage showing off his skills with some flair.
He gets the ball to spin both ways and such is his action that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the batsmen to pick him. His debut performance against the Delhi Daredevils where he accounted for Colin Munro and Rishabh Pant.
However, he reserved his best ball for Virat Kohli when Kings XI took on the Royal Challengers Bangalore. He flighted the ball on off stump enticing the drive, Kohli took a stride forward and went for the big booming drive through covers, but the ball spun back in through the gate and knocked over the stumps!
One for the ages for the young man.
Mayank Markande’s googly is just too awesome
MS Dhoni, Ambati Rayudu, Shikhar Dhawan, and Manish Pandey, this is a serious list of illustrious batsmen, this is also a list of players who have failed to pick Mayank Markande’s googly and have succumbed to the guile of the young leg-spinner.
The 20-year old plying his trade for the Mumbai Indians has had rollicking start to the season and with seven wickets in two matches, the road looks very cosy for the boy from Bathinda.
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