Pat Cummins’ blistering knock during the MI vs KKR match in Pune tops the week’s charts. Cummins scored 35 runs off 6 legal deliveries, making it the third-worst over in IPL history.
IPL Week 3: Stars of the week
IPL 2022 is turning out as the ‘Tosses win Matches’ tournament. The chasing sides have had an unfair advantage supported by the weather conditions. Humidity aggravated the dew effect; having bowlers struggle to grip a cricket bowl. As a result, the chasing sides have won 6 out of 8 matches last week.
The two debutants, Lucknow Super Giants and Gujarat Titans, have had a 100% win record. In contrast, the two most successful teams in IPL history, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings, are struggling to win a game. The tournament is still wide open. A change in the tournament format has kept all the franchises alive.
The young guns of Indian cricket have delivered in the last week. Cummins played a destructive inning against Mumbai Indians, well supported by Venkatesh Iyer, who scored an unbeaten half-century. Avesh Khan shattered the SRH top order to pick up four wickets. Jitesh Sharma contributed to a match-winning partnership with Livingstone for Punjab Kings against Chennai Super Kings.
Stats you missed from last week
- In four matches for PK, Liam Livingstone scored 162 runs at a strike rate of 190.58, compared to his previous record of 42 runs in five games for RR.
- The 67 runs partnership between Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed during the RR vs RCB game was RCB’s highest and quickest sixth-wicket partnership ever while chasing a target.
- Quinton de Kock’s 80 runs match-winning during the DC vs LSG game was the highest score ever scored by an opening batsman against DC in a successful run chase.
- SRH’s win over CSK was just the eighth win out of 22 occasions where the former chased a target between 150-175 runs.
- Rahul Tewatia scored 119 runs against PK at a strike rate of 141.66, including one half-century.
- The past week was dominated by hard-hitting all-rounders; CSK and MI have a job on their hands. The two IPL giants need to win a minimum of 8 of their remaining matches and hope they hold a healthy net run rate to qualify for the play-offs.
Preview of Week 4: 10th April – 16th April
Chennai Super Kings and Punjab Kings play just one game each in the upcoming week, coincidentally at D.Y. Patil. Rest all franchises will compete twice. Orange Cap holder Jos Butler has scored 205 runs in three innings at a strike rate of 143.35; however, there were signs of discomfort while facing spinners. Harshal Patel may miss the tie against CSK due to a bereavement in his family.
Since the lock-down, Virat Kohli has struggled for form and is up against two teams he loves scoring. RCB take on CSK on Tuesday, 12th April, at D.Y. Patil; In 28 matches against CSK, King Kohli has scored a mammoth 948 runs at a strike rate of 127.24. RCB’s second tie of the week is against DC on Saturday, 16th April, at Wankhede; In 24 innings, the Delhi lad has scored 913 runs against DC at a strike rate of 135.05.
It’s an action-packed week, which will probably decide MI’s and CSK’s fate in the ongoing IPL season. Stay tuned with Playo for more statistics and analysis on IPL 2022.
