PHOTO COURTESY: BCCI
The ninth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) kick-started on April 9 and with one week into the tournament, the crowd has already witnessed 316 fours and 106 sixes.
The Express Tribune takes a look at the best performances of the opening week of one of the world's premier World T20 league.
Best innings: Quinton de Kock
PHOTO COURTESY: BCCISouth African wicketkeeper-batsman Quinton de Kock, who single-handedly took his side Delhi Daredevils (DD) on Sunday to a seven-wicket victory over Royal Challangers Bangalore (RCB), played one of the most mesmerising innings in the first week.
Chasing a stiff target of 192 to win, DD lost Shreyas Iyer early at the score of 11 in the second over, but de Kock scored a sublime 108 off just 51 balls with the help of 15 fours and three mighty sixes to guide his team past the finishing tape.
This was the second notable performance in the week from the 23-year-old as he scored 59 against Kings XI Punjab two days earlier.
Best bowling performance: Amit Mishra
PHOTO COURTESY: BCCIDelhi Daredevils' Amit Mishra, who destroyed Kings XI Punjab’s batting with a scintillating bowling spell, bags the best bowling performance award.
The 33-year-old picked up four wickets for just 11 runs in his three overs to limit the opposition to 111.
The right-arm leg-spinner picked crucial wickets of opener Manish Vohra, captain David Miller and Australia’s duo of Shaun Marsh and Glenn Maxwell.
With a below-par performance in the previous editions of the IPL, DD will be hoping that Mishra will continue his good form and take his side into the playoffs this season.
Best performance in the field: Shane Watson and David Wiese
PHOTO COURTESY: AFPAustralia’s Shane Watson and South African David Wiese coupled to produce a marvellous catch on the boundary during the DD-RCB match.
The catch, being termed as the take of the year, was taken when DD’s batsman Shreyas Iyer came down the track and tried to clear the long-on boundary.
Watson, while running backwards, caught the ball well inside the boundary but failed to apply the brakes because of his run. However, he showed presence of mind and threw the ball back towards the South African all-rounder who dived to his right and cupped the catch safely.
This is how they did it:
Team of the week: Gujrat Lions
PHOTO COURTESY: BCCIGujrat Lions, fellow newcomers Rising Pune Supergiants and defending champions Mumbai Indians were the best performing teams of the first week.
Under Indian southpaw batsman Suresh Raina's captaincy, the side showed great depth in both batting and bowling and won two matches rather comprehensively.
In the presence of T20 bowling specialists like James Faulkner, Dwayne Bravo, Praveen Kumar and Ravindra Jadeja, Gujrat seemed to have found a bowling attack which is extremely hard to get away, especially in the presence of some brilliant outfielders.
Meanwhile, in batting, former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, Australian opener Aaron Finch, Raina and wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik pose a great threat with the bat.
With such a grand start, Gujrat look all set to to become the one of the favourites to qualify for the playoffs in a few weeks time.
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