The 11th edition of the Indian Premier League is at its halfway stage. Chennai Super Kings sit pretty on top of the points table with Sunrisers Hyderabad close on their heels. The Mumbai Indians are languishing at the bottom with just two wins out of their eight games, a continuation of the horrid starts they have had in the last few seasons.
To the delight of fans, runs have come aplenty, and boundaries and sixes have rained at will in this season of the IPL. 200 plus scores have been breached on 10 occasions in the 64 innings played till date and teams have notched totals in the 180s and 190s on a number of occasions.
The batsmen, on many instances, have stolen the show.
Data Check: Indian Batsmen vs Overseas Batsmen
With top-ranked overseas batsmen featuring in different teams, the IPL has always seen an implicit, but keenly contested battle between the Indian and overseas batsmen.
The overseas batsmen have reigned so far, having won seven Orange Cap titles in the 10 IPL seasons.
This time, though, the story has been different. In the 32 games played so far, the Indian batsmen have surged ahead of their overseas counterparts.
Indians Rule the Show
Rishabh Pant, currently this season’s leading scorer with 375 runs, has been consistently scoring for the Daredevils and the stats show that he has got those runs in quick time too. His strike rate of 180.28 is the best among the Indian top-scoring batsmen. On more than one occasion, Pant has bailed the Daredevils out of sticky situations. His consistency will be key for Delhi, if the team has to reach the play-off.
Ambati Rayudu’s batting has largely contributed to Chennai’s success in the tournament so far. He has been their most dependable batsmen, and his ability and willingness to bat at any position in the batting order has given the Super Kings freedom to experiment with their batting order. Although his strike rate isn’t among the best, it’s a healthy 156.11 and has been slow at times owing to his role as the sheet anchor.
RCB skipper Virat Kohli stands third with 349 runs. However, his strike-rate is 138.49, certainly low by Kohli’s standards. RCB’s success has often come on the back of Kohli’s batting. The Royal Challengers are presently placed fifth on the points table and if they are to break into the top-four, captain Kohli needs to get his runs quick enough.
Foreigners are a Distant Second
Among the overseas batsmen, Kane Williamson, with 322 runs, leads the pack and has been striking at 133.05. So far, Williamson’s role in Sunrisers Hyderabad has largely been that of an anchor while the rest of the team bats around him. He has scored the bulk of the runs for Hyderabad. If the team hopes to end on a high at the end of the round-robin stage, players like Shikhar Dhawan and Manish Pandey have to shoulder responsibility of scoring a chunk of Hyderabad’s runs.
Among others, RCB’s AB de Villiers is right up there with 280 runs with a strike rate of 184.21 closely followed by CSK’s Shane Watson (Runs: 281, SR: 166.27), KXIP’s Chris Gayle (Runs: 252, SR: 161.53), and KKR’s Chris Lynn (Runs: 248, SR: 131.91).
Andre Russell holds the best strike rate among the featured players. Striking at 202, he needs to be more consistent with his runs to further consolidate Knight Riders’ position at the top of the table. Runs under his belt will help the Knight Riders’ prospects if they are to grab a top two spot on the table.
The tournament will now enter its most crucial phase. The fight for the top four play-off spots is expected to intensify, with teams gunning for a place among the top-two, heading into the play-offs. The middle of the points table is likely to get crowded with more games over the next couple of games.
The players who have surged ahead of the pack need to remain consistent and those in the middle will have to perform to their best to catch up.
An exciting couple of weeks lie ahead of us.
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