The Indian Premier League is on in full swing for the past 2 and a half weeks. We have seen some exhilarating performances by the teams. It is often said that T20 is a batsman’s game. The boundaries are brought in to make the dimensions of the ground smaller. Along with this, the bats are getting thicker and bigger. The result is that even edges fly out of the ground with ease.
Hence, the bowler’s job becomes extremely tough. It is widely believed that a team with a strong bowling unit has more chances of winning as can be seen by the performances of Mumbai Indians, Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad all of which have some amazing bowlers in their ranks. We bring to you the top 5 bowling performances so far in the Indian Premier League.
5) NATHAN COULTER-NILE – 3/22 (KKR)
Nathan Coulter-Nile has been out of the cricketing scene due to injuries for quite a while. However, he was picked up by KKR in the auction at Rs. 3.2 crores. He wasn’t given an opportunity in the playing XI due to the presence of Boult and Woakes. With Boult not living upto expectations, Coulter-Nile was drafted into the playing XI for KKR’s match against DD at Feroz Shah Kotla on 17th April.
Nathan impressed one and all right from the first ball as he mixed up the variations. He used the slower balls and short deliveries efficiently. He got rid of the dangerous Sam Billings in his 2nd over and followed it up by bowling out young Karun Nair in his next over. He was brought on to bowl the 19th over and Rishabh Pant looked dangerous as he had scored 38 off 16 balls. In the very first ball, he bowled a brilliant delivery and Pant sliced it straight to Gambhir. His economy of 5.50 did a world of good to KKR’s chances in the match. Coulter-Nile was awarded the Man of the Match award for his inspiring performance of 3/22 in 4 overs.
4) RASHID KHAN – 3/19 (SRH)
Rashid Khan is already being termed as the find of this season’s IPL. His leg-spinners are extremely tough to pick up and it is not surprising that the Sunrisers shelled out Rs. 4 crores to attain his services. He has been a mystery man and is giving a lot of headache to the opponents. In just his second match in the IPL on 9th April, he notched up exceptional figures of 3/19 in 4 overs.
Rashid, Afghanisthan’s pride, was sensational against the Gujarat Lions at Hyderabad. He struck in his first over when he got removed Brendon McCullum. He followed it up with another wicket in his next over when Finch was trapped in front of the stumps. Suresh Raina also fell prey to the mystery man in his next over. With an economy rate of 4.75, Rashid Khan changed the game on its head as Gujarat Lions succumbed to a paltry score of 135. He earned the Man of the Match award with this performance.
3) SAMUEL BADREE – 4/9 (RCB)
Royal Challengers Bangalore brought in Samuel Badree for this clash against the Mumbai Indians. It was Badree’s debut for RCB on 14th April at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium. RCB batted first and scored a paltry 142. With almost no hope of winning this one, Kohli brought in Badree to bowl the first over and boy, he did do the job and how!
In the third over of the match, Badree picked up the first hat-trick of the season. Parthiv Patel was the first victim when Gayle took a blinder. Next up Mitch McClenaghan was promoted to counter the leg spin of Badree. However, on the very first ball, McClenaghan holed out a simple catch to Mandeep Singh. The hat-trick was completed when Rohit Sharma got bowled by Badree’s wrong’un. In his 4th over, Badree also picked up the in-form Nitish Rana completing with figures of 4/9 in 4 overs at an economy rate of just 2.25. Unfortunately, even after Badree’s heroics, the RCB could not pull off this game due to some superb batting by Pollard and Krunal Pandya.
2) ANDREW TYE – 5/17 (GL)
Andrew Tye got his first game this season against the Rising Pune Supergiant on 14th April at Rajkot. He picked up a five-for on his IPL debut along with a splendid hat-trick. Tye provided a much needed breath of fresh air for the Lions bowling which looked extremely lacklustre until then. He was also very economical with an economy of 4.25 runs per over.
Tye was brought in to bowl the 6th over and he immediately picked up the wicket of the aggressive Rahul Tripathi. He then bowled the 13th over and again struck bowling out the million dollar baby Ben Stokes. He arguably bowled the best over of his life when he picked up a hat-trick in the last over of the RPS innings. He started off by getting out Ankit Sharma who looked to go for the glory shot but ended up holing out to Brendon McCullum. He scalped up Manoj Tiwary next who looked to pull Tye’s bouncer for a six but the ball fell safely into the hands of Ishan Kishan. He picked up Shardul Thakur by bowling him out and completed an amazing hat-trick. GL went on to win the match and Tye was rewarded with the Man of the Match award.
1) BHUVNESHWAR KUMAR – 5/19 (SRH)
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been lethal this season picking up 15 wickets in 6 matches. He holds the Purple Cap currently. He looked absolutely formidable on 17th April against the Delhi Daredevils at Hyderabad. Picking up a five-for helped the Sunrisers cross the line and grab a win from the jaws of defeat.
Bhuvneshwar struck on the very first ball of the first over when he got rid of Hashim Amla lbw. He once again came in and removed the dangerous Glenn Maxwell in the 3rd over of the match. Post this Bhuvi was given the ball only in the 17th over as he has been a terrific death bowler for SRH. He once again brought Sunrisers back into the game by breaking the partnership between Manan Vohra and Mohit Sharma when Mohit gave a simple catch to Shikhar Dhawan. In the 19th over, Bhuvi was on fire yet again. KC Cariappa was bowled by a fantastic yorker. Manan Vohra, who was batting on 95 and looking to get KXIP home, also fell prey to a peach of a delivery by Bhuvneshwar. With an economy rate of 4.75, Kumar was definitely the hero of the match. He was rightly adjudged the Man of the Match.
