Cricketers of the Week – April 2nd to April 8th
The IPL, India’s T20 summer bonanza got underway this week. But, that is not the only cricket on the planet. Bangladesh walked away with heads held high, drawing 1-1 in the T20 series against Sri Lanka, making their fans proud. Pakistan got the better of West Indies in the T20 series but WI won a blinder in the first ODI between the two teams.
That is a lot of cricket from three different parts of the world, and needless to say, we have a host of players competing for the top spots. Glenn Maxwell played a blinder against Rising Pune Supergiant in his first game as skipper of Kings XI Punjab, winning it for his team. So did Rishabh Pant, who almost took Delhi Daredevils home in a low-scoring thriller.
Evin Lewis played a great hand to win West Indies a T20I against a rampaging Pakistan. Shahbaz Nadeem bowled a brilliant spell for Delhi Daredevils in a losing cause, while Watson captained RCB brilliantly and contributed with bat and ball in a low-scoring thriller.
But, here are the players who take the cake.
#1 Kedar Jadhav
Kedar Jadhav continued the form that helped him get a spot in the Indian ODI series. He shone again in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s second outing against Delhi Daredevils, at home, scoring 69 off just 37 balls with five fours and five sixes, single-handedly shouldering RCB’s innings.
Extra Cover: Jadhav gets Bangalore off the mark against Delhi
His blitzkrieg helped RCB to a modest total of 157 when the entire batting failed. Nevertheless, Watson’s captaincy was spot on as RCB defended a low total at Chinnaswamy winning the thriller by 15 runs, with Pawan Negi bowling a brilliant last over.
The importance of Jadhav’s knock is demonstrated by the fact that the next highest score was Shane Watson’s 24. RCB were playing without Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.