IPL 2019: Stars and Flops of the eliminated teams
The group stage of IPL 2019 has finally concluded and this time, especially the fourth playoff spot was up for grabs for four teams until the last round of matches.
Amidst the ensuing drama, it was Sunrisers Hyderabad who emerged victorious, thanks to their ever superior Net Run Rate and a last-minute loss for Kolkata Knight Riders. It is for the first time in IPL history that a team has qualified for the playoffs with just 12 points. However, other teams too had their moments in the limelight with some clinical and inspiring performances.
As their businesses have essentially concluded, let us take a moment to look back at their unsuccessful odysseys and analyze the players who gave their best to get their side their share of victories.
Royal Challengers Bangalore:
Stars: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal
As always, the Kohli-ABD duo hogged the limelight for most of RCB's campaign and once again the failure of the other players to support the two biggest cricketing stars led to the team's undoing. Both of them feature in the top 10 run scorers, Virat at 7th with 464 runs and de Villiers at the 9th spot with 442, both striking at 140+ strike rates. The only other batsman who could make some impact was Parthiv Patel who consistently provided the team with blistering starts. RCB's bowling star would be Yuzvendra Chahal, who scalped 18 wickets at an economy of under 8. His form surely is a good omen for the Indian world cup squad.
Flops: Shimron Hetmeyer, Pawan Negi, Umesh Yadav:
The last match's heroics alone cannot justify the expectations on Hetmeyer or his hefty price tag. Barring that 75, his output was an abysmal 15 runs in 4 outings. Negi was off-color at best, and numbers of 9 runs and 3 wickets in 7 matches are worse than Hetmeyer's. Though Umesh was good in a form on and off, he was always expensive. He almost single-handedly gave RCB a scare in the match against CSK, courtesy a Dhoni carnage. A more responsible performance was definitely expected from the bowler who was picked to lead an inexperienced attack.
Follow Sportskeeda for all the updates on IPL 2019 purple cap, points table, schedule, news, live scores, orange cap and fantasy tips.