Top 5 Cricketers of the week gone by: 31st October – 6th November
This week in cricket we have three interesting matches that genuinely deserve a mention. With so many cricketers plying their trade week after week, it is tough to single out one option from the other and no matter how much we try, some good performances will always get left out. For example, in this week’s performances, David Warner with his scintillating innings of 97 in just 100 balls in the first Test against South Africa and Usman Khawaja in his 97 under pressure in the second innings are worth a mention but miss out from the list.
Asela Gunaratne of Sri Lanka misses out too, despite his century in the second Test against Zimbabwe and so does Dimuth Karunaratne, who scored a century against Zimbabwe in the second innings of the first Test to set up a brilliant win. Vernon Philander misses out on the list too, despite contributing with bat and ball to South Africa’s come-from-behind victory against Australia in the first Test at Perth. However, we are sure, the five performances we picked will be as much to your liking.
Special Mention
Ishan Kishan, the former U-19 skipper, deserves a special mention this week for his breathtaking 273 for Jharkhand against Delhi at Thumba in a Ranji Trophy Group B match. His 418-minute vigil took Jharkhand from 80-4 to 493 as he was the last batsman out. That he scored the mammoth double hundred as a wicket-keeper batsman makes his performance even more laudable.
Kishan added 116 with Ishank Jaggi and then 120 and 88 with Kaushal Singh and Shahbaz Nadeem respectively to propel Jharkhand to a strong position.
#5 Dhananjaya de Silva
Silva saved Sri Lanka plenty of blushes as the visitors were reduced to 112-4 on the first day of the second Test against Zimbabwe. Silva added 143 with Upul Tharanga and then 87 more with Asela Gunaratne, who scored a 193 ball 116 propelling Sri Lanka to an impressive total of 504. By stumps on Day 2, Zimbabwe posted a strong reply with 126-2, showing that the pitch was quite good for batting.
His innings, therefore, was quite vital to ensure Sri Lanka are on target to protect their lead in the series taken in the first Test. Silva’s 127 came off 245 balls and included 14 fours.