5 best athletes for the week 25 April - 2 May

Part of our weekly series on 5 standout sporting performances from the week:

Axar Patel

Caption

His team, the Kings XI Punjab, took a rousing win against the Gujarat Lions in Rajkot last week, and 22-year-old Axar Patel was instrumental in that victory. After the Kings set a 155-run target for the home side, Patel was a significant part of his team's rousing defence.

With the Lions already struggling after losing both their openers, Axar Patel came in to remove a dangerous-looking Dwayne Smith to begin his attack.

He would follow that up later in his spell with two consecutive wickets – Dinesh Karthik and Dwayne Bravo, both of whom were dismissed cheaply – the West Indian for a duck. Patel would then come back in his third over to remove a potentially troublesome Ravindra Jadeja with his first ball of that spell, thereby completing a hat-trick.

That hattrick saw the home team fall well short of their target, with the Lions eventually losing by 24 runs.