IPL 2014: 10 most under-rated players

The IPL extravaganza ended with the Kolkata Knight Riders chasing a mighty target that was put on board with relative calmness and almost easily in the final. Just like every other season, there was many awards and of-course the IPL trophy was presented after the conclusion. With the winning team and the award winners taking the centre-stage, the world, as normally, ignored the runner-up and the close competitors for the awards. No offences against them, it is natural and there is no place for soft corners in professional sport.In these days of short memories, even some match-winners of the last IPL season were forgotton just like that. Many have even faded away from being an international prospect to bench-warmers in the IPL.Who is going to remember someone who played a crucial 10-ball 20 or an unknown bowler who gave an important breakthrough or a substitute fielder who gave his everything to save some crucial runs and pull out a stunning catch.Here we try to register some of the memories and players who went unnoticed through the IPL season and deserve more credit for their performances.Players who got some little acknowledgement for their roles were not included. We do not represent these players as a team and the order doesn’t reflect that we rank them; each person is rated equally.Special Mention: Suryakumar Yadav

#1 Shakib Al Hasan

Kolkata Knight Riders

227 Runs from 11 innings, Average – 32.42, Strike rate – 149.34

11 Wickets from 13 innings, Average – 30.36, Economy – 6.68

The Bangladesh all-rounder has forever been living under the shadows of Sunil Narine at the Kolkata based franchise and whatever runs he scores will be always be supportive ones but not the highlighted innings of the match.

227 runs from 11 innings is not a big-deal but the match situation at which you do that without throwing your wicket matters. With Robin Uthappa, the orange-cap winner along with Gautam Gambhir and Yusuf Pathan was enjoying the limelight, his importance went unnoticed.

His innings of 60 from 38 balls that played second fiddle to Robin Uthappa’s 83* against Royal Challengers Bangalore at Eden Gardens is one to point out to add with his spells that tied the batsmen down after the powerplays.