Less than two weeks left in IPL 5 with seven out of the nine teams still able to make the play-offs.
BBL in the IPL week 6
Over the past week our KFC T20 Big Bash League players have put their hands up in a major way – so many in fact that we’ve had to make the incredibly tough decision to leave Chris Gayle out of the list! Crazy, right? Check out the top five performances from the past 168 hours.
David Warner – 109 not out (54) v Deccan Chargers at Hyderabad
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month you will have heard about the latest box-office sensation, The Avengers. If you haven’t, it’s basically about a bunch of superheroes who band together to save the world, you know, you’re everyday kind of situation. The film is closing in on $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide and as you would’ve expected there’s a sequel in the making. If movie studios are looking for superheroes to join the gang the second time round they need to look no further than David Warner.
In only his second game of the IPL this season, Warner demonstrated his own super power: obliterating bowling attacks without mercy or compassion. He bossed the Charger’s bowlers like they were children, crunching 10 fours and seven gargantuan sixes. In one over he was particularly angry, demolishing A Ashish Reddy for 20 runs. Warner and partner Naman Ojha chased down the sizeable target of 188 with 20 balls to spare. Amazing. What to call him? Iron Warner? No. Captain Warner? Maybe. The Incredible Warner? I like it!
Shaun Tait – 3-13 (4) v Pune Warriors at Pune
One of the best sights in cricket is seeing fast bowlers bowl fast. From “The Demon” and “The Terror”, to Thompson and Lillee, and now Brett Lee and Shaun Tait, Australia has had plenty of speedsters in their rich history. The latter is back, fit and firing and showing us all how to bowl really, really fast. He decimated the Pune Warriors in match 52 of the IPL, blasting out three wickets for a miserly 13 runs. He bounced out former India captain Sourav Ganguly, had danger-man Robin Uthappa caught-behind off a wide slinger and castled Mithun Manhas with a superb searing yorker, his trademark delivery. Not yet 30, Tait could be blasting batsman out for many more years to come.
Shane Watson – 90 not out (51) v Pune Warriors at Pune
If you’re set a target of 126 off 20 overs you wouldn’t be too worried, right? You’d just coast along, nudging singles, working twos and occasionally placing the odd bad-ball for a boundary, wouldn’t you? Nope. Not if you’re Shane Watson. Finishing unbeaten on 90 Shane scored a whopping 71.4% of Rajasthan’s run chase, which must be some kind of record. 10 fours and four sixes flew off his bat during his breathtaking innings. However, the master class almost ended when Watson was on 11. Hitting high and long toward the long-off boundary, Steve Smith plucked the certain six out of the air before heading toward the rope. He tossed the ball up in an attempt to re-gather it in-field, but his momentum forced the balled to follow him over the boundary. Smith then leaped again, this time out of the field of play, caught the ball again and threw it in-field where he strode over and caught it – for the third time. This was unfortunately against the rules and rightfully awarded a six. It would have taken a piece of magic to stop Watson that day and Smith almost conjured some.
Ben Hilfenhaus – 2-8 (4) v Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur
The big Tasmanian quick proved that wicket-taking is second only to economy rate in the shortest form of the game with his dazzling performance with the ball against Rajasthan. That day you had a better chance of winning the $70 million Oz Lotto jackpot than scoring a boundary against Hilfy. His first over was a wicket-maiden, dismissing the Royals’ captain Rahul Dravid for four with threatening swing and bounce. His second over saw him mesmerize fellow Aussie Shane Watson, whizzing the ball past his broad bat on three successive occasions. The next over Hilfenhaus had his man, forcing Watson into a shot he didn’t need to play, having him caught down at third man. He wrapped up his spell with four runs off his last over - pretty sloppy by his standards! This isn’t the first time Hilfenhaus has been near unplayable in a T20 fixture. His first game for the Hobart Hurricanes saw Hilf rattle the Perth Scorchers, finishing the match with 2-10 off four overs. Big Ben is in the form of his life!
David Hussey – 65 not out (35) v Deccan Chargers at Chandigarh
Hussey’s effort wasn’t the highest score of the week, nor was it the fastest. It was however one of the gutsiest, putting the Kings XI in a winning position before Gurkeerat Singh finished Deccan off. Hussey strode to crease at 3-56, still requiring 135 runs in just over 12 overs. When Ahar Mahmood departed 91 was still left with 46 balls remaining. He took 20 off Amit Mishra in the 15th over to set up a thrilling final. 16 was needed from the last over and when Hussey took two and single off the first two deliveries it was up to Singh to finish the match off – in which he happily obliged, smashing two fours and six to win off the final ball. Hussey’s leadership in the field and during the run chase was inspiring. The absence of Adam Gilchrist has not slowed Hussey, in fact, it’s probably been the catalyst for his form revival.
*btw, Gayle scored 82 not out off 59 to lead the Royal Challengers to a nine wicket victory over Mumbai. He is also now the leading run scorer. This is getting out of control.