{"id":4063,"date":"2020-10-15T06:24:55","date_gmt":"2020-10-15T06:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the-edict.in\/?p=4063"},"modified":"2020-10-15T06:27:47","modified_gmt":"2020-10-15T06:27:47","slug":"analysing-the-ipl-the-edicts-mid-season-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/2020\/10\/15\/analysing-the-ipl-the-edicts-mid-season-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysing the IPL: The Edict\u2019s Mid-Season Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kartikay Dutta, Undergraduate Batch of 2023
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While most of us don\u2019t associate the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the early winter months of September and October, we can\u2019t be entirely detached from the present reality of COVID-19. Time has lost its meaning, tradition its value. With all 8 teams in this season\u2019s IPL having played at least 7 games \u2014 that is, half of the 14 all teams must play \u2014 it seems only right for us to take stock of all the performances so far, on both the individual and collective levels. Presenting to you, The Edict\u2019s IPL Midseason Awards.
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(Note: The data published is as of Monday, October 12 after Match 28 between RCB and KKR, which marked the halfway point of IPL 2020)<\/em>
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Emerging Batsman: Devdutt Padikkal (Royal Challengers Bangalore)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The young left-handed opener from Karnataka has earned his place in RCB\u2019s star-studded lineup after recording three 50+ scores in his first 4 games. Aesthetically a very pleasant player to watch, Padikkal has showed aggression and positivity in his opening slot alongside Aaron Finch and made excellent use of the time he has had to spend in the middle alongside skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. 243 runs in 7 games at an average of 34.71 (comparable to Rohit Sharma) and at a strike rate of 124 (a few knots above David Warner) serves as an indication of Padikkal\u2019s ability at the top, and he will be a real asset in RCB\u2019s charge to end their barren run.
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Honourable Mention<\/strong>: Shubman Gill (Kolkata Knight Riders)<\/em>, 254 runs, at 42.33, and a strike-rate of 119.25. Gill looks certain to become India\u2019s white-ball opener in the coming years.
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Emerging Bowler: Ravi Bishnoi (Kings XI Punjab)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Punjab\u2019s woes throughout the tournament and the quite miserable record they currently hold, there have been a few bright spots splattered throughout their lineup \u2014 especially young leggie, Ravi Bishnoi. His success, however, wouldn\u2019t be too large a surprise for those who monitored the Indian under-19s\u2019 campaign in South Africa earlier this year, where his performances on otherwise pace-friendly tracks earned him an INR 2 crore move to KXIP. Scalping 8 wickets in the tournament so far, including those of international superstars such as David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, and Aaron Finch, Bishnoi has made himself a mainstay of Punjab\u2019s middle overs, bowling at an impressive economy rate of 7.85 rpo. He keeps it tight, and like all the greatest T20 leg-spinners, incites batsmen into playing risky shots and making them pay for it. 
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Honourable Mention<\/strong>: T Natarajan (Sunrisers Hyderabad)<\/em>, 7 wickets at 30.97. He’s bowled the most successful number of yorkers in the league, nearly tripling the second name on the list.
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Most Valuable Batsman: KL Rahul (Kings XI Punjab)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is strange but perhaps indicative of KXIP\u2019s struggles that two of their players are in this awards section \u2014 they get 4 solid overs from Bishnoi and good starts from their openers, but crumble everywhere else. KL Rahul has looked right on top of his game all season, his average of 64.50 astounding for an opening batsman. The 132* against RCB was the statement performance of the season, and currently sitting at the top of the orange cap list warrants his position here \u2014 387 runs in 7 innings with an impressive strike rate of 134. He will hope his form with bat in hand can translate into results for the team he leads, who achieved the unwanted feat of becoming the first IPL outfit to reach 100 losses across all seasons.
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(KL Rahul raises his bat after reaching triple figures against RCB.)<\/em>
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Honourable Mention<\/strong>: <\/em>David Warner (Sunrisers Hyderabad)<\/em>, 279 runs at 39.29. Continuing his love affair with the IPL, Warner became the first batsman to record fifty scores of 50+ runs in the tournament’s history.
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Most Valuable Bowler: Kagiso Rabada (Delhi Capitals)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kagiso Rabada serves as an important example for why having a premier fast bowler in your team is so vital in the IPL. Sitting at the top of the purple cap list, Rabada has been an insanely difficult bowler for any team to target, and his dominance shows in his numbers: 17 wickets at an economy of 7.70 while bowling the meat of his overs in the death. Forming one half of DC\u2019s scintillating two-pronged pace battery alongside countryman Anrich Nortje, Rabada\u2019s performances so far show why he is regarded as one of the best in the business \u2014 he always seems to have a wicket or two in him, striking every 9 balls (the second closest player having played more than 20 overs is Trent Boult with 14) and he never makes it easy for the batsman. This year, the Capitals are lucky to have him for the entirety of the tournament \u2014 he could be the difference between success and disappointment come the sweaty end of the tournament.
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Honourable Mention<\/strong>: <\/em>Jofra Archer (Rajasthan Royals)<\/em>, 9 wickets at an outstanding economy of 6.82, while bowling predominantly in the PowerPlay and at the death.
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Moment of the Tournament So Far: Rahul Tewatia\u2019s 30-run over<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each IPL season has that one moment which sticks right through the collective consciousness of the country for years to come. There have already been several such moments this year \u2014 the two super overs, Glenn Maxwell\u2019s boundary which was millimeters <\/em>away from forcing a third. But the standout moment has to be Rahul Tewatia smacking West Indian international Sheldon Cottrell for 5 sixes to single-handedly turn the tide of the match, and potentially his career. The Rajasthan Royals all-rounder was having a torrid time, batting at around a run every two balls initially at Sharjah (a stadium where top-edges can fly out of the stadium) with the Royals needing to score 17 runs per over. Social media was calling for his head, Kevin Pietersen on air was asking him to knock over his own stumps. The turning of the tables was immense, unprecedented, almost unnatural<\/em>. Taking 30 from that over meant they only needed 21 from 12 after that point, and at that moment, everyone watching live knew they had just witnessed an iconic IPL moment.
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(Rahul Tewatia in action during his remarkable 53 against KXIP.)<\/em>
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Honourable Mention<\/strong>: Nicholas Pooran\u2019s pair. The KXIP batsman was dismissed for a duck against DC in the main innings, before repeating the feat when he came out to bat in the Super Over. He is the first person to complete this ignominious feat in the IPL, but follows in the footsteps of Aussie, Moises Henriques, who suffered the same misfortune in the Big Bash League.
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Disappointment of the Season: Chennai Super Kings\u2019 complete 180<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is fair to say that the three-time champions of the IPL are struggling. Having lost Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh before the tournament, last year\u2019s finalists have struggled to find balance in any component of the game. They also seem to have lost the self-assured nature with which they go about their business every year.. The age of the squad seems to have finally caught up \u2014 Shane Watson, Faf du Plessis, Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni,, amongst others, are a part of the group who are now on the wrong side of 30. Their fortunes have headed in the polar opposite direction of the team they lost to in last year\u2019s final, the Mumbai Indians \u2014 while Rohit Sharma\u2019s side has strolled to a 5-2 record without breaking a sweat, CSK have huffed and puffed their way to two measly wins and 5 performances in which they have been thoroughly outplayed and well-beaten. Dhoni\u2019s men have the experience to try and turn this around, and the quality too \u2014 but the air of malaise which surrounds the team, and the ease with which some teams seem to outplay them, means that they find themselves \u2018winning\u2019 the least desirable award on this list. 
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(Dis)Honourable mention:<\/strong> <\/em>KXIP\u2019s performances in the most crucial moments. They find themselves with only a solitary win in 7, but they really should have had at least three if not four or five victories so far. Their batting and bowling have both failed them, notably against DC, RR, and KKR, where they lost when a defeat looked seemingly impossible.\u00a0
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kartikay Dutta, Undergraduate Batch of 2023 While most of us don\u2019t associate the Indian Premier League (IPL) with the early winter months of September and October, we can\u2019t be entirely detached from the present reality of COVID-19. Time has lost its meaning, tradition its value. With all 8 teams in this season\u2019s IPL having played…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[364,393,210],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4063"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4070,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4063\/revisions\/4070"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/edictarchive.the-edict.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}