IPL 2018: seven best bowlers this season
After having expressed my views on the top seven batsmen from this season, it is the time to focus on the bowlers now. Indian pitches and the T20 game in general has been harsh towards the bowlers, but somehow we often see these brand of cricketers making a name for them. The growing domination of batsmen has forced the bowlers to become more innovative with their thought-process. It has actually made the game much more interesting, and particularly this time around, we saw a quite fair battle between the batsmen and the bowlers. SRH’s bowling prowess was commendable, as they defended many low-totals with intelligent and smart bowling. Here, we analyze the seven best bowlers from this edition of the IPL.
7. Hardik Pandya:
Hardik Pandya had often before been criticized as an unreliable bowler, but there might be a change in that perception after this season. After starting the season slowly, Pandya was very crucial and clinical with the ball for MI.
He leaked away runs at some point, but most of the times he took key wickets with some subtle variations in his bowling. More importantly, the lad was able to bowl well in all three parts of the game i.e. fielding restriction overs, middle overs and the death. Pandya used the knuckle ball to good effect and had more deliveries up his armor than usual.
Sure, his economy rate of 8.92 runs is on the higher side, but the fact that the batsmen tried to score more runs off his bowling actually worked in Hardik’s favor. He capitalized on the batsman’s error, and got them out at some vulnerable stages of the innings.
Pandya finished the tournament with 18 wickets from 13 matches. His strike rate was 14.22, the second best amongst the top ten wicket takers of this season. This season can be heralded as the one in which Pandya the bowler finally did what he is ever so capable of doing at a consistent rate.
6. Sunil Narine:
Narine’s mystery might have been figured out by most of the batsmen, but he still instills that extra fear and the aura of unpredictability in the opposition. His remodeled action worked out quite well as he was accurate with his line and length and accordingly made it difficult for the batsman to counter-attack him.
Narine maintained a tight line between the off and the middle stump, as his change of pace and a couple of variations helped him take a wicket or two per match. Sunil was brought in to stop the flow of runs, and the batsmen eventually lost their patience and somehow gifted him their wickets.
He was much more consistent with his deliveries, did not vary much and stuck to the basics. One of the major satisfactions for him would be the fact that not once was there any issue regarding his bowling action, and that helped him have a good run in the tournament sans that psychological pressure that he has been accustomed to in the past few years.
In 16 matches, he took 17 wickets at an economy rate of 7.65. He was the sole consistently good bowler for KKR and had a huge role in the team finishing third in the tournament.
5. Jasprit Bumrah:
Bumrah, undoubtedly was not living up to his standards at the start of the tournament. However, there is a reason that he is the one of the best T20 bowlers in this tournament and that was visible with his consistent performances thereafter in the tournament.
He has many variations up his sleeves, but the most important aspect of his game is his intelligence and game-awareness. Bumrah knew the correct opportunity to use a delivery and subsequently applied that whenever required.
His ability to take wickets in the final stages of a game helped MI a great deal, as they were assured of having a capable and proven match-winner in their side. More importantly, he was effective with the new ball too, often hitting the right lengths and containing the batsmen with his accurate line and length. In 14 matches, he scalped 17 wickets at a strike rate 19.05.
Moreover, his economy rate of 6.88 is the most impressive, considering that he bowled in the fielding restrictions and the death overs; the most difficult stages of an innings for any bowler. He unfortunately couldn’t propel MI to the playoffs, but from an individual perspective, it was another satisfying season for the fast bowler.
4. Umesh Yadav:
Ahead of the tournament, I surely had apprehensions over Yadav’s caliber of excelling the T20 format. I felt that he was too much of a Test match bowler and lacked the variations to succeed consistently in this format.
However, credit to Virat Kohli and RCB’s team management, they used Yadav right up in the beginning of the innings and effectively maximized his strengths to a huge extent. Yadav mostly bowled his overs in the fielding restrictions and his beautiful back of the length deliveries meant that the batsmen were always a tad bit late to drive his deliveries through the off side.
His extra bit of pace, and the tendency to swing the ball both ways helped him confuse the batsman and Yadav unquestionably was RCB’s best bowler this season. He also developed the knack of bowling extremely full pitched deliveries to surprise the batsman, and was successful through that too.
He took 20 wickets from 14 matches, and gave away runs at a decent rate of just 7.86 per over. It was rather refreshing to see him adapt to all the formats, and this one season can help him stage a comeback of sorts in India’s limited overs team too.
3. Siddarth Kaul:
Sid Kaul actually was part of a team that won the U-19 World Cup in Malaysia under Virat Kohli’s captaincy in 2008. The mere fact that it took him ten long years to come back into the spotlight indicates that Kaul has had a rocky journey so far.
Deemed inconsistent and awry at the start of the season, Kaul was surprisingly effective and crucial to SRH’s tremendous run in the tournament. His well poised run-up, brilliantly coupled with a knack to pitch the ball at a good length area consistently.
He used the knuckle ball well, often pairing it with a slower one and then a pinpoint full pitched delivery to keep the batsman guessing. Kaul put his entire energy into the game, was equally good with both the new and old ball and mixed up his deliveries largely. He scalped 21 wickets in 17 matches, striking wickets at a rate of 18.85 deliveries.
He has eventually made it to India’s limited overs squad for the tour of England, and that is an apt reward of his performances for SRH. His economy of 8.28 is a tad bit more than average, but that’s understandable because he had to bowl the tougher overs in the final stages of the innings.
Overall, it was a very good performance from the pacer, though he would have liked to maintain the same consistency in the playoffs too.
2. Rashid Khan:
The undisputed king of Afghanistan!
At just 19 years of age, Rashid again defied odds this season by bamboozling the batsmen with his tricky leg-breaks and by slipping in the wrong urn in between. Rashid was the ultimate wicket-taker, often tricking the batsmen with the vast array of deliveries that he possessed.
He maintained an excellent length and line for right-handed batsmen, but it was his hidden googly that made it so difficult for the batsmen to launch a counter-attack him. He stunted the flow of runs, eventually forcing the batsmen to see out his overs.
More importantly, Rashid was used from an attacking perspective by the SRH as they relied on him to do the duty in the final overs sometimes and hence Rashid delivered with a decent tally of wickets too. He took 21 wickets in 17 matches; however, there is another stat that I believe is the most important from his viewpoint.
Rashid recorded an economy rate of just 6.73 and that suggests that he was equally miser, yet productive in terms of wicket taking ability. Eventually, this sums up the fact that Rashid was undoubtedly the best spinner, and the second best bowler in the tournament.
1. Andrew Tye:
Tye was bought by KXIP amid much fanfare, and you bet that he lived up to the expectations placed on him. He was an excellent bowler in the death overs, taking wickets at an astonishing rate and confusing the batsmen with his wicked knuckle delivery that was very difficult to crack.
Andrew bowled the right line, cramping the batsmen for any kind of room and eventually forcing them to succumb their wickets by attempting some terrible shots in the process. He has become the innovator of the knuckle ball that is so vastly used by fast bowlers these days, but there are few players who can claim to apply it better in the pitch than this Australian pacer.
Tye also used the slower ball occasionally, and made it extremely difficult for the batsmen to adapt to his bowling in the final overs. He took wickets in quick succession and that eventually halted the progress of the innings. Tye took 24 wickets in 14 matches, and that included three matches in which he took a four-fer.
He was an explosive wicket-taker, and tried his best to help KXIP qualify for the playoffs. However, there is no doubt that Tye was the best bowler in this tournament, after finishing with three wickets more than second placed Rashid, even though he played just 14 matches in comparison to Rashid’s 17.
