IPL 2022: Week Of Great Batting, Shocking Failures And Disgraceful Behaviour

The success story of the week however was that of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). The unrated SRH have notched up five straight wins and sailed straight to the second spot on the IPL 2022 points table.

IPL 2022 is rapidly becoming a mix of the splendid and sordid. From some excellent batting and knocks of sheer class, we then fall to fist-ball ducks for batting legends and to add to all that was the rather ridiculous situation when the Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant actually wanted to drag his team off the pitch after the umpires had not given a no-ball in the last over of an improbable but incredible chase. Not that the umpires were exactly driven snow – they had their own howlers. Then of course there were sitters dropped by fielders who’d otherwise take them in their dreams. It was something else.

The match of the week was between Mumbai Indians (MI) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK). With both the big sides going through the throes of mediocrity, there was a massive crown at hand at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on April 21 to see who this potentially titanic clash.

What it turned out to be was a lot of drama and an incredible finish. People saw the rare sight of Mahendra Singh Dhoni missing a regulation stumping, as well as Ravindra Jadeja dropping not one but two simple catches as CSK spilled like an oil leak.

Nevertheless, MI’s underwhelming batting set a moderate target and CSK’s own uncertainties brought it down to the last over, with 17 needed. One was taken by Dwayne Bravo, then Dhoni hammered 16 off four balls. Champagne stuff from Mahi and MI had another defeat.

Another drama was the Delhi Capitals (DC)-Rajasthan Royals (RR) contest. With 36 needed off the last over, DC’s West Indian import Rovman Powell incredibly hit fellow-Caribbean Obed McCoy for three consecutive sixes off the first three balls. DC were adamant that the third was a no-ball and when not given, angry skipper Pant urged Powell and non-striker Kuldeep Yadav to walk off. He also sent assistant coach Pravin Amre into the field to protest.

However, better sense prevailed and the match continued, but Powell had lost his momentum by then and DC went down by 15 runs.

Pant was penalised 100 per cent of his match fees, his teammate, the equally animate Shardul Thakur lost 50 per cent of his fees while Amre went poorer by all his match fee and also was banned for one match. Ugly doesn’t even begin describing it.

The week was also about Virat Kohli’s first-ball ducks, against Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 19 and versus SRH on April 23, when Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were bundled out for a paltry 68. Kohli is living a nightmare and the cynical smile on his face says he doesn’t know what’s going on.

But there was sheer class too. The same match saw RR’s Jos Buttler crack his third century of the season, while LSG skipper KL Rahul essayed his second for the year against Mumbai Indians in the last match of the week, both innings a touch of class and poise in a crazy week.

The success story of the week however was that of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH). The unrated SRH have notched up five straight wins and sailed straight to the second spot on the IPL 2022 points table. Their success is as unobtrusive as it is consistent.

Gujarat Titans are unbeatable at the moment and Hardik Pandya’s team are too good for anyone. They are atop the points table with 12 points from seven matches with a Nett Run-Rate of 0.396, followed by SRH (10 points, NRR 0.691). Three other teams – RR, LSG and RCB are on 10 points too as the gap between these six and the rest begins to widen.