It was a relatively quiet week for the England boys in the IPL with Twenty20 veterans Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson playing memorable knocks and New Zealander Trent Boult hogging the headlines with a stunning catch to dismiss Virat Kohli.
However, there were some performances of note – good and bad – with Ben Stokes showing his electric fielding skills, Chris Jordan making his first appearance of 2018 and Jason Roy dropping a costly catch.
Read on to see how the English contingent fared in Week 3…
Jason Roy (Delhi Daredevils)
Games: 2
Runs: 6
Top score: 5
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April 23, 2018, 3:00pm
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Roy finished top of the class in last week’s England Watch after his rumbustious, match-wining 91 on debut for Delhi – but his two follow-up games were highly disappointing. The Surrey man was stumped for one against Kolkata Knight Riders and then made just five against Royal Challengers Bangalore before he was bowled by spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.
Delhi went on to lose both those matches, with Roy’s drop of Andre Russell against KKR proving extremely costly – Russell had seven at the time but went on to cream 41 from just 12 balls, with half of those deliveries sailing for six. Roy has been stellar in the field other than that – now he’ll be hoping to get back among the runs in fixtures against Kings XI Punjab and KKR.
VERDICT: 2/10
Tom Curran (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Games: 3
Wickets: 3
Best bowling: 2-19
Tom Curran told Sky Sports' Michael Atherton that he made the right decision to play in the IPL this spring
Curran played in each of KKR’s three games over the past seven days having won his battle with Australian veteran Mitchell Johnson for a seam-bowling spot. The 23-year-old bagged one wicket against Delhi, while he snaffled two in as many balls against Rajasthan Royals before Dhawal Kulkarni saw off the hat-trick delivery.
The Surrey paceman only bowled one ball against Kings XI on Saturday – which sailed back over his head for six as Gayle blasted his side to a nine-wicket DLS victory. Curran also managed just three runs in two innings with the bat down the order but as he has come in needing to tee off from ball one, you can’t really hold that against him.
VERDICT: 5/10
Chris Woakes (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
Games: 2
Wickets: 1
Best bowling: 1-31
Runs: 11
Top score: 11
Bangalore vs Chennai
April 25, 2018, 3:00pm
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Woakes has played in each of his franchise’s fixtures thus far. That said, his last two performances with the ball haven’t been all that memorable. Woakes picked up 1-31 from three overs against Mumbai Indians – although he did feel he should have had Hardik Pandya caught behind – and then went for 0-40 from four versus Delhi as Rishabh Pant gave him some tap.
Still, the Warwickshire star is up there in the wicket charts for the tournament with eight in five games. Woakes only got one hit with the bat last week, striking 11 from 11 balls against Mumbai, including a soaring six over long-on off Mustafizur Rahman, before he was caught off Jasprit Bumrah, but he has contributed in the field for Virat Kohli’s men.
VERDICT: 4/10
Sam Billings (Chennai Super Kings)
Games: 2
Runs: 3
Top score: 3
Like Roy, Billings has struggled since hitting a match-winning knock – in Billings’ case a 23-ball 56 against KKR on his Chennai debut. The Kent captain mustered only three runs against Rajasthan before he slapped a half-tracker to Stokes in the deep, although that mattered little with Watson’s century powering the Super Kings to a 64-run victory in Pune.
Billings gained revenge against Stokes when he caught his England team-mate on the slog-sweep – his second catch of the match – but was unable to make much impact against Sunrisers. Billings was not required to bat and did not claim any catches either. With Faf du Plessis fit, the 26-year-old could face a battle to keep his spot as one of CSK’s overseas starters.
VERDICT: 3/10
Ben Stokes (Rajasthan Royals)
Stokes added another stunning IPL boundary catch to his CV with this cracker for Rajasthan against KKR
Games: 3
Runs: 99
Top score: 45
Wickets: 0
Best bowling: 0-25
Stokes has yet to fully ignite with bat or ball in this year’s IPL, though there were positive signs with the blade as he hit 45 against Chennai and 40 against Mumbai. He has pocketed just a solitary scalp in the five matches in which he has bowled, going wicket-less against CSK – a game in which he was nailed for four consecutive fours by Suresh Raina – KKR and Mumbai.
You can always count on Stokes’ fielding, though! The all-rounder produced another spectacular grab to dismiss KKR’s Robin Uthappa – Stokes pushing the ball back into play before treading on the boundary cushion and then taking the catch cleanly as he returned to the field of play. If not for Boult, it may have been a catch of the tournament contender!
VERDICT: 6/10
Jos Buttler (Rajasthan Royals)
Games: 3
Runs: 48
Top score: 24no
Buttler has also been short of an innings full of pyrotechnics, with his unbeaten 24 from 18 balls against Kolkata his best knock to date. Buttler opened the batting at times for Mumbai last year, a role he also fulfilled for Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League over the winter, so should Rajasthan think about shunting the Englishman up the order?
Buttler has been neat with the gloves – snaffling two catches apiece in the clashes with Chennai and Mumbai – but it was a potential future England star who stole the limelight in the latter match, with Barbados-born Sussex seamer Jofra Archer taking three wickets on debut, ousting the Pandya brothers and Mitchell McClenaghan in the same over!
VERDICT: 5/10
Chris Jordan (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
Games: 1
Wickets: 0
Best bowling: 0-31
Mumbai vs Hyderabad
April 24, 2018, 3:00pm
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Jordan made only one appearance for Sunrisers in 2017 so he will at least match that this time around after being drafted into the side for the defeat to Kings XI at Chandigarh. Jordan came away with tidy figures of 0-31 from his four overs, although he could not avoid the ‘Gayle storm’ completely – the Universe Boss hammering him for two sixes and a four.
Jordan was benched again against Chennai on Sunday with towering Aussie Billy Stanlake back, although he had a mate to chat to with Alex Hales left out by the Hyderabad franchise once more. With Stanlake, Kane Williamson, Shakib Al Hasan and Rashid Khan holding the overseas berths, Jordan and Hales could be gaining splinters for a while.
VERDICT: 3/10
Those not selected:
Hales, David Willey (Chennai), Liam Plunkett (Delhi) and Moeen Ali (RCB) are still awaiting their first taste of IPL action this term, while Mark Wood has remained absent from the Chennai XI since playing in the opening fixture against Mumbai Indians on April 7.
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