IPL 2019- Week 01- Top Ten talking points

#7 An eventful week for Rajasthan Royals but a win allude them

R Ashwin and J Buttler

Chris Gayle's swashbuckling assault; Buttler's encore of the last season; Mankad; the spirit of cricket debate; Samson's sumptuous ton and David Warner's shenanigans, it's fair to say that Rajasthan Royals have had quite a first week at the Vivo IPL.

We will come back to the Mankad incident later. Let us first talk about how the Royals have fared thus far. Back-to-back defeats might suggest that the team have been outplayed, but if you look at both matches, the Jaipur based franchise was in command for a significant portion of the game both against KXIP and Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Against KXIP, the Royals were 2-108 after 12.5 overs [Target: 171] when Jos Buttler was run out in controversial fashion by Ravi Ashwin. With 63 runs required in 7.1 overs and the likes of Steve Smith and Ben Stokes to follow, you would expect the batting side to win nine out of the occasions. But, an extraordinary collapse that saw them get reduced from 3-148 to 9-164, meant they eventually fell short by 14 runs.

Sanju Samson

"David, you destroyed my day, my hundred was not enough" admitted Sanju Samson in an interview to David Warner after he has his ton go on in vain following a ruthless assault from the Australian opener. We'll talk about it later. But, let's focus here on Samson. Every year Samson gives us an annual reminder of his precocious talent; his 54-ball 100 against Bhuvneshwar and co was another addition to the list.

Samson's ton helped Rajasthan what looked like a match-winning total of 2-198, but the fact that SRH got it with an over to spare underlines two things. First, SRH probably has the best opening pair in this tournament [3 consecutive 100-run partnerships at the time of writing] and secondly- more significant, if you are a Royals' fan is the perennial weakness in RR's bowling. Barring, Jofra Archer, they do not have anything to boast off in the pace department which has put the pressure on Archer itself.

The likes of Dhawal Kulkarni and Jaydev Unadkat are both similar bowlers in terms of speed and variations, and on flat decks have proved to be costly. Rajasthan's punt of opening with Krishnappa Gowtham hasn't worked either which has allowed sides' to settle into their innings as Gayle and Warner did in the first two games.

Their inability to win crucial moments plus their death bowling cost them a victory against the Chennai Super Kings, first by allowing CSK to get to 17 after having them get reduced to 3-27 and then by succumbing under pressure when they required just 12 runs off the last over with the well-set Ben Stokes still at the crease.

#6 Welcome to the 5,000 run club, Mr Raina and Mr Kohli; the Universe Boss stormes in the 300 Sixes club

Suresh Raina

Prior to the IPL, one of the big talking points was who will become the first player to breach the 5,000-run mark. The contenders were Mr. IPL, as he endearingly referred to Suresh Raina [4985 runs] and Mr. Consistent- Virat Kohli [4948 runs].

In fact, one of the subplots leading up to the tournament opener between CSK and RCB was centered around the race between the two batsmen. With RCB batting first, it looked like Virat Kohli will etch his name into the record books ahead of Raina, but Kohli, like his teammates, struggled on a sluggish Chennai track and holed out at deep midwicket off Harbhajan Singh.

But, Suresh Raina did not let the opportunity slip and deservedly so, became the first batsmen in the history of the Indian Premier League to cross 5,000 runs during his innings of 19. Kohli, too reached the 5000-run mark during his innings against the Mumbai Indians; becoming the first batsman to score 5,000 runs for a single franchise.

Chris Gayle

If there was any competition in case of reaching 5,000 IPL runs when it came to hitting the most number of sixes', there is Chris Gayle and then daylights. In a tournament where no other batsman has racked up 200 sixes, the 'Universe Boss' came into the tournament with 292 maximums next to his name, and the Big Man did not take it long to reach the magic number of 300.

Gayle smoked four sixes in the first game during his scintillating innings of 47-ball 79 against RR before bludgeoning four more against the Mumbai Indians to etch his name in the annals of the IPL.