5 Players who exceeded the expectations in IPL 2017

After 60 games in the season this year, Mumbai Indians came up triumphs to win IPL 2017, which was their third title overall. Rohit Sharma marshalled his troops exceptionally well in Hyderabad to defend a total of just 129 against Rising Pune Supergiant winning the game by 1 run.

A number of stellar performances were given by various cricketers throughout the 45-day period. As many as three hattricks were recorded – one each by Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat and Samuel Badree – and three five-wicket hauls were registered this year. The balance between bat and ball was almost even this season as 23 Man of the Match awards were grabbed by bowlers, the most in the history of the IPL.

There were players who vindicated their high price tag by delivering for their franchise during crunch moments while a few failed to come good as they were burdened by the high price they got in the auctions in February. Along with such cricketers, there were a few which came good despite the franchise not expecting too much from them.

Let us have a look at 5 such players who exceeded the expectations this year:

1. Rahul Tripathi

One of the main reasons Tripathi was chosen to play for RPS, apart from having hit six sixes twice in local cricket in Pune, was that he was the sole player who hailed from Pune in the entire franchise. Acquired at his base price of 10 lacs by RPS, Tripathi went on to play 14 out of the 16 games played by the team this year. The 25-year old started in the middle order, which is his usual position in domestic cricket before he was asked to open the innings alongside Ajinkya Rahane.

What conspired next left everyone dumbstruck. Tripathi found his rhythm at the top of the order as his free-flowing batting allowed him to score quickly during the powerplay. His breakthrough innings was the 93-run knock against KKR when he took every bowler to the cleaners. Tripathi managed to score 391 runs in 14 innings at 27.92. His strike rate of 146.44 was the standout feature of his batting. He outscored big internationals stars, Rahane and Smith, in the middle stages of the league but could not deliver a meaningful performance during the playoffs.