IPL 2023: Best XI from second week

The second week of IPL 2023 has to be among the most exciting weeks in the history of the league. The week started with a low-scoring one-sided fixture between LSG and SRH and ended with the contest between Punjab Kings versus Gujarat Titans. Between these two fixtures, we witnessed plenty of last-over finishes, with four fixtures going down to the very last ball. In the second week, Rinku Singh announced himself on the big stage, Anrich Nortje gave an exhibition of death bowling, MS Dhoni turned back the clock, and Rahul Tewatia showed yet again that he has nerves of steel. Let us build a playing 11 of the players who played their part in making the second week of the ongoing tournament memorable. 1. Jos Buttler - wk (Rajasthan Royals) Jos Buttler. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) England’s experiment with Jos Buttler with the red ball has seemingly hurt his legacy. Otherwise, there is no reason that the English wicketkeeper-batter is not considered among the greatest white-ball cricketers of all time. Every year we see Buttler coming to the IPL and casually butchering the bowlers in the powerplay, then intelligently taking some time in the middle overs, before launching another assault in the death. The last part was missing in the last week, so we only saw two half-centuries at a strike rate of around 150. For any other batter, this would be a fantastic week, for Buttler it is par for the course. A century might be around the corner in the next week. 2. Shikhar Dhawan (Punjab Kings) Shikhar Dhawan. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) There were some murmurs about Dhawan’s lack of ability to accelerate when he scored 86 off 56 versusRajasthan in the first week of the ongoing edition. He shut all the critics with one of the finest one-man shows we have seen in the season when Punjab seemed down and out as they were reduced to 88/9 with the wicket of Nathan Ellis. This is when Shikhar used all his experience to expertly farm the strike by taking singles off the last ball while sending other balls over the fence. In the last five overs, he added 55 with Mohit Rathee, with the number 11 contributing just one run off two balls in the partnership. 3. Ajinkya Rahane Ajinkya Rahane. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) You have to be a very bold person if you had predicted that Rahane will be holding the record of the fastest fifty in the season for some time. The right-hander shocked everyone by completing his half-century off just 19 balls against a hapless Mumbai Indians bowling attack. It was a typical Rahane innings, as there were no slogs or wild swings, but pure elegance and mastery. The Mumbaikar made full use of the fielding restrictions by expertly piercing the gaps on his way to 61 off 27. Many wouldn’t have even expected Rahane to get opportunities this season, but 92 runs in twomatches at a strike rate of 200 have certainly boosted his chances to get some more opportunities going forward. 4. Nicholas Pooran (Lucknow Super Giants) Nicholas Pooran 1. (Photo Source: IPL/Twitter) While M Chinnaswamy is heaven for batters, chasing a target of 200-plus is always a challenge. It becomes even more challenging when you lose half the team before reaching the halfway stage. This was the situation when KL Rahul departed and LSG still required 108 runs in nine overs with just an inexperienced Ayush Badoni left as a recognised batter. Pooran took things into his hand as he launched a merciless assault on the RCB bowlers. He hit seven sixes and four boundaries as he effortlessly scored 62 off 19 balls to take LSG to the cusp of victory. Although Lucknow made life tough for themselves with a mini-collapse, they eventually got over the line on the last ball of the game. 5. Rinku Singh (Kolkata Knight Riders) Rinku Singh. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) There were multiple incredible performances throughout the week but the highlight of the weekwould be Rinku Singh. To put his achievement into context, no other batter in T20 history has managed to hit five sixes on the last five balls to win the match for his team. Rinku pulled off this miracle against Gujarat’s Yash Dayal to win KKR the match. At one stage, KKR required 39 off eight balls, from there Rinku hit 10 runs off two balls to bring the equation down to 29 off the last over. When Umesh Yadav returned the strike to Rinku, it still seemed an impossible task but destiny andRinku had other plans, and as they say, the rest is history. 6. Axar Patel (Delhi Capitals) Axar Patel. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) Delhi Capitals is the only franchise that is yet to register a win in the season. In the form ofMumbai Indians, they came up against the only other team to have not bothered the points table when they took on each other in match no. 16. MI eventually came up on top in a thriller which went to the very last ball, with Tim David havingto use his 6’5” height with a valiant dive. If it was not for Axar’s all round performance, that wouldhave been a much more convincing win for the five-time champions. Axar scored 54 off 25 balls on a pitch where David Warner was struggling to put bat to ball. Withthe ball he gave away just 20 runs in four overs, to mount some pressure on the MI batters. 7. Ravindra Jadeja (Chennai Super Kings) Ravindra Jadeja. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI) Nothing went well for Jadeja in the last season, but with the burden of captaincy off him, heseems to have found his mojo this season. The left-arm spinner spun a web around batters inboth matches in the week. In totality, he picked five wickets against RR and MI at a miserly economy rate of around 5 as battersfailed to get anything away from his bowling. If the mastery with the ball was not enough, Jadeja also sprinkled some magic with the batagainst RR. Along with Dhoni, he took CSK close to the finishing line with 25* off 15 balls. 8. Rashid Khan (Gujarat Titans) Rashid khan. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) Rashid Khan will go down as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the format. The Afghan leg spinner has not done any harm to his reputation this season, as he is still making his markwhen most bowlers are travelling the distance. While fittingly the match between KKR and GT will always be remembered for the heroics of RinkuSingh, the leg-spinner also made his presence felt. KKR were seemingly cruising towards the target before Rashid Khan derailed the innings with ahat-trick. In the match against Punjab, he played a role in restricting Punjab batters with his spellof 1/26 as GT restricted PBKS to 153 for the loss of eight wickets. 9. Trent Boult (Rajasthan Royals) Trent Boult. (Photo Source: BCCI/IPL) There are very few bowlers in the world who can swing the ball as well as Trent Boult. The New Zealand left-arm pacer is one of the deadliest bowlers with the new ball which is proved by hisrecord in the first over of the innings. Chasing 200 is never easy, but Boult made a difficult task almost impossible for the DC battersby picking two wickets in the very first over. As if the initial burst was not enough, Boult came back in the middle overs, to get the wicket of thedangerous-looking Lalit Yadav to derail DC’s attempt of mounting a comeback. 10. Mohammed Siraj (Royal Challengers Bangalore) Mohammed Siraj. (Photo Source: IPL/BCCI) It sounds odd to praise a bowler of the team that couldn't defend 213, but Siraj deserves all the praise. While other RCB bowlers were travelling the distance, Siraj didn’t only put the lid on scoring but also chipped away with wickets. He struck the initial blow by taking the wicket of Kyle Mayers at the start of the innings. He cameback in the middle overs to land a body blow to LSG in the form of KL Rahul’s wicket. When Nicholas Pooran was taking the game away from RCB, Siraj came back to dismiss theWest Indian to give some hope to RCB but it proved too little, too late. 11. Yuzvendra Chahal (Rajasthan Royals) Yuzvendra Chahal. (Photo Source: Twitter) There is no one who can raise a finger against Yuzvendra Chahal’s wicket-taking ability. The Indian leg-spinner has done no harm to his reputation by being the current IPL 2023 purple cap holder with 10 wickets this season thus far. Not only has the wrist spinner chipped in with wickets, but he has also picked wickets at a miserlyeconomy rate. He conceded runs at an economy rate of just 6.75 against DC and CSK while picking three and two wickets respectively. Thanks to his performances, RR stand pretty at the top of the table. If he can maintain his positionat the top of the table in the race to the purple cap, it would be difficult to take RR off the top of the points table as well.

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IPL 2023: Best XI from second week

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