IPL 2020: How Jofra Archer has turned up the heat by a few notches in the UAE

Prithvi Shaw was totally flabbergasted. The ball pitched just outside off stump, moved in sharply, took the inside edge of his bat, and crashed onto his stumps. Shaw was beaten for pace, and also due to the movement off the deck. And just like that, Jofra Archer had befuddled another batsman yet again. Shaw walked back without troubling the scorers, and Archer had given his side the opening that they needed.

Turning the heat up by a few notches

In fact, Archer has been turning the heat up by a few notches with his sizzling pace in the deserts of UAE this year. In the table below, let us take a look at the Top 15 fastest deliveries bowled in the 2020 edition of the IPL.

When we look at the table, we can find that as far as the fastest deliveries in this edition are concerned, it has been a duopoly among just two bowlers. Anrich Nortje and Archer have combined to bowl the 15 fastest deliveries of the tournament. Archer features in the list 7 times. He has bent his back and has been virtually unplayable at times.

Even though Nortje has also bowled extremely quickly, he has not been as effective as Archer.

Archer- Topping the charts this year

In the table below, let us have a look at the top five bowlers with the most number of wickets in the 2020 edition of the IPL.

From the above table, we can see that Archer occupies the second place in the list of bowlers with the most number of wickets in this edition of the IPL. He has taken 12 wickets in the 8 matches he has played so far and has been an absolute asset for the Rajasthan side. In fact, in the list of highest wicket-takers, four out of the Top 5 places have been occupied by pacers.

Now, let us go ahead and look at the bowlers who have bowled the most number of dot balls in this edition of the IPL.

When we look at the bowlers who have bowled the most number of dot balls in the 2020 edition, we can see that Archer stands at the top of the pile, head and shoulders above the rest. He is the only bowler to have bowled more than 100 dot balls, and is also the only bowler in the list to have a dot ball percentage of more than 50.

Archer has choked the batsmen with pace, coupled with his ability to make the ball move sharply off the deck as well.

Now, let us look at the Top 5 pacers with the best economy rate in this edition of the IPL. Only those pacers who have bowled a minimum of 10 overs have been taken into consideration to avoid outliers.

From the table, we can see that Archer has been the most economical pacer in the IPL. His economy rate is a miserly 6.56. In fact, no pacer who had played a minimum of 5 matches in the tournament has an economy rate of less than 7 runs an over. So, not only has Archer taken wickets regularly, but he has also stemmed the flow of runs, constantly applying pressure on the opposition batsmen.

Archer- A potent weapon in the arsenal of his side

There is no doubt that Archer is the most potent weapon in the arsenal of his side. He has pace, he can make the ball move off the deck, can generate steep bounce and has rattled several batsmen in this edition of the IPL.

And certainly, over the remainder of the tournament, we can expect this fiery pacer to turn up the heat by a few notches in the UAE.

Note: All stats have been taken from iplt20.com and have been updated as on 14th October 2020