IPL 2019, standout player, biggest disappointment, best quote – David Warner, Parthiv Patel, and Kolkata Knight Riders feature in week 4 wrap

The tournament is entering the business phase of the league stages – that means everything means that much more. It’s in these times that the real stars stand out – and the real disappointments are made clearer. And that was the case last week as well.

Standout player – David Warner
Can anybody stop this man? He’s playing as if to make up for lost time, having served a 12-month ban for his role in the Cape Town ball-tampering incident last year. And he certainly is making up for all that time he spent sitting around. Warner scored a 38-ball 67 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday. It was his fourth consecutive half-century. He is the leading run-scorer in the tournament so far, with 517 runs in 9 matches. Hyderabad will miss him, dearly, when he leaves on Australia duty at the end of the month.

Standout moment – Parthiv Patel
Parthiv Patel did a Dhoni on… well, Dhoni. The former India captain had done brilliantly to drag Chennai Super Kings back into their clash against Royal Challengers Bangalore – 26 needed off the final over, and MS Dhoni brought it down to two off one ball. However, when he was beaten by Umesh on the last ball, he set off for a single. Parthiv, however, had been all ready, right glove off, and he collected and threw down the stumps to catch Shardul Thakur just short. Bangalore won by 1 run, and Dhoni’s 84* was in vain. What a thriller.

Biggest disappointment – Kolkata Knight Riders
Andre Russell’s ballistic form had clouded deeper problems in the Kolkata Knight Riders set up, or so it now seems. Kolkata’s loss against Hyderabad on Sunday was their fifth in a row. They are just two points above Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore, the laggards, and despite Russell hitting the ball as well as he ever as, Dinesh Karthik, the captain, and the management are somehow reluctant to bat him higher, despite the player stating he’d like to do just that. Time is running out, Kolkata.

Room for improvement – Bail fails
When Umesh Yadav beat Faf du Plessis on Sunday, with a ripper, the ball greased the stumps on its way to the wicketkeeper. Yet again, the bails refused the budge. We’ve lost count, but it’s at least the fifth time that’s happening this season – five wickets, that is. That may not seem much in the grander scheme of things, but it could change a lot of things for a lot teams. Perhaps it’s too late to do anything about it this season, but the BCCI must investigate why this is happening, and do the needful. It’s not fair on the bowlers.

Standout quote – Dale Steyn

“I was lucky enough to watch him in the beginning. The man that stands in front of me now is the Indian captain. It’s amazing, it’s an honour.”
– Dale Steyn in conversation with Virat Kohli, while looking back at a 10-year-challenge picture of the two of them.