Robin Uthappa (Kolkata Knight Riders)
Batting in the middle order for the first five matches, Uthappa was pushed up to open the innings as the Knight Riders returned to India with two wins from five games. The 28 year old has not looked back since, scoring 40-plus in each of his past 10 innings to move to the top of the run charts.
Glenn Maxwell (Kings XI Punjab)
Spending most of the last two seasons on the bench, the Australian has been the single-biggest sensation of 2014. Managing only three matches and 27 balls with the Mumbai Indians in 2013, and just two matches and 11 balls with the Delhi Daredevils a year before, Maxwell had 552 runs heading into the final and has scored them at a frantic strike-rate of 188.39.
Sunil Narine (Kolkata Knight Riders)
The Trinidadian has spent three seasons in the IPL, but his art still remains a mystery for every batsman. Batsmen dare not take chances against him and Narine’s stingy economy rate of 6.01 is evidence of that. His 20 victims, ahead of the final, show the futility of trying to take him on.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar (Sunrisers Hyderabad)
With the world’s best fast bowler, Dale Steyn, as his teammate, Kumar was expected to play the support cast, but the Indian seamer was the best of the quicks this season. Mohit Sharma took taken more wickets, but Bhuvneshwar averaged just 17.70.
Lendl Simmons (Mumbai Indians)
Given Dwayne Smith’s prolific run-making for Chennai Super Kings, Simmons might seem like an odd choice, but the Trinidadian made a huge impact since coming in as a late replacement. The first batsman to reach three figures this season, Simmons scored 394 runs in eight matches at a chart-topping average of 56.28.
arizvi@thenational.ae
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