Catch IPL’s Player of the Week in action today

When:

Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rising Pune Supergiants, May 10, Tuesday 8:30 PM BST

Where:

Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam

What to expect:

Fizz has 13 wickets from 9 games, one short of Andre Russell, Shane Watson and Mitchell McClenaghan. If Mustafiz continues in his rich vein of form, expect the bowling sensation from Bangladesh to don the Purple Cap soon.

Image taken from Sunrisers Hyderabad Facebook Page.

Although the past week of matches in this ninth edition of IPL served some superlative performances from outstanding cricketers like Andre Russell, Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan, Mustafizur Rahman was voted the Player of the Week by Times of India.

According to the report, Fizz has pushed SRH up from the bottom half of the IPL points table to second spot, he did the job in both the matches SRH played past week while keeping runs on the low and the left-arm cutter continues to be Warner’s go-to man.

Rising Pune Supergiants coach, former Kiwi captain Stephen Fleming praised Mustafiz when he spoke to the media ahead of today’s encounter. He reminded reporters how Steven Smith had played Fizz on the leg side or diagonally on the off with the angle of delivery. However, Fleming admitted that executing such shots against the crafty cutter master would not be easy.

Read: The Grip that gripped IPL

Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler Mustafizur didn’t have a great game against Pune on April 26. He gave 21 runs in two overs, and was carted for four boundaries by Aussie batter Smith. Mustafiz left that match behind him, and his surging forward from strength to strength.

Fizz recorded his best bowling figures of the Indian Premier League when he finished with 3 for 16 in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s 85-run victory over Mumbai Indians at Vishakhapatnam on last Tuesday. The 20-year-old currently has the best bowling average, 15.62 and best economy rate, 6.15 among bowlers who have played at least eight matches in the tournament.

Read: Fizz stars in Mumbai thrashing

When Mustafizur was taking the Mickey out of Mumbai batsmen, the commentators on air, particularly former Aussie bowler Damien Fleming and Ravi Shastri heaped accolades on the latest cricketing sensation from Bangladesh while pointing out the bizarre grip of the bowler.

Also read: Fizz sparks BBL franchise interest

Fleming was surprised to see Harbhajan Singh, a decent lower-order batter leaving balls outside off from Fizz. Mustafizur’s influence to force a batsman to think defensively in T20 cricket made a huge impression on the former Australian swing bowler.