Varun Chakravarthy, Jonny Bairstow and Will Jacks are all included in the sixth team of the week for IPL 2024. Every XI can contain a maximum of four overseas players besides having no more than three players from a single franchise. Like last year, there is also an Impact Player to be chosen every week in addition to the starting XI
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Phil Salt (KKR): How much Salt is too much Salt? For KKR fans, the answer might well be that too much is never enough. Rubbing Salt into the wounds of the opposition on a consistent basis, KKR’s English opener hammered 75 off 37 balls against PBKS on Friday. Three days later, when DC visited Eden, Salt continued the carnage, hitting 68 off 33 balls, as the Knights coasted to a target of 154 with 21 balls to spare. Across both games, Salt accumulated 13 fours and 11 sixes
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Jonny Bairstow (PBKS): English batters are putting on quite the show at Eden this season. Perhaps the pick of the bunch so far has been Bairstow’s 108 not out off 48 balls, which helmed the highest-ever chase in T20s. Woefully out of form until he came to Kolkata, Bairstow smashed four fours and nine towering sixes as PBKS made history with eight balls to spare. Five days later, Bairstow turned on the style once more, this time with an explosive 46 at Chepauk against CSK
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Ruturaj Gaikwad (CSK): The Orange Cap holder at the time of writing, Gaikwad has shown far more consistency than his team of late. In back-to-back home games for CSK, Gaikwad scored consecutive half-centuries. Against SRH, Gaikwad narrowly missed out on three figures as he was dismissed for 98 off 54 balls, a masterful knock comprising 10 fours and three sixes. This was followed up with a steady 62 off 48 against PBKS, which further underlined his importance for CSK as sheet anchor
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Sai Sudarshan (GT): His team may have eventually been outclassed by RCB on home soil on Sunday, but Sudarshan did his reputation no harm whatsoever with a characteristically punchy innings. Coming into bat at the end of the first over, the southpaw scored an unbeaten 84 off 49 balls, with eight fours and four sixes, the bulk of which came as part of a commanding 86-run stand with Shahrukh Khan
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Will Jacks (RCB): Having been a part of the RCB setup since last year, Jacks is finally getting into his groove. Having brought up his 50 off 31 balls against GT at the Narendra Modi Stadium, Jacks looked somewhat disappointed. That disappointment soon turned into destruction for GT, as Jacks went berserk, hitting his next 50 runs off just 10 balls, with Virat Kohli reduced to a mere spectator at the other end! With five fours and 10 sixes and some of the cleanest hitting we have seen at this IPL, Jacks ensured RCB chased down 201 inside 16 overs
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Shashank Singh (PBKS): The wrong Shashank seems to be doing all the right things for PBKS, as their highest run-scorer this season played a breathtaking knock against KKR at Eden. Facing just 28 balls, Shashank conjured eight sixes and two fours en route to an unbeaten 68. He was not out once more on 25, as PBKS edged past CSK, showing much more control and patience the second time around
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Bhuvneshwar Kumar (SRH): Last-over heroics from Bhuvneshwar made for one of the all-time IPL classics between SRH and RR at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Thursday night. Trapping Rovman Powell leg before wicket off the last ball of the game produced a memorable ending for Bhuvneshwar, who ended with three for 41. This after he had sent Ajinkya Rahane packing as part of a spell of one for 38 against CSK earlier in the week
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Sandeep Sharma (RR): The in-form pacer was on the mark against LSG in Lucknow on Saturday, cleaning up Marcus Stoinis and getting Nicholas Pooran caught out while giving away 31 runs in his four overs. Sandeep gave away the same number of runs five days later in Hyderabad, taking the wicket of Anmolpreet Singh in another impressive showing, especially with the new ball
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Rahul Chahar (PBKS): On a night when no bowlers were spared, Chahar picked up the crucial wicket of Sunil Narine and gave just 33 runs in his four overs as KKR pummelled PBKS for 261 runs. Chahar carried his form through to a spinning Chepauk wicket as he kept things tight, giving away just 16 runs in his four overs against CSK while also picking up two wickets in the form of Ravindra Jadeja and Moeen Ali
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Tushar Deshpande (CSK): CSK may have missed a trick with Deshpande not featuring against PBKS because it was his spell of four for 27 that saw the Super Kings get a mammoth 78-run win against the high-flying SRH. Dismissing the dangerous Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma before they got into their innings, Deshpande also got the wicket of Anmolpreet Singh, before silencing Pat Cummins to finish off with his best bowling figures in the IPL
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Varun Chakravarthy (KKR): Despite getting hit for 46 runs in his three overs against PBKS on Friday, Chakravarthy came back three days later to spin a web around the DC batters, getting the likes of Rishabh Pant, Tristan Stubbs and Kumar Kushagra while giving away just 18 runs in four overs. The KKR faithful will be expecting more such spells from one of their key spinners as the tournament enters the business stage
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Impact Player: Jake Fraser-McGurk (DC): He may have missed out against KKR as well as on a place for Australia at the upcoming T20 World Cup, but DC’s pocket rocket did not miss out on a demolition job against MI in Delhi. A batting blitzkrieg of 84 off just 27 balls saw JFM take Kotla by storm, with 11 fours and 6 sixes at a mind-boggling strike rate of 311! Of his 84 runs, no less than 80 came in boundaries alone!
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