IPL 2017: 5 Exceptional performances from lesser known players after first week

The tenth edition of Indian Premier League commenced on 5^th of April and it has lived up to its expectation of entertaining the fans with some intriguing action. Teams have come up with some surprising decisions like Lynn opening for KKR, RPS leaving out Du Plessis and even Harbhajan Singh wasn’t part of the playing eleven for Mumbai Indians in their opening game. There have been some exceptional performances from Lynn, AB De Villiers, Hardik Pandya, Warner and Smith. But there are few performances from lesser known or unexpected players this week which has made this edition already a huge success.

Here we look at the top 5 performances from lesser known players after the first week of this cricket extravaganza.

#1 Sanju Samson ( 102 off 62 balls against RPS)

RPS won an all-important toss on a small ground in Pune and put Daredevils to bat first. Young Deepak Chahar picked up a wicket of Tare in the very first over which brought Sanju Samson in the middle earlier than expected. He began his innings with a flurry of boundaries off Pune’s quicks, piercing the field with a series of drives and punches through point and cover. In no time he reached 31 off just 14 deliveries which gave his team their best score in the power play since May 2012.

Once the field was spread Sanju cleverly rotated the strike being cautious against the likes of Tahir and Zampa. Soon he completed his half century of 45 balls. Soon after reaching the milestone, he freed his arms and started to look more threatening with some sublime hitting. He was so fierce at the back end of the innings that he scored his last 48 runs off just 17 deliveries. Sanju scored the first century of the season which was studded with 8 fours and 5 sixes and eventually helped his side score in the excess of 200. Very few expected for him to blaze away in this fashion before the start of the tournament.