IPL 2015: Top Run-Scorers, Leading Wicket-Takers and More After T20 Eliminator

Royal Challengers Bangalore were far too good for Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League eliminator, picking up a comfortable 71-run win in Pune.

Yet again, AB de Villiers was the star performer, as he struck a stunning 66 to push Bangalore to a score of 180 for four from their 20 overs. Sadly for Rajasthan, none of their star batsmen could produce an innings of comparable clout, and they collapsed to 109 all out.

The win for RCB means they’ll face Chennai Super Kings on Friday, and the winner of that clash will meet Mumbai Indians in Sunday’s final.

After this lopsided encounter, here are how various individual classifications are shaping up and a closer look at some of the standout performers on the day.    

Top 10 Run-Scorers

Paul Kane/Getty Images

Player	Team	Runs
David Warner	Hyderabad	562
Ajinkya Rahane	Rajasthan	540
AB de Villiers	Bangalore	512
Virat Kohli	Bangalore	493
Lendl Simmons	Mumbai	472
Chris Gayle	Bangalore	450
Shreyas Iyer	Delhi	439
Brendon McCullum	Chennai	436
Rohit Sharma	Mumbai	432
JP Duminy	Delhi	414

Statistics courtesy of the official IPL website.      

Top 10 Batting Averages

Paul Kane/Getty Images

Player	Team	Innings	Runs	Average
Albie Morkel	Delhi	3	86	86.00
AB de Villiers	Bangalore	13	512	51.20
Virat Kohli	Bangalore	15	493	49.30
Ajinkya Rahane	Rajasthan	13	540	49.09
Jagadeesha Suchith	Mumbai	6	48	48.00
Yusuf Pathan	Kolkata	12	312	44.57
Shane Watson	Rajasthan	9	347	43.37
David Warner	Hyderabad	14	562	43.23
Lendl Simmons	Mumbai	12	472	42.90
JP Duminy	Delhi	13	414	41.40

Statistics courtesy of the official IPL website.   

Top 10 Strike Rates

Martin Hunter/Getty Images

Player	Team	Runs	Strike Rate
Andre Russell	Kolkata	326	192.89
Hardik Pandya	Mumbai	112	186.66
AB de Villiers	Bangalore	512	176.55
Mandeep Singh	Bangalore	153	164.51
Pawan Negi	Chennai	101	162.90
Kieron Pollard	Mumbai	383	160.92
Sarfaraz Khan	Bangalore	80	160.00
Deepak Hooda	Rajasthan	151	158.94
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	111	158.57
Quinton de Kock	Delhi	122	158.44

Minimum 90 runs scored. Statistics courtesy of the official IPL website.   

Top 10 Wicket-Takers

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Player	Team	Wickets
Dwayne Bravo	Chennai	23
Lasith Malinga	Mumbai	22
Yuzvendra Chahal	Bangalore	21
Ashish Nehra	Chennai	19
Mitchell Starc	Bangalore	19
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	Hyderabad	18
Harshal Patel	Bangalore	16
Harbhajan Singh	Mumbai	16
Nathan Coulter-Nile	Delhi	15
Mitchell McClenaghan	Mumbai	15

Statistics courtesy of the official IPL website.    

Top 10 Bowling Figures

Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

Player	Team	Date	Opponent	Figures
Ashish Nehra	Chennai	April 22	Bangalore	4/10
Ravindra Jadeja	Chennai	May 10	Rajasthan	4/11
Mitchell Starc	Bangalore	May 6	Punjab	4/15
JP Duminy	Delhi	April 18	Hyderabad	4/17
Sunil Narine	Kolkata	May 9	Punjab	4/19
Nathan Coulter-Nile	Delhi	May 1	Punjab	4/20
Lasith Malinga	Mumbai	April 25	Hyderabad	4/23
Chris Morris	Rajasthan	May 16	Kolkata	4/23
Sandeep Sharma	Punjab	April 18	Kolkata	4/25
Sreenath Arvind	Bangalore	May 6	Punjab	4/27

Statistics courtesy of the official IPL website.     

Top 10 Economy Rates

Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Player	Team	Overs	Wickets	Economy
Jayant Yadav	Delhi	7.0	2	4.14
Ravichandran Ashwin	Chennai	33.0	9	5.87
Shahbaz Nadeem	Delhi	7.0	0	6.14
Parvez Rasool	Hyderabad	5.0	1	6.20
Moises Henriques	Hyderabad	25.0	11	6.32
Suresh Raina	Chennai	9.0	1	6.33
Zaheer Khan	Delhi	24.1	7	6.45
Mitchell Starc	Bangalore	39.0	19	6.76
Brad Hogg	Kolkata	21.0	9	6.85
Sandeep Sharma	Punjab	50.0	13	7.00

Minimum three overs bowled. Statistics courtesy of the official IPL website.

Standout Performers

Aijaz Rahi/Associated Press

Amazing AB de Villiers

With Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle both struggling at the top of the order, De Villiers was probably in at the crease a lot earlier than he would have liked. But given the impeccable recent form of the South African, arguably the quicker he gets in and batting, the better the chances are for Royal Challengers Bangalore.

This was a vintage innings from AB. While the majority of players would have dug in after two early blows, he counter-attacked superbly, scoring runs around the wicket and smashing balls to the boundary rope with ease on his way to 66 from 38 balls.

As noted by ESPNcricinfo, he’s set impeccable standards this year:

"

AB de Villiers has been red-hot in #IPL2015 #RCBvRR scorecard: http://t.co/A8Lj1JvEnE pic.twitter.com/HbZ5DTSVLI

— ESPNcricinfo (@ESPNcricinfo) May 20, 2015"

With De Villiers in this kind of form, Bangalore will be tough to stop in the latter stages of this tournament. Not only is he incomparably destructive, but his temperament is impeccable; he’s the kind of player young stars in the side will look to in these high-pressure encounters.

For the tournament’s sake, it’s great to have AB around for as long as possible too. There are few players in the game who capture the imagination quite like the pulsating Proteas star.

Brilliant Bowling from Bangalore

Throughout this IPL, Bangalore have typically been reliant on virtuoso displays to haul them to victory. So perhaps the most encouraging facet of this performance was how the bowlers as a collective restricted and eventually wore down the Rajasthan batting lineup.

As noted by Freddie Wilde of ESPNcricinfo, this was a performance in which everyone stepped up:

"

#RCB, traditionally over-reliant star players, have had wickets taken by Aravind, Patel & Wiese & key runs scored by Singh. #IPL #RCBvRR #RR

— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) May 20, 2015"

Indeed, all of Bangalore’s five bowlers picked up a wicket, and perhaps even more remarkable was that four of the five had economy rates below a run per ball. In this format and against a batting lineup containing players such as Steve Smith, Shane Watson and Ajinkya Rahane, that’s mightily impressive.

If RCB can get every player in the XI to step up like they did in this one and players like De Villiers, Kohli, Gayle and Mitchell Starc sprinkle their stardust on proceedings, Bangalore are going to be very difficult to knock off course in their quest for glory.