For a magnificent century with the bat and two wickets with the ball, in a must-win crucial encounter for Rajasthan Royals against Kolkata Knight Riders, Shane Watson is our Cricket World Player of the Week. 

Watson scored a 104 in just 59 balls at a strike-rate of 176 in the last league game for his team at Brabourne Stadium in Mumbai.

His unbeaten knock, studded with nine fours and five sixes saw Royals through to an intimidating total of 199.

The Royals defended it well on a good batting strip, winning the game eventually by nine runs.

Watson bowled his full quota of four overs too, picking the important wicket of Yusuf Pathan, KKR’s top-scorer in the game, and later that of Piyush Chawla to help his side defend the total.

The win helped Rajasthan make it to the play-offs. In the same game, Chris Morris’ figures of 4-23 were equally commendable, especially given he picked the wickets of Gautam Gambhir, Andre Russell and Shakib Al Hasan.

Another excellent bowling performance came from Mitchell McClenaghan, who registered figures of 3-16 in his four overs to help Mumbai Indians restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad to just 113 in their 20 overs, resulting in an easy win for Mumbai in a must-win encounter.

One of the most scintillating innings of this IPL edition came from the bat of Virat Kohli in a game studded with classy knocks.

Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 135 in just 11 overs, in a rain-shortened game, thanks to half-centuries from Moises Henriques and David Warner, as they went at strike-rates of 259 and 162 respectively.

Although it seemed like Henriques’ day as he picked two wickets in the one over that he bowled, Kohli smacked an inspired unbeaten 44 in just 19 balls under pressure to take Royal Challengers Bangalore over the line in the penultimate ball, the win helping Bangalore make it to the play-offs and resulting in Hyderabad falling behind.

Two brilliant innings were also witnessed in the match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Kings XI Punjab.

Batting first Hyderabad posted 185, their skipper Warner scoring 81 off just 52 balls, 28 being the next highest individual score for the team.

It was however matched in gusto and enterprise as David Miller clobbered an unbeaten 89 in just 44 balls with nine sixes, almost taking his team home.

Punjab eventually fell short by just five runs, even though at one stage, they were down and out at 99 for six with 87 needed off 35 balls.

Couple of impressive performances came in the game between Chennai Super Kings and Delhi Daredevils.

Chennai were reduced to a dismal 119 in their 20 overs thanks to a superlative bowling performance from Zaheer Khan who registered figures of 2-9 in his four overs.

Chasing the target, young Shreyas Iyer scored an unbeaten 49 ball 70 to see DD through the chase, his team scoring 120 in just 16.4 overs.

One of the heists of the tournament came from Hardik Pandya of the Mumbai Indians. Mumbai were 79 for four after 11.4 overs badly looking for momentum against Kolkata Knight Riders.

While Kieron Pollard held one end up scoring a 38 ball 33, Pandya ensured Mumbai got to a good total.

His unbeaten 31 ball 61 laced with eight fours and two sixes ensured Mumbai reach 171.

Yusuf Pathan almost saw Kolkata through the chase scoring a 37 ball 51. Needing 12 runs off the last six balls, Pathan fell in the first ball of the last over and Kolkata fell short by five runs.

We sign off this week’s performances with Shashikala Siriwardene of the Sri Lankan women’s cricket team. Her 4-30 ensured the West Indian women team scored just 124.

She signed off an all-round performance scoring an unbeaten 42 to see her side through the chase, Sri Lanka levelling the One-Day International series at 1-1. 

© Cricket World 2015