Fantastic Faf And Lord Rinku: Story Of The IPL So Far

The Indian Premier League has reached its midway stage with Faf du Plessis firing on all cylinders, Rinku Singh achieving a miracle and MS Dhoni's Chennai Super Kings top of the table. AFP Sport pinpoints five highlights so far of the current edition of the lucrative Twenty20 tournament, which reaches its climax on May 28.

- Faf thwacks it -

Six-machine Faf du Plessis has lit up the competition for Royal Challengers Bangalore with a barrage of boundaries including one 115-metre (380-foot) missile into the stands.

The South African veteran tops the batting chart with 405 runs in seven matches, including five half-centuries, and has gelled with fellow opener Virat Kohli with two century stands.

Australia's Glenn Maxwell, also at Bangalore, has similarly been no slouch in the powerhitting stakes with 23 sixes behind Du Plessis' 25 -- the only two to go above 20.

For Chennai, India's normally more sedate Ajinkya Rahane has been a revelation with a strike rate of over 199 in five matches, including an atomic 71 not out off just 29 balls.

The top-order batsman has earned a recall to India's Test squad.

- Rinku phenomenon -

Batsman Rinku Singh became an overnight sensation with an incredible five sixes in the last five balls of Kolkata Knight Riders' against-the-odds chase against a stunned Gujarat Titans.

The never-seen-before blitz, which conjured memories of the four sixes by West Indies batsman Carlos Brathwaite in the 2016 T20 World Cup final off Ben Stokes, is the highlight of this IPL.

A son of a hawker, left-hander Rinku has risen from humble beginnings to IPL fame after being picked by two-time champions Kolkata for $97,000 in the 2018 auction.

Teammate Venkatesh Iyer called him "Lord Rinku" after the match-winning