New Delhi: From explosive batting displays to fiery bowling spells, and from legends with most games played to fielding maestros with most catches, here’s a list that breaks down top highlights of Indian Premier League (IPL) over the years, ahead of popular T20 event’s 18th season, starting Saturday.
A total of 1,106 Indian Premier League (IPL) matches have been played till date. That is more than 3,870 hours of t20 cricket. Enough time to watch all Marvel films 36 times over and finish at least 60 full readings of War and Peace! In modern lingo, the IPL has produced a lot of content. Inevitably, it has also produced a plethora of statistics, some of which are much more interesting than others.
Ahead of the 18th season of cricket’s annual extravaganza, here is a deep dive into 18 numbers that tell the remarkable story of the IPL — its greatest achievers, occasional failures and unprecedented scale — through data points.
2: Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers are the only two players to have multiple double century partnerships in the IPL with each other. Their first came in May 2015 against the Mumbai Indians (MI) with the second following a year later against the Gujarat Lions (GL). In total, there have been six partnerships in the IPL worth 200 runs or more.
3: Only three players have managed the prized combination of at least 1,000 runs and 50 wickets in the IPL. They are Shane Watson, Ravindra Jadeja and Andre Russell.
6.73: The best economy rate for any bowler taking at least 50 wickets in the IPL, held by Sunil Narine. The only other bowlers with an economy rate under seven are Muttiah Muralitharan, Rashid Khan, and Dale Steyn.
8.83: The highest average runs per over in the IPL is the proud possession of the Gujarat Titans (GT). But if we are looking at franchises who have been around much longer in the competition, it is the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) who have the fiercest run rate with 8.41.
14: Bhuvenshwar Kumar and Praveen Kumar share the distinction for the most maidens in the IPL with Trent Boult within touching distance with 11.
18: No team has won more play-off or knockout stage matches in the IPL than the Chennai Super Kings (CSK), which includes their five final wins (2010, 2011, 2018, 2021, 2023). In second place are MI with 13, including their five triumphs on the big stage (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020).
18: The unenviable moniker of duck king goes to Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik. Nobody has more zeroes in the IPL than the pair’s 18 each.
71: CSK are the most formidable hosts in the IPL, winning more games than anyone else at home.
73: The most expensive spell in IPL history belongs to Mohit Sharma for GT against the Delhi Capitals (DC) in April 2024.
78: The best travellers in the IPL are MI, who have won more encounters than anyone else on the road.
114: No IPL outfielder has taken more catches than Kohli’s 114, which are five more than Suresh Raina’s haul. Among wicketkeepers, Mahendra Singh Dhoni leads the way with 148.
174.92: Russell has the most devastating career strike rate in the IPL for any batter with at least 2,000 runs. Among the rest, only Maxwell and de Villiers have struck at more than 150. Russell hits a boundary every 3.74 balls in the IPL and his strike rate shoots up to 194.21 in victorious matches.
205: Yuzvendra Chahal is the IPL’s all-time leading wicket-taker. Ahead of Piyush Chawla’s 192 and Dwayne Bravo’s 183 dismissals. When it comes to matches won, though, it is Lasith Malinga who rules the roost with 122 scalps.
226: The most number of matches captained in the IPL. No surprise that it’s Dhoni with his 15-year spell in charge of CSK, with an interregnum at the Rising Pune Supergiant (RPS). Dhoni also boasts the highest win percentage of any IPL captain with more than 20 matches under their belt. Dhoni’s 58.84 per cent is marginally ahead of Sachin Tendulkar’s 58.82 per cent.
8,004: Kohli is the IPL’s all-time leading run-scorer, with 4,205 of those runs coming in winning causes (also the most). This includes eight tons and 55 fifties (both records). Kohli is trailed by Shikhar Dhawan (6,769 runs) and Rohit Sharma (6,628 runs).
13,027: The total number of sixes hit in 17 seasons of the IPL. The last campaign set a new record with 1260 maximums, improving on the 1000-plus tallies from both 2023 and 2022. No single player has hit more sixes than Chris Gayle’s 357, which are 77 more than second-placed Rohit Sharma.
20,00,00,000: The amount in rupees received by the IPL winners of last season, a 317 per cent increase from the prize money for the champions in the inaugural edition. For the runners-up, the rewards have amplified even more, with a 421 per cent increase from 2008 to Rs 12.5 crore in 2024.
4,83,900,000,000: The value in rupees of the ongoing broadcasting deal for the IPL, which runs till 2027. That’s more than the combined box office earnings of the top 10 highest-grossing Indian movies of all-time!
