The Indian Premier League has always been a delight to the statisticians for churning out records year after year. The league, which has never been short of high-voltage action and power-packed performances, has become some sort of a trendsetter in the T20 format.
Over the years, we have seen a plethora of T20 records being broken and created in the IPL, day in day out. Such is the unpredictability of the format, that some of the records lasted for a short period of time before getting toppled by another.
This year, it has been no exception. We have seen some unbelievable records being created in the IPL 2016 and we are trying to list 5 of them which will surely take some serious beating if they are to be emulated or toppled.
#5 Best figures in a losing Cause
Playing for Rising Pune Supergiants, the young Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa took the IPL 2016 by storm when he picked up 6 wickets in the game against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Zampa ran through the SRH team as he produced 4 overs of intelligent leg-spin bowling and restricted them to a score of 137.
However, Zampa’s spell was not enough as his team lost the game by 4 runs and thus made his figures 6-19 the best in a losing cause in any T20 match. The record was previously held by Denmark’s Aftab Ahmed who took 6 for 22 in a game against Papua New Guinea which Denmark lost by 14 runs.
Surely this one will be very hard to emulate as picking up 6 wickets in an innings is considered a rare feat in the T20 format and also there have been only 4 instances when a bowler finished on the losing side despite picking up a 6-for.
#4 Highest margin of victory by runs
Royal Challengers Bangalore had the dubious record of conceding a defeat by the highest number of runs in the very first match of the inaugural season of the IPL in 2008 when they were humiliated by Kolkata Knight Riders by 140 runs.
So this year, they might have taken it upon themselves to change the dubious feat. In the game against Gujarat Lions, two of the best batsmen in the RCB side, AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli literally toyed with the bowling to take the total to a mammoth 248.
Chasing the gigantic total, the Gujarat side crumbled and were bowled out for a meagre 104 in 18.4 overs and thus registered their name in IPL history.
In the overall T20 records as well, the margin comes 5th in the list and thus proves the point that it will surely take some beating.
#3 Most runs by a batsman in a single season
The Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli has set the IPL 2016 on fire with his stellar performances and his recent run of form has made him the only player to score over 800 runs in a single T20 series. Virat has scored 865 runs at an astonishing average of 86.50 in 13 games so far.
Virat is also the only captain to have scored the most number of runs in a T20 series eclipsing James Vince who scored 710 runs playing for Hampshire in the Natwest T20 blast in 2015.
The belligerent Indian also became the only player to score 4 centuries in a single T20 tournament bettering the feat of Michael Klinger who scored 3 centuries in the Natwest T20 blast in 2015.
Virat’s feat of over 800 runs will surely be hard to topple and only someone consistent like Virat can achieve that sort of a record.
#2 Two batsmen scored 100s in the same T20 innings
Two batsmen of the same team scoring hundreds in the same innings in a T20 game? The rare feat has happened only twice in T20 history and IPL 2016 can proudly boast one of them. Two of the most exciting batsmen in the world right now, the Royal Challengers Bangalore duo of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers wrote their names into the history books when they scored 109* and 129* respectively against the Gujarat Lions in the same innings.
The duo slaughtered the Lions’ bowling attack, putting together a partnership of 229 runs in just 96 balls and in doing so they plundered 112 Runs in the last five overs of the innings which is the most by a team in T20. Previously, no team had scored more than 100 runs in the final five overs.
Previously, playing for Gloucestershire, Kevin O'Brien (119) and Hamish Marshall (102) did the same thing against Middlesex in 2011.
It will take a humongous effort by any pair to enlist their names in the coveted list.
#1 Highest number of runs chased down successfully in the last over
23 runs required in the last over and the chasing team managed to achieve that! Well, this is one outrageous feat which took place in the game between the two bottom-placed teams Rising Pune Supergiants and Kings Xi Punjab. One of the best finishers of the modern game, Pune skipper MS Dhoni pummeled 23 runs in the last over bowled by Axar Patel re-write cricket history as we know it.
Pune needed a daunting 23 runs to win in the last over and Dhoni entirely took it on him as he miraculously hit the last two balls for massive sixes to knock off the 12 runs required off the last two balls.
In IPL history, there have been two instances when more than 23 runs were scored in the last over. However, in both those cases, the chasing team required 21 runs to score in the last over and they managed to score 24 and 26. Deccan Chargers and Royal Challengers Bangalore did that in 2009 and 2012 respectively.
However to score the required 23 runs in the last over will surely take some beating. Take a bow, MS Dhoni.
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