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After 45 days of enthralling action, the IPL 2020 league phase has finally come to an end.
This season of the competition turned out to be one of the most competitive and exciting ones in recent memory, as even the lowest-ranked team ended with 12 points in their kitty, the same points tally that had ensured a trip to the IPL playoffs last season.
Ten interesting stats from the IPL 2020 league phase
Apart from the high-octane cricketing action, there were also some really interesting stats in the IPL 2020 league phase that one may not have fathomed at the start of the tournament.
On that note, let us have a look at ten such interesting stats from the league phase of the IPL 2020 season:
#1 Jofra Archer hit more sixes than Glenn Maxwell and Andre Russell combined
Yes, you read that right. Barbadian-born English fast bowler Jofra Archer smacked more balls into the stands in IPL 2020 than Australian dynamo Glenn Maxwell and West Indian power-hitter Andre Russell combined.
Archer hit ten sixes in 14 games in IPL 2020, doing so at a strike rate of 179.36. In comparison, Maxwell failed to hit a single maximum this season, and the much-feared Andre Russell could only smash the ball nine times into the stands.
Archer achieved his tally of sixes in 63 balls, while facing 43 and 18 balls fewer than what Maxwell and Russell respectively faced this season.
#2 Ravindra Jadeja and Navdeep Saini took just 12 wickets in 78.2 overs combined
It would be an understatement to say that Ravindra Jadeja and Navdeep Saini, two regular members of India's national T20 squad, struggled in this season of the IPL.
Jadeja and Saini are the strike bowlers for their respective franchises, Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore. Their captains usually depend on them to get crucial breakthroughs for their sides, but alas that wasn't to be the case this season.
Jadeja captured six wickets in 36.2 overs while Saini recorded the same tally albeit in 42 overs in IPL 2020, combining for a disappointing tally of 12 wickets in 78.2 overs.
However, the left-hander did shine with the bat in this edition of the IPL.
#3 Kings XI Punjab bowlers went 219 balls (36.3 overs) without taking a wicket
After scalping the wicket of Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma in the 17th over in their fourth game of the IPL 2020 season, Kings XI Punjab bowlers failed to claim a wicket in the next 219 balls (36.3 overs) in the competition.
In their next game against the Chennai Super Kings, KXIP's bowlers allowed CSK's openers to chase down a tall target of 179 runs in 17.4 overs without the loss of a wicket.
It took until the 15th over of their next match in the tournament, which came against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, for them to finally claim a wicket to end a long wicketless drought.
#4 KL Rahul single-handedly outscored the entire opposition
In the sixth match of the IPL 2020 season between Kings XI Punjab and Royal Challengers Bangalore, KXIP set a target of 207 runs for the Banglore-based outfit courtesy a fine knock of 132 by their captain and opening batsman KL Rahul.
However, RCB's chase never took off, and they could only score a paltry 109 in response, marking only the sixth instance in the history of the IPL when an individual batsman outscored the entire opposing team.
#5 MS Dhoni and Rishabh Pant finished with strike rates below 120
This season of the IPL turned out to be really harsh for a few former and current India internationals, specifically former India captain MS Dhoni and current India player Rishabh Pant.
Dhoni and Pant are two of the hardest hitters of the cricket ball in the world ,but in IPL 2020, they clearly struggled to middle the ball as much as they would've liked.
Dhoni, playing his first major tournament since announcing his international retirement in August, showed signs of ageing and waning form, as he finished the season with a strike rate of 116.7, his second-lowest in a single IPL season.
Pant, who currently finds himself out the Indian squad due to his poor form, didn't do himself any favours this season as his strike rate of 112.35 during the league phase of IPL 2020 was the third-worst among the top-50 batsmen in the competition this season.
#6 Mohammed Siraj bowled two consecutive maiden overs in an innings
Maiden overs are rare in the shortest form of cricket and are usually worth their weight in gold. In a star-studded tournament like the IPL, bowling a maiden over is tough, but bowling two is almost unheard of. Mohammed Siraj did the unthinkable against the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2020.
After forcing Eoin Morgan into a backfoot punch straight to backward point for a dot ball on the last ball of his second over, Mohammed Siraj created history as he became the first bowler to bowl two maiden overs in a match in the history of IPL.
#7 Shikhar Dhawan scored back-to-back centuries
On 20th October, in an empty Dubai International Stadium, when he smashed a wide delivery past point for a couple in the 19th over of Delhi Capitals' innings against Kings XI Punjab, Shikhar Dhawan became the first player in the history of the IPL to score back-to-back centuries in the same edition of the tournament.
Dhawan had come into this game after scoring an unbeaten 101 against the Chennai Super Kings, which happened to be his first century in the IPL. After one match, he doubled that tally.
#8 Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav became the first uncapped duo to score 400 runs for the same team in a single IPL season
Mumbai Indians' impressive uncapped duo of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav made a new record in the IPL, as they became the first uncapped Indian duo to score 400 runs for the same franchise in a single season of the tournament.
Yadav ended the league phase of the IPL 2020 season with 410 runs in 13 innings, doing so at an average of 41 and a strike rate of 150.18. Kishan scored 428 runs in 12 innings at an average of 47.55 and a strike rate of 140.32.
Catch all the details about IPL finals 2020, click here.
#9 Sam Curran and Imran Tahir recorded the highest 9th-wicket stand in IPL history
Things were looking bleak for the Chennai Super Kings in their second IPL 2020 game against the Mumbai Indians. They were 71 for 8 in the 15th over and staring at the possibility of beating their lowest ever score in the IPL - 79 against the same opposition in the 2013 edition of the tournament.
In walked CSK's number ten batsman Imran Tahir who joined English all-rounder Sam Curran in the middle. Both the players started to reconstruct the innings ball-by-ball and ended up posting a defendable score for their team.
It was Tahir whose boundary on the final ball of the 17th over helped CSK surpass their lowest ever score in the IPL. The pair eventually stitched together a partnership of 43 runs in 5.1 overs that included a 13-run 20th over to help CSK post a score of 116.
In the process, it became the highest ninth-wicket stand in IPL history, beating the joint previous record of 41 by MS Dhoni and Ravichandran Ashwin in IPL 2013 and Darren Bravo and Imran Tahir in IPL 2018, both against MI.
#10 Two tied games on the same day for the first time in IPL history
On the 18th of October, 2020, for the first time in IPL history, there were two tied matches on the same day of the competition.
In the first game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad, both teams ended with a score of 163 runs. In the resulting super over, SRH could only score two runs, which KKR comfortably overhauled in four deliveries.
In the second game of the day between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians, both teams finished on a score of 176. In the resulting super over, both teams were tied again, scoring 11 runs each, prompting another super over. This time, KXIP won after they chased down a target of 12 runs in just four balls.
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