IPL Stats: Top 11 records in 11 years of IPL history

Every year, Indian summer turns into a frenzied atmosphere as the Indian Premier League (IPL) kicks off. Ever since it’s inception back in 2008, IPL has become a household name in India and a lot of other parts of the world as well. Every summer, top players from across the globe ply their trade in what is tipped as one of the best T20 leagues in the world. The best players not only square off against each other but also at times get the opportunity to play alongside each other.

The IPL is back and in about a week’s time, eight teams will once again eye the coveted IPL title. As we build up towards this 12th edition, let’s have a quick look at the top 11 records from the last 11 seasons.

---

#1 Most runs

This IPL record is most likely going to belong to players who have played for a large part of the 11 seasons. Suresh Raina leads the batting charts with 4985 runs. The CSK left-hander has played 172 innings and has barely missed a game in the IPL.

Virat Kohli is not too far behind either as he has amassed 4948 runs in 155 innings. Thus, with CSK and RCB squaring off against each other in the opening game of this season, it might well be a race for the record of the first man to reach 5000 runs in the IPL cricket.

Rohit Sharma (4493 runs), Gautam Gambhir (4217 runs), Robin Uthappa (4129 runs), Shikhar Dhawan (4058 runs), MS Dhoni (4016 runs) and David Warner (4014 runs) are the other players who have over 4000 IPL runs. Overseas stars Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers are not too far behind and are tipped to cross the 4000-run barrier pretty early in the season this time around.

#2 Most wickets

T20 cricket is not all about the runs and the big shots. Wickets is an important aspect and teams look out for bowlers who have wicket-taking abilities. In 11 seasons, 12 bowlers have taken 100 wickets or more while a couple of bowlers might well break the 100-wicket barrier this season.

Lasith Malinga leads the wickets tally with 154 wickets and is the only player with 150+ wickets in the IPL. Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla are not too far behind either as they have taken 146 and 140 wickets respectively. Dwayne Bravo and Harbhajan Singh are the other bowlers with over 130 wickets.

---

#3 Most Hattricks

Hat-tricks are rare to come by and the IPL has seen 17 hat-tricks till date with the first one coming back in the first season (2008) and the most recent one in 2017. Lakshmipathy Balaji was the first player to register a hat-trick in the IPL while Jaydev Unadkat was the last (at least for now).

Amit Mishra leads the hat-trick tally with three and all three have come while he was playing for different teams – Delhi Daredevils (2008), Deccan Chargers (2011) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (2013). Yuvraj Singh is next on the list with a couple of them and both of them came in the same season. There’s a surprising name on the list and that is Rohit Sharma who took a hat-trick back in 2009.

2008, 2009 and 2017 are the three seasons which have seen the most hat-tricks and each of those editions have had three hat-tricks each.

#4 Most 50s and 100s

The IPL has seen a lot of batsmen who love batting big and making big scores. Gautam Gambhir leads the batting charts as far as the most fifties are concerned. He has struck 36 fifties in his IPL career so far. David Warner is level with the former Indian opener as far as fifties are concerned. Suresh Raina has scored 35 half-centuries while Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have 34 each.

The Universe Boss, Chris Gayle has the most number of centuries in the IPL. He has struck six IPL centuries. Virat Kohli and Shane Watson have four each while AB de Villiers and David Warner follow with three centuries each.

---

#5 Fastest 50 and Fastest 100

Chris Gayle has scored a century in a jaw-dropping 30 balls. It was that innings when he went berserk and struck a massive 175 back in 2013 against Pune Warriors India, shattering all kinds of T20 records. He beat Yusuf Pathan’s record which was 37 deliveries.

KL Rahul holds the record for the fastest fifty when he reached the landmark in 14 deliveries last season in a game against Delhi Daredevils (now, Delhi Capitals). He broke the joint record held by Yusuf Pathan and Sunil Narine who had scored the half-century in 15 balls.

#6 Most wins and defeats

Mumbai Indians (MI) have played the most number of games and have the most number of wins as well. They have 97 wins in the 171 games they’ve played in 11 seasons so far. However, it is the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) who have the best win percentage. The MS Dhoni-led franchise have a win percentage of 61.56 as they’ve won 90 games in nine seasons they’ve played. MI and CSK are also the most successful teams as they have won the IPL title three times each while Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) have won it twice.

Meanwhile, Delhi Capitals (previously known as Delhi Daredevils) have the most number of losses. They have lost 91 matches in the last 11 seasons. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) are the other two teams who have lost more than 80 games – 86 and 84 respectively. Incidentally, they are the only three sides who have never won an IPL title.

---

#7 Most successful captains

You won't need to dig deep to know who are the most successful captains in the history of the IPL. Three captains have in excess of 50 wins as IPL captains and they are MS Dhoni (94 wins), Gautam Gambhir (71 wins) and Rohit Sharma (51 wins). Dhoni and Rohit have won three IPL titles (for CSK and MI respectively) each while Gambhir has led the KKR to the title twice.

As far as win percentages are concerned (at least five matches), Steve Smith and Sachin Tendulkar top the list with 66.67% and 60.78% with Dhoni coming a close third with 59.11%.

#8 Most sixes and fours

What is IPL or for that matter any T20 game or tournament without the big hits? Gautam Gambhir has hit the most number of fours in the history of the IPL. The left-handed opener who has played for Delhi and Kolkata has struck 491 boundaries. Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli follow next with 460, 448 and 434 fours.

Meanwhile, there are no second guesses for who has struck the most sixes in the IPL. It was Chris Gayle and he leads the chart with 292 maximums with the next best more than 100 behind. AB de Villiers, MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina have 187, 186 and 185 sixes respectively.

---

#9 Best partnerships

Partnerships are a big part of any format of the game. In the IPL, there have been only four double century partnerships while 20 partnerships have been in excess of 150. Out of the four 200+ partnerships, Virat Kohli has featured in three of them, twice with AB de Villiers and once with Chris Gayle. The other instance of a 200+ partnership was between Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh.

Kohli and de Villiers lead the best partnership charts with a couple of double century stands – 229 and 215 which lie at the top of the tree.

#10 Most matches played

Eight players have played over 150 games in the IPL and three of them have played in over 170 matches. Suresh Raina leads the chart with 176 games and he has hardly missed a game or two in the history of the league. MS Dhoni comes a close second with 175 matches while Rohit Sharma has played 173 games.

Dinesh Karthik, Robin Uthappa, Yusuf Pathan, Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir and Ravindra Jadeja are the other players who have played in excess of 150 games.

---

#11 Most catches for a non-keeper

Fielding is a big part of the game and as the cliché saying goes, ‘catches win matches’. There are 10 players who have taken more than 50 catches in the IPL so far with only three of them taking in excess 75 catches.

Suresh Raina once again leads the list with 95 catches. Rohit Sharma, AB de Villiers and Kieron Pollard come next in the list and are pretty close to each other with 79, 78 and 74 catches respectively. Meanwhile, AB de Villiers has the most catches per innings (0.722).