Top 5 bowling figures in IPL history

Till date, the IPL has witnessed 19 five-wicket hauls being taken. Sohail Tanvir of Rajasthan Royals was the first person to take a five-wicket haul in 2008, against Chennai Super Kings. James Faulkner and Jaydev Unadkat are the two players who have taken the most number of five-wicket hauls in the IPL.

While Faulkner took both his five-wicket hauls playing for Rajasthan Royals, Unadkat took one five-wicket haul playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore and the other playing for Rising Pune Supergiant.

Players from Mumbai Indians and Rajasthan Royals have taken the most number of five-wicket hauls, with three each. IPL 2011 saw the highest number of five-wicket hauls being taken in a single edition of the tournament - four.

On that note, let us take a look at the top 5 bowling performances in the IPL.

#5 Lasith Malinga (MI) 5/13 vs Delhi Daredevils in 2011

Malinga took 5/13 against DD (3.4 Overs, 1 Maiden, Economy 3.54) in 2011. He took the wickets of David Warner, Unmukt Chand, Venugopal Rao, Morne Morkel and Ashok Dinda.

What was incredible about this spell was that 4 out of the 5 batsmen were bowled; the remaining 1 was caught out. Twice in the match, Malinga struck twice in an over.

His spell helped MI restrict Delhi to 95 runs. Mumbai comfortably won that match by 8 wickets, and Malinga was named as the Player of the Match for his efforts.

His bowling figures from this match remained the second best in the 2011 tournament. He was also the leading wicket-taker of IPL 2011 with 28 scalps to his name.

#4 Ishant Sharma (Deccan Chargers) 5/12 vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011

Ishant Sharma against Kochi Tuskers Kerala in 2011

The fourth best bowling figures come from a match between two teams who are not a part of IPL anymore - Deccan Chargers and Kochi Tuskers Kerala. Ishant Sharma of Deccan Chargers took 5/12 (3 Overs, 0 Maidens, Economy 4.00) against KTK.

Deccan Chargers were defending a modest total of 129/7 in the match. But Sharma's spell helped to bundle out KTK for just 74 runs. He took the wickets of Mahela Jayawardene, Parthiv Patel, Raiphi Gomez, Brad Hodge and Kedar Jadhav in the match.

For his performance, he was also named as the Player of the Match.

Sharma ended the 2011 IPL season with 16 wickets. His this spell of 5/12 was the best bowling performance of the 2011 tournament.

#3 Anil Kumble (RCB) 5/5 vs Rajasthan Royals in 2009

Anil Kumble against Rajasthan Royals in 2009.

Anil Kumble was at his miserly best against Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2009. In the 3.1 overs bowled by him, he only gave away 5 runs, bowled 1 maiden over and also took 5 wickets with an economy of 1.57. No other bowler who has taken a five-wicket haul has conceded so few runs in their spell.

RCB in this match were defending a total of 133/8. Kumble's spell helped them to restrict RR to just 58 runs. But this performance was not enough for him to win the Player of the Match award, which went to Rahul Dravid instead for his 66 runs.

In the match, Kumble took the wickets of Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Shane Warne, Munaf Patel and Kamran Khan.

Kumble ended the 2009 tournament as the second highest wicket taker with 21 wickets. This spell was also the best bowling performance of IPL 2009.

#2 Adam Zampa (RPSG) 6/19 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016

Adam Zampa of RPSG became the second player to take 6 wickets in an innings in IPL in 2016.

Adam Zampa became the second player in the history of the IPL to take 6 wickets in an innings when he took 6/19 (4 Overs, 0 Maidens, Economy 4.75) against Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016. His 6 victims were Kane Williamson, Yuvraj Singh, Moises Henriques, Deepak Hooda, Naman Ojha and Bhuvneswar Kumar.

Though Zampa's spell helped in restricting SRH to 137/8, it wasn't enough as SRH won the match by 4 runs.

Zampa was awarded the Player of the Match trophy for his bowling. His performance of 6/19 is the only performance in this list which ended on the losing side.

Zampa played only 5 matches for Pune in 2016 and picked up a total of 12 wickets.

#1 Sohail Tanvir (RR) 6/14 vs Chennai Super Kings in 2008

Sohail Tanvir of RR was the first player in the history of IPL to take 6 wickets in an innings.

Sohail Tanvir became the first player in the history of the IPL to take 6 wickets in an innings when he took 6/14 (4 Overs, 0 Maidens, Economy 3.50) against Chennai Super Kings in 2008. He took the wickets of Parthiv Patel, Stephen Fleming, Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Albie Morkel, Muttiah Muralitharan and Makhaya Ntini en route to his 6 wickets.

Tanvir's spell helped RR bundle out CSK for 109. In the end, RR won the match by 8 wickets and Tanvir was named as the Player of the Match.

Tanvir's 6/19 remains the best IPL bowling figures by a player in an innings till date. He ended the 2008 IPL as the leading wicket-taker with 22 wickets.