In Numbers - The Best and the Worst of IPL

04/08/2016

Most consistent teams in the IPL

Arguably, the most consistent and dominant team in Indian Premier League history, Chennai Super Kings, has been suspended from the tournament for the next two editions of IPL. Chennai Super Kings have qualified past the group stages in every single edition they played. With two titles and a total of six final appearances, no other team comes even close to CSK in terms of consistency.

Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders also have two titles each, but it is Mumbai Indians who come second on the consistency leaderboard having qualified past the group stages in every season since the third season of IPL.

Most disappointing teams in IPL

With 67 losses so far in IPL, Delhi Daredevils hold the record for the most losses in IPL history. After a bright start in the initial seasons of IPL, the Delhi outfit has miserably gone through a downward spiral. Making wholesale changes to their squad in almost every auction and letting go of stars like AB de Villiers, Dinesh Karthik, Kevin Pietersen, Vettori, Dhawan, Russell and Gautam Gambhir did not prove to be a very bright decision by the Delhi management as they succumbed to four poor seasons in the last five editions finishing at 10^th, 9^th, 8^th and 7^th.

The other over-performing team of IPL would be Royal Challengers Bangalore, who are an enigma. Undoubtedly, one of the most entertaining teams in IPL but even with the two best batsman in the world, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, along with the greatest batsman in T20 history, Chris Gayle, in their ranks, they are yet to win the IPL. Although, they did make it to the final twice, they have somehow always found ways to choke at the knock-out stages.

Performances of Teams over the 8 season of IPL

Most dominating batting line-up

Royal Challengers Bangalore dominate most of the batting records and expectedly so. Chris Gayle’s 175 not-out against Pune Warriors is still the highest score in IPL history. His 30-ball century that match is also the fastest IPL century and the same match also saw Royal Challengers Bangalore post the highest ever IPL team total as they managed a mammoth 263/5 in their 20 overs. It is not surprisingly that Chris Gayle also tops the list of most sixes in IPL history with 230 sixes in total so far, and he is the only batsman in IPL history to have two orange caps to his name.

Manish Pandey, playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2009, also was the first Indian to score an IPL century. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers’ 215-run partnership versus Mumbai Indians at Wankade in 2015 is also the highest partnership in IPL history.

Brilliance with the Ball

Mumbai Indians’ Lasith Malinga tops the list for the most wickets in IPL history with 143 wickets, but it is West Indian Dwayne Bravo who is the only bowler to have won the purple cap twice. Chennai Super Kings have had three purple cap winners in the last three IPL seasons, but surprisingly they failed to win the title on any of those occasions. It is also interesting to note that after the first two seasons, no team with the purple cap holder has won the IPL title.

Amit Mishra (3) has the most number of hat-tricks to his name in the IPL, and each of those hat-tricks came for three different IPL franchises (DC, DD, SRH). He is followed by a rather surprisingly name in Yuvraj Singh who has two hat-tricks to his name.

Percentage of matches won in the knock-out stage

With the knock-out stages, come added expectations from the team and the players. But not everyone can soak the pressure and emerge as champions during high-profile stressful situations. Just look at the South Africans and the Kiwis. As it turns out, it is the Kolkata Knight Riders who boast of the best win percentage in the knock-out stages by winning 80% of their matches. Rajasthan Royals come in second with 60%.

Having played just 5 matches each though, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals’ big win percentage is not too good a sample for consistency but does state that whenever these two teams make it to the business end of the IPL, they usually deliver.