Hyderabad: The Indian Premier League or IPL, as it is widely known across the world, needs no special introduction! It is considered as one of the most recognised and renowned cricketing tournaments, alongside being one of the richest domestic leagues. Not only cashflow, but also its ratings are always several notches above the other domestic T20 event. It is known for its quality play and lest we forget the star-studded roster of national and international players, who have been striking a chord with the cricket-frenzy nation since its inception in 2008.
In the last 12 years, the fans have witnessed some prolific performances and some of them were so brilliant that it seems impossible to emulate them again.
ETV Bharat takes a look at five such records in the Indian Premier League:
1. Chris Gayle's 175
The swashbuckling West Indies batsman Chris Gayle has numerous records under his belt and is known for bettering his own records. But during the 2013 season, the 40-year-old set a record, which is impossible to surpass by any cricketer including Gayle himself.
During a match between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Pune Warriors in the sixth edition of IPL, Gayle did something impossible. In a standard T20 match 175 is considered a respectable total and imagine an individual scoring that much runs in a single match... seems impossible? Yes. But this was done by Gayle.
On 23rd April, even the stars must have aligned to watch Gayle hammering the Pune bowlers all over the park as he smashed an unbeaten 175 runs in just 66 balls. During his innings, Gayle struck 13 boundaries and 17 sixes.
Gayle's 175 runs knock is the highest individual score by a player not just in IPL but in any T20 game, and it will take a perfomance of the highest class to break this record.
2. Virat Kohli and the year 2016
The year 2016 was special for Indian skipper Virat Kohli. The flamboyant Indian batsman was already counted among one of the modern greats -- but in 2016 he touched another level, he became a monster, a run machine.
Seldom has anyone ever seen a player dominate world cricket as Kohli did in 2016. In 2016 Kohli amassed 2,595 runs in 41 innings, which is excluding his phenomenal perfomance in the eighth edition of the Indian Premier League.
During the 8th edition of the cash-rich league, the highest-paid IPL cricketer surpassed the expectation of cricketer enthusiasts in the world as he went on to score 973 runs in just 16 innings at a staggering average of 81.08. Kohli smashed four IPL centuries in IPL 2016 and till date he is the only cricketer to do so in a single calendar year.
Kohli won the Orange Cap as well took home the player of the tournament trophy.
3. The Ashish Nehra special
Bowler getting smashed all over the park is a new benchmark of modern cricket. It is not interesting enough for fans to watch a total of 160 or 170 getting defended.
Most of the time, cricket is considered a batters game and maybe rightly so, when it comes to the shortest format of the game.
But sometimes, bowlers have forced people to take notice of them with their brilliant perfomances. And one such remarkable feat is registered under the name of 'our very special' Nehra Ji.
During the 2009 edition of IPL, while playing for Delhi Daredevils, Ashish Nehra stunned the world by giving away just six runs in his allotted overs at an economy rate of 1.5. He also picked one wicket for DD.
He was also the third-highest wicket-taker in IPL 2019 with 19 scalps under his belt in 13 games.
4. Six balls and 37 runs
Smashing six sixes on six balls is not an easy task. So even if a bowler is having a really bad day and get smashed over the park on his every legal delivery in an over, he would concede just 36 runs. Right?
However, the fourth edition of the IPL was known for a unique record i.e., 37 runs scored in a single over.
In IPL 2011, during a match between RCB and Kochi Tuskers, Gayle scored 37 runs with the help of four fours and three sixes in a single over bowled by a medium pacer named Prasanth Parameswaran, he also bowled a no-ball. It is also the most expensive over in the history of IPL.
5. Two hat-tricks and Yuvraj Singh
The dashing, former Indian batsman Yuvraj Singh is synonymous to all the things wonderful.
There is not much on the cricket field, which Yuvi cannot do, be it fielding, bowling or batting, I mean one can ask Virat Kohli, how much he misses having a player like Yuvi in his playing XI. Yuvi has achieved almost everything as a cricketer.
Even though Yuvi was not able to replicate his international success in IPL, he did something impossible during IPL 2009.
On the second edition of India's domestic T20 league, Yuvraj Singh scripted history by bagging two hat-tricks in a single season, a record which is yet to be touched or broken by any other player.
Yuvi's first hat-trick came against RCB in Durban when he dismissed Jacques Kallis, Robin Uthappa and Mark Boucher on successive deliveries. His second hat-trick came against Deccan Chargers when he removed Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao in consecutive balls.
