What's the best innings played by an Indian in IPL?

 

It should be Suresh Raina 's 87 of 25 balls against Kings 11 Punjab in Qualifier 2 of 2014 season

Kings 11 Punjab and Chennai Super Kings were battling for second spot in the final. Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to field first which turned out to be a bad decision. Virendra Sehwag scored 122 of just 58 balls to help Punjab to score a big score of 226.

In reply, CSK lost Faf du Plessis on the second ball of the innings itself. Raina came to bat and smashed 87 runs of just 25 balls which included 12 fours and 6 sixes. He smashed 18 runs of Sandeep Sharma’s 2nd over, 20 of Mitchell Johnson’s 4th over and 33 of Parvinder Awana’s 6th over. His team's score was 100/2 in 6 overs which was the highest powerplay score during that time. He later unfortunately got runout in the next over and his team lost the way and went on to lose the match.

His innings is regarded as the one of the greatest innings in IPL history.

Which player do you think has been completely utilized by their team in the IPL history?

 Undoubtedly, Christopher Henry Gayle. The Universe Boss has been worth every single penny for their franchise.

So far Chris Gayle has been a part of 3 IPL teams.

1. Kolkata Knight Riders
2. Royal Challengers Bangalore
3. Kings XI Punjab

Gayle played for the first time in 2009 for the Kolkata Knight Riders. And he was quite impressive too. He continued his form in 2010 as well. But, then KKR committed a huge blunder. They let Chris Gayle go away assuming that he won't be available for the 2011 IPL because of his international commitments.

His stats were impressive standing at 463 runs in 16 matches at a strike rate of 141.59. For a player who was invested with ₹10 crores in 3 years these stats were not bad at all.

• Unsold at the auction

IPL can be crazy. Despite such brilliant stats Gayle went unsold at the 2011 IPL. But, it wasn't over for him yet. RCB had roped in Dirk Nannes at a whopping cost of ₹3crores. RCB had a poor season and needed a good replacement, since Gayle was at a base price of ₹ 1.8crores he was demeed fit. And this was where the fortunes of RCB as well as Gayle changed.

• The Rampage

Chris Gayle went on to hit a century in his first match for RCB against KKR. Within 2 weeks he hit another hundred vs KXIP. RCB was unstoppable and Gayle single handedly took them to finals scoring a whopping 608 runs which included 2 hundreds and 7 fifties.

His golden run with the team continued and he was retained by RCB in 2014 for ₹7.5 crores. Him along with ABD and VK were the batting pillars of RCB.

From 2011 to 2017 Gayle played a total of 115 matches for RCB where he scored 2795 runs which included 4 hundreds and 16 fifties at a phenomenal strike rate of 136. Such a performance for ₹ 40 crores over a period of 6 years is worth a penny.

But in 2018 RCB decided to let go of Gayle. And the next phase was going to begin!

• Same old same old

Just like 2011, Gayle was almost unsold in 2018 until Kings XI Punjab purchased him on his base price of ₹ 2 crores. Many thought that Gayle has now aged and his power was over. But he was the same old. Him along with KL Rahul were the most destructive pair for KXIP.

Yet again Gayle hammered the opposition with same brute. For KXIP till 2020 he played 31 matching amassing 1146 at a scintillating rate of 146.7 which included 2 tons and 10 half-centuries. Again ₹ 6 crores for 3 years and you get such excellent results.

In true sense Gayle has been a consistent T20 performer which hasn't disappointed his franchise ever. Gayle has been the perfect worth for his franchise every season.

What are the biggest mistakes in IPL cricket history?

 Financial and franchise mistakes:

• Releasing Chris Gayle - I don’t need to explain this. Why KKR released Gayle is still beyond me. A lot of reports said it was because he left halfway through season 1. Whatever bro! RCB got their penny’s worth and then some.

• Buying an out-of-form Yuvi - Yuvi is no doubt a legend of the game, but IPL is a place where all that doesn’t really count. Loads of superstars have been humbled by the format. RCB and DD both bought Yuvi for super-high prices and he did not do much to justify the buys.

• Buying and Releasing Shane Watson - Weird, I know. It is true that Shane Watson was in the twilight of his career and that he had a lacklustre season with RCB, but he was still a catch. But even then , 9 crores rupees was still high. CSK lapped him up the moment they saw him on sale and he had a pretty good season with CSK under Dhoni’s razor-sharp leadership.

• Benching Glenn Maxwell - MI bought him for $1 M and benched him. Enough said.

• Releasing Gautam Gambhir - Arguably the second best captain in the 2011 and 2012 IPL seasons, releasing Gambhir was one of DD’s worst decisions and that is saying a lot. KKR lapped him up and he single-handedly made them a group of world-beaters. The worst part is, he did not even under perform with DD. Edit - Comments have pointed out that it was Gambhir’s decision. I stand corrected.

• Buying Kevin Pietersen in 2009 - Despite the big bucks and a decent form, KP was the biggest disaster in 2009 season. He had a forgettable outing with just 93 runs. His price tag was $1.55M. Damn!

• Buying Ben Stokes for 12.5 Cr -A rare mistake from RR, who are usually quite shrewd in bids. But understandable. Ben was highest paid even previous season with Pune and sure enogh, he was also the MVP. But he failed in 2018. Expensive mistake.

• Jaydev Undakat for RR - In a season where all teams scrambled for local boys, Unadkat hit the jackpot with the highest bid of the year. A shame he couldn’t justify it. Another huge mis-step by RR.

• Releasing AB Devilliers - Another Jaffa by Delhi. ABD was the swashbuckling South African who was making news for his unique batting style. He was an ace fielder and a superb team man. God knows why DD chose to release him. RCB were like ‘Shut up and take my money’ buying him with $1.5 M.

What is one absurd IPL fact?

 In the Initial seasons of IPL (. i.e from Season 1 to Season 3) there was nothing called as playoffs like we have it today. Instead we had our traditional knockout semi finals. It was only in 2011 that the IPL GC and BCCI brought a change into the format by introducing Playoffs.

So the first five years of the playoffs saw a great coincidence.

Teams that finished 2nd on the points table and played the 1st Qualifier went on to win the tournament… Have a look at this…

IPL 2011: 1st Qualifier: CSK v RCB, Winner: CSK Champions: CSK

IPL 2012: 1st Qualifier: DD v KKR, Winner: KKR Champions: KKR

IPL 2013: 1st Qualifier: CSK v MI, Winner: CSK Champions: MI

IPL 2014: 1st Qualifier: KXIP v KKR, Winner: KKR, Champions: KKR

IPL 2015: 1st Qualifier: CSK v MI, Winner: CSK Champions: MI

However this wonderful sequence was broken by Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016 when they defeated RCB in the finale after coming from consecutive wins from the Eliminator and 2nd Qualifier.

The Wicketkeeper with the most number of dismissals in the IPL is not this man…

But it's this man…

Yes, Dinesh Karthik has the most number of dismissals as a Wicketkeeper in the cash rich league with a total of 109 dismissals to his name.

IPL Season 10 witnessed 2 hat tricks in just a single day!

Samuel Badree of RCB v MI

Andrew Tye of Gujarat Lions v RPS

Lastly, Aaron Finch is the player to represent the most number of franchise in the IPL.

He's represented DD, GL, RR, MI, SRH, PWI and now he's in KXIP

Thank you!

Image courtesy: Google.