Pepsi IPL 2015 - A Statistical Overview

Pepsi IPL 2015 – A Statistical Overview: The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 pulled down its curtains on 24^th May and the festival (India Ka Tyohar) which was set onto pace on 8^th May instant. This IPL has seen a number of dramatic matches which included a sensational super over finish. Alongside it, there were a number of last ball finishes, which supplemented the excitement. Now, after biding adieu to the phenomenal domestic cricketing league for the year, we have to wait for yet another 12 months for the resumption of such Cricketing thrills. Meanwhile, let us explore the statistical insights of the tournament and spend some good minutes in being nostalgic!

Total Number of Sixes- 692:

T20 Cricket is all about sheer entertainment and brute force. The tournament has seen as many as 692 sixes in this season. As expected, Gayle topped the list of highest six hitters with 38 sixes, with the longest six of 107 meters, which he had hit at the Eden Gardens. To draw a further important fact, it was the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai which had witnessed the most number of sixes this season with 107 sixes, followed by Eden Gardens with 100 sixes. Chinnaswamy Stadium comes third with 98 sixes.

Total Number of Wickets- 686:

This IPL season witnessed a great number of wickets going down, with a staggering total of 686 wickets season 8 of Pepsi IPL was surely a treat for the bowlers.

Best Economy Rates:

T20 Cricket, by itself is a format of hard hitting and swaggering. Still, there have been a number of bowlers who stood out to be phenomenal in the past. And this season has been no exception to it. Let us have a glance of the most economical bowlers of the season (bowlers with a minimum of 30 overs bowled throughout the span of the tournament):

Ravichandran Ashwin: The CSK offie has been the best miser of the tournament with respect to conceding runs. Ashwin has bowled 39 overs in the tournament at an economy rate of 5.84, with 10 wickets under his belt.

Mitchell Starc: The pivotal character of the RCB bowling unit also makes his name in the list with a superb economy rate of 6.76. The left handed pacer has been tremendous with his bowling and has been a prime death over bowler.

Sandeep Sharma: The youngster from KXIP bowled 50 overs in the season and conceded runs at an economy rate of 7.00 which is quite good as per T20 standards. He took 14 wickets this season.

Ishwar Pandey: The medium pacer from CSK also stands tall in this list with an economy rate of 7.19 after bowling 31 overs in the tournament. He has managed to take 10 wickets.

Ashish Nehra: Nehra has been splendid with his bowling and not only did he manage to take wickets at regular intervals, but also bowled economically. His economy rate stands to be 7.24 after bowling for 64 overs in 16 matches.

Highest Strike Rates: Some batsmen scored runs at an incredible pace in this season. The overall batting strike rate in this IPL has been 132 which is the best for any season. AB de Villiers holds the record for highest strike rate in an innings with a strike rate of 372.72 when he scored 41 off 11 against MI. The batsmen with best tournament strike rates are:

Andre Russell: Russell scored 326 runs this season at a strike rate of 192.89.

Hardik Pandya: In 8 innings, Hardik Pandya has maintained a strike rate of 180.64 and scored 112 runs.

AB de Villiers: This man has been ecstatic. He scored 513 runs in this season at a strike rate of 175.08.

Most Number of fifties- 89:

A total of 89 half centuries have been hit in this particular season and David Warner tops the list with 7 half centuries in this particular season. Lendl Simmons scored 6 half centuries for MI while Rahane scored 4 half centuries.

Highest Score:

There were a number of high scores in the season. The season recorded 89 half centuries and 4 centuries. Here goes the list of highest individual scores:

• 133: AB de Villiers against MI, Mumbai.
• 117: Chris Gayle against KXIP, Bangalore.
• 104*: Shane Watson against KKR, Mumbai.
• 100*: Brendon McCullum against Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai.
• 98*: Rohit Sharma against Kolkata Knight Riders, Kolkata.

Captaincy Records:

This season marked a significant change in the captaincy statistics. MS Dhoni has been supreme in all sorts when it came to captaincy. But now, Rohit Sharma went onto become the most successful captain IPL history with a win percentage of 61.36% with 27 wins out of 44 matches. Second in the list is MS Dhoni with 78 wins in 129 IPL matches with a win percentage of 60.93%. Third in the list is Sachin Tendulkar with 58.82%.

Number of Tweets:

The number of tweets in this season has been 36,736,572

Highest Run Scorers:

The leading run scorers of this tournament in the order are:

• David Warner, 562 runs: Warner scored 562 runs at an average of 43.23 with a highest of 91.
• Ajinkya Rahane, 540 runs: Rahane scored 540 runs at an average of 49.09 with a highest score of 91*.
• Lendl Simmons, 540 runs: Simmons has had instrumental contributions for MI’s triumph. He scored 540 runs at an average of 45 with the highest score of 71.
• AB de Villiers, 513 runs: The phenomenal batsman has scored 513 runs with an average of 46.63 with an individual best of 133*.
• Virat Kohli, 505 runs: Kohli smacked 505 runs with an average of 45.90 with an individual best of 82*

Highest Wicket Takers:

A tournament where the batsmen dominates gives a bowler no chance of even being slightly off his mark, the modern age bowlers have taken on the challenge and proved their mettle on the ground. Let’s have a peek at the highest wicket takers of Pepsi IPL 2015.

Dwayne Bravo: With an economy rate of 8.14 Bravo scalped 26 wickets in the tournament making him the highest wicket taker of season 8.

Lasith Malinga: The Sri Lankan pacer took 24 wickets with an economy rate of 7.40 finishing second on the highest wicket taker list.

Yuzvendra Chahal: The young leg-spinner took 23 wickets  with an economy rate of 8.86 finishing third on the highest wicket taker list.

Ashish Nehra: Nehra took 22 wickets with an economy rate of 7.24 ending up fourth on the list of highest wicket taker.

Mitchel Starc: The Australian pacer finished fifth on the list with his 20 wickets at an economy rate of 6.76.

Records:

• This was the fifth time on a trot that the second placed team in the league table of IPL has won the tournament. The trend started off since 2011 with CSK.
• Chris Gayle became the only batsman in IPL to have hit over 200 sixes in the IPL history. As of now, he stands tall with 227 sixes.
• We had 506 extras in this season with 53 no balls and 453 wides.
• Ishwar Pandey has played 10 consecutive games in the season without batting a delivery, which is a record for sure.
• Virat Kholi becomes the third batsman in the history of IPL to score 500 or more runs in an IPL season thrice.
• Zaheer Khan has bowled as many as 19 dot deliveries in a single innings against CSK which stands to be one of the best in the IPL history. He conceded just 9 runs in his 4 overs and took 2 wickets.

First Times:

• This is the first time that Parthiv Patel has been on the winning side of an IPL final. He was a part of the CSK squad in the IPL final of 2008 and CSK lost it.
• This the first time that Suresh Raina failed to score over 400 runs in an IPL season. He scored 374 runs in the season.
• Rohit Sharma became the first captain to score a half century in the IPL final and ended up being on the winning side. MS Dhoni scored 63* in IPL final, 2013 but ended up being on the losing side.
• This was the first time that Any bowler won Purple Cap 2 times. Dwayne Bravo has won the purple cap two times. Also, he became the first player to have 25+ wickets in two seasons. He took 26 wickets this season and in 2013, he took 32 wickets.
• This is the first time that AB de Villiers has surpassed 500 runs in an IPL season. He scored 501 runs this season. His previous best came in 2009 for DD when he scored 469 runs in the season.
• This was the first time that the average strike rate for a batsman in the entire tournament has been 132.