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IPL 2021: 10 stats you might not be aware of ahead of new season

The IPL returns on Friday and Sky Sports Cricket statistician Benedict Bermange is back with 10 facts to help get you prepared; watch the opening match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2.50pm on Friday, live on Sky Sports Cricket

AP Newsroom - Lasith Malinga, Mumbai Indians
Image: Lasith Malinga has bowled more than doubled the number of yorkers than anyone else in the IPL

Ahead of the start of IPL 2021, Sky Sports Cricket's Benedict Bermange has 10 stats you might not have heard to get you back in the T20 mood!

As well as being the leading wicket-taker in IPL history with 170 wickets, Lasith Malinga bowled 515 yorkers in his IPL career which ran from 2009 to 2019, more than twice as many as any other bowler.

Most yorkers bowled in the IPL

Player Matches Yorkers
SL Malinga 116 515
DJ Bravo 86 212
P Kumar 66 178
Bhuvneshwar Kumar 76 175
JJ Bumrah 66 147

However, one IPL record which Malinga does not hold is the most successive innings taking at least one wicket. Dwayne Bravo took wickets in 27 matches in a row in which he bowled from 17 May 2012 up to 22 April 2015.

There have been 19 hat-tricks in the competition to date, with leg-spinner Amit Mishra leading the way with three of them - all for different teams. He performed the feat for Delhi in 2008, Deccan in 2011 and Sunrisers in 2013. The only other bowler with multiple hat-tricks in the IPL is - surprisingly - Yuvraj Singh, who took three-in-three for Kings XI Punjab twice within a 17-day period in 2009.

AP Newsroom - Dwayne Bravo, Chennai Super Kings
Image: Dwayne Bravo claimed a wicket in 27 IPL straight games between 2012 and 2015

There is no mystery in leading six-hitting in the competition's history. That is Chris Gayle, who has a massive lead over the next player on the list - AB de Villiers. With an average Gayle six travelling 85 metres, that equates to nearly 18-and-a-half miles worth of sixes from the West Indian's bat.

Most IPL sixes

Player Matches Sixes
CH Gayle 132 349
AB de Villiers 169 235
MS Dhoni 204 216
RG Sharma 200 213
V Kohli 192 201

A total of 584 players have participated in the IPL to date, of whom 12 have played in all 13 editions of the IPL. It is possible to construct a team from that list, but it is rather light on bowling to say the least!

Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Manish Pandey, MS Dhoni, Robin Uthappa, Dinesh Karthik, Piyush Chawla, Amit Mishra, Dhawal Kulkarni. 12th man: Wriddhiman Saha.

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Spare a thought for Chetanya Nanda, Veer Pratap Singh, Sunny Gupta, Shivil Kaushik, Sandeep Lamichhane and Joe Denly, who all faced just one delivery in their IPL careers, and were dismissed by it. Of course, some of those players have every chance to right that wrong.

The Kings XI Punjab side who faced Bangalore Royal Challengers at Mohali on 12 May 2008 had an average age of just 24 years 73 days, the youngest ever in the competition.

Conversely, MS Dhoni's 'Dad's Army' Chennai Super Kings faced Mumbai Indians at Chennai on 7 May 2019 with an average age of 34 years 311 days, the oldest to ever take the field in the tournament's history.

While on the subject of ages, when Gujarat Lions faced Delhi Daredevils at Delhi on 27 April 2016 they had 44-year-old Pravin Tambe in their side, playing alongside 17-year-old Ishan Kishan, a record 27 years separating them.

Ishan Kishan celebrates striking 55no off 30 balls against Delhi Capitals
Image: Ishan Kishan was 17 when he played with 44-year-old Pravin Tambe for Gujarat Lions

Jacques Kallis was perhaps portrayed unfairly as a slow scorer - certainly in the longest form of the game. However, there is one IPL record he does hold. Between 14 and 23 March 2010 he made successive scores of 65no, 89no, 44no, 66no and 19 - a total of 283 runs between dismissals, the most in IPL history.

Rohit Sharma has been involved in 35 run outs in his IPL career, one more than Sky Sports new boy Dinesh Karthik. Each of the top three in this respect managed to run out their partners on far more occasions than they were themselves the victim:

Most run out involvements in IPL

Player Run outs Self out Partner out
RG Sharma 35 10 25
KD Karthik 34 12 22
MS Dhoni 33 9 24

Aaron Finch has played in ten different years of the IPL and astonishingly has represented eight different teams, two more than anyone else has done so. In chronological order, he has played for:

  • 2010: Rajasthan Royals
  • 2011-2012: Delhi Daredevils
  • 2013: Pune Warriors
  • 2014: Sunrisers Hyderabad
  • 2015: Mumbai Indians
  • 2016-2017: Gujarat Lions
  • 2018: Kings XI Punjab
  • 2020: Royal Challengers Bangalore
AP Newsroom - Kings XI Punjab Aaron Finch bats during the VIVO IPL cricket T20 match against .Mumbai Indians in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, May 16, 2018 . (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool).
Image: Aaron Finch has played for eight different teams in 10 IPL seasons

Suresh Raina achieved a great deal in his IPL career, and he is unique in one respect. When he captained Chennai Super Kings in two matches on 19 and 21 March 2010 he was the youngest player in their team, the only occasions in IPL history in which the youngest player in the team was also the captain.

Watch every game of IPL 2021 live on Sky Sports, starting with Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore from 2.50pm, Friday on Sky Sports Cricket.