The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season was one of unlimited excitement as the tournament's league stage comes to a close. The four teams that have made it to the playoffs are Gujarat Titans, Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants, who finished in the top four.
With another exciting edition of the league ends we look at 10 such stats that made this season all the more special.
Dhoni and his XII obsession
This season has been best known for the 'impact' of the Impact Player rule, which has given the captains a chance to experiment with their teams. But CSK skipper MS Dhoni being MS Dhoni stuck to the same playing XI and impact sub for nine of the 14 matches which his team played this season.
Four 200s in one day!
April 30 was a special day for high-scoring T20 matches with a total of 827 runs were scored on the day. Four teams CSK, Punjab Kings, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and MI, posted 200-plus totals. This was a first in the competition's history. This was beaten exactly a week later on May 7, when 829 were scored in two games between GT, LSG, RR and SRH. The last day of the league stage — May 21 — fell short of the 800-mark by just four runs.
A T20 first
When PBKS and MI faced off in Mohali on May 3, both teams had conceded three successive 200-plus scores. MI bowled first and conceded 214 — the first time any team had conceded four 200-plus totals in a row in the IPL. But they made sure not to be the only team with this record. They overhauled the target with an over and a ball to spare as the Kings became the second team in the IPL to concede four straight 200-plus totals.
A three to make history
PBKS needed three runs off the final ball against CSK and Sikandar Raza did exactly that, running three runs to win their team the game. This was the first time in the IPL that a batter ran three off the last ball of a chase for the win.
Seven balls for the POTM
Glenn Phillips faced just seven balls to take the Player-of-the-Match award during the Sunrisers' win against the Royals. He smashed 25 runs before an excellent catch by Shimron Hetmyer ended his innings.
The first-ball Ballers
PBKS power hitter Shahrukh Khan smashed a first-ball six three times in IPL 2023 while Jitesh Sharma did it twice. Nicholas Pooran and Yashasvi Jaiswal also hit a six off the first ball they faced twice in IPL 2023. Overall, 23 batters got their innings going with a maximum which is by far the best for any edition of the IPL.
IPL first-over bashers
Jaiswal was the first over hero of IPL 2023. The Royals opener scored 110 runs at a strike rate of 174.6 in the first over this IPL. That's 14.4% of all the runs off the bat scored in the first over and at twice the strike rate of others. This record has been bettered only by Adam Gilchrist in IPL history.
120 back-to-back-to-back boundaries
Hitting back-to-back-to-back boundaries was a norm in IPL 2023. This season, this phenomenon has taken place a total of 120 times. The next best was IPL 2022 when batters hit boundaries off three or more successive balls they faced in an innings 102 times. Jaiswal and Suryakumar Yadav had seven such instances this season. Pooran had six.
A season of ferocious fifties
Ajinkya Rahane his fifty off just 19 balls against MI and his other fifty against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), came off 24 balls. GT's Vijay Shankar got both his fifties against KKR in under 25 balls. As many as 28 batters have at least one fifty within 25 balls or under, 12 higher than the previous best of 16 in 2018.
Mumbai's six-ball gift
CSK bowled 136 balls against LSG during their match at the Chepauk. This is 16 more than they should have had, and the longest in terms of balls bowled in IPL history. While that was a one-off instance for the CSK bowlers as far as the extras are concerned but the MI bowlers have made a habit of it. They have bowled 86 extra balls in the 14 matches - an extra over on average in every match.
