STATS HIGHLIGHTS
Follow UsAs always is the case at the Wankhede, there were an abundance of sixes and profusion of runs in the fourth match. An aggregate of 438 runs was scored with 24 maximums in the match between Punjab and Rajasthan. In total, there were 64 boundaries hit (40 x 4’s and 24 x 6s), the joint fourth most in an IPL match. But, only one winner could emerge and Punjab came out on top as they clinched a cliff-hanger by four runs to open their account in IPL 2021.
Most sixes in IPL
When we speak about sixes, there is only one man who comes to our thoughts and that is the Universal boss, Chris Gayle. Already at the top in the tally of most sixes in IPL, Gayle notched up another milestone to his name. A pull towards square leg in the eighth over against Ben Stokes, fetched him his 350th six in IPL. By the end of his innings, he had smashed one more and racked up 351 sixes. No other batsman in the IPL has hit more than 250.
Deepak Hooda’s quick-fire innings
After a half century in his second IPL match, Deepak Hooda had batted in 47 innings at an average of 13.7 with only two 30+ scores. Now, he has back to back half centuries. Against RR, Hooda registered a half-century in just 20 balls, which is the second quickest by an uncapped player in IPL. Also, this was the second joint quickest against Rajasthan in IPL. Interestingly, his first half-century in IPL, came on the same day six years back against Delhi Capitals when he was playing for Rajasthan. In that match he had registered a 22-ball fifty, which was a record fastest for an uncapped then.
The second fastest man to 2k runs for a team
Rahul made his move to Punjab in 2018, since then he has been a prolific run scorer. The fact that he is the highest run scorer in IPL since 2018, is a testimony of it. The best of all, he has scored those runs at a staggering average of 55.9 says all about his consistency. In a matter of just 43 innings for Punjab, Rahul has reached 2000 runs. There are 22 players who have scored 2000+ runs for a team in IPL. Among those, only Gayle (41) for Royal Challengers Bangalore, had reached the milestone in fewer innings than Rahul.
Samson shines on his captaincy debut
There are two young wicket-keepers who were captaining for the first time in the IPL. Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson, both of them are certain contenders as wicket-keepers for the upcoming T20 World Cup. Rishabh didn’t get a chance to shine in his debut, but Samson made full use of his opportunity. He became the first batsman in the history of IPL to hit a ton on his captaincy debut. In addition, he achieved this at the age of 26 years and 153 days, the youngest captain to score a century in T20s. Previously, Virat Kohli held the record for this when he had scored a century at the age of 27 years and 171 days.
Highest score for Rajasthan Royals
Samson registered his second ton in Rajasthan colors in IPL. He joined an elite list of batsmen alongside Ajinkya Rahane and Shane Watson to score multiple hundreds for Rajasthan. Overall in IPL, Samson has three hundreds, two for Rajasthan and one for Delhi. There is an interesting fact about his three centuries. He was the first centurion of the 2017, 2019 and the 2021 edition of IPL. In the previous two occasions, Samson had scored exactly 102, dismissed once and not-out the other time. Tonight, his 119 was the highest score by a Rajasthan batsman in IPL.
A sensational knock in vain
After setting mountains of records, there was one record that Samson wouldn’t want to look back. In usual circumstances, a team ends up on the winning side after one of their batsmen scores a century. But, tonight wasn’t the case. Samson’s score of 119 is the second highest score in a losing cause and the highest for a captain. In addition, this was his second century in a loss, only Hashim Amla has multiple hundreds in defeats in IPL.
A Captain’s day out
Both the captains in this match had a sensational outing, one scored a century and the other was dismissed to a well made 91. Out of the 438 runs scored, the captains had an aggregate of 210 (KL Rahul – 91 and Sanju Samson – 119). This is the only instance in an IPL match, where captains have an aggregate of over 200. The previous highest was in 2018, when Virat Kohli (94) and Rohit Sharma (92*) had accumulated 186 runs.
