Mujeeb Zadran, youngest IPL debutant

Kings XI Punjab bowler Mujeeb Zadran (left) celebrates with his team-mates after he dismissed Delhi Daredevils batsman Rishabh Pant during the IPL match at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali.

  17

The age of Afghanistan’s Mujeeb Zadran when he made his IPL debut for KXIP against DD in Mohali on April 8, 2018. He was then 17 years 11 days — the youngest to make his debut in the IPL. The table below has the details.

Youngest to appear in an IPL match

Age	Player	For	Agst	Venue	Date	Result
17y-11d	Mujeeb Zadran	KXIP	DD	Mohali	8-4-2018	Won
17y-177d	Sarfaraz Khan	RCB	CSK	Bengaluru	24-4-2015	Lost
17y-179d	Pradeep Sangwan	DD	CSK	Chennai	2-5-2008	Won
17y-199d	Washington Sundar	RPS	SRH	Pune	22-4-2017	Won
17y-247d	Rahul Chahar	RPS	KXIP	Indore	8-4-2017	Lost

112

The number of IPL matches played by R. Ashwin when he led a side (KXIP) for the first time in his IPL career. This is now an IPL record for the most matches taken by a player while captaining a side for the first time in the League. The table below has the details.

Captaining an IPL side for the first time while appearing in most matches as a player.

Match# as captain	Captain	For	Agst	Venue	Date	Result
112	R. Ashwin	KXIP	DD	Mohali	8-4-2018	Won
98	Ajinkya Rahane	RPS	DD	Pune	11-4-2017	Lost
93	M. Vijay	KXIP	GL	Rajkot	1-5-2016	Won
85	Rohit Sharma	MI	KKR	Kolkata	24-4-2013	Won
78	Zaheer Khan	DD	KKR	Kolkata	10-4-2016	Lost

14

The number of balls taken by Lokesh Rahul to register his half century for KXIP against DD in Mohali. This is now the fastest by a batsman in IPL history. For the record, Rahul is the 10th batsman in T20 cricket to reach an individual fifty in less than 15 balls. The record, however, is jointly held by Yuvraj Singh and Chris Gayle, who both did it in just 12 balls! The table below lists all the batmen who have done it in less than 17 balls in the IPL.

Fewest balls taken to reach an individual fifty in the IPL tournament

Balls For 50	Batsman	Runs	Balls	For	Agst	Venue	Date	Result
14	Lokesh Rahul	51	16	KXIP	DD	Mohali	8-4-2018	Won
15	Yusuf Pathan	72	22	KKR	SRH	Kolkata	24-5-2014	Won
15	Sunil Narine	54	17	KKR	RCB	Bangalore	7-5-2017	Won
16	Suresh Raina	87	25	CSK	KXIP	Mumbai WS	30-5-2014	Lost

88

The number of runs scored by Andre Russell while batting at No. 7 for KKR in Chennai. This is now the highest individual score by a batsman in batting positions from seven to 11. The table below has the details. 

Highest individual scores by batsmen from batting positions #7 to #11

Runs	Position	Batsman	For	Agst	Venue	Date	Result
88*	7	Andre Russell	KKR	CSK	Chennai	10-4-2018	Lost
68	7	Dwayne Bravo	CSK	MI	Mumbai WS	7-4-2018	Won
66	7	Andre Russell	KKR	KXIP	Pune	18-4-2015	Won
64	8	Harbhajan Singh	MI	KXIP	Mumbai WS	12-4-2015	Lost
63*	7	M. S. Dhoni	CSK	MI	Kolkata	26-5-2013	Lost

 

This week in 2008 May 4:  Pakistan’s left-arm seamer Sohail Tanvir, playing in only his third IPL match for Rajasthan Royals, claimed 6-14 in his four overs against Chennai Super Kings in Jaipur. This remains the best bowling performance in IPL history. Incidentally, as on date, this is the joint seventh best performance by a bowler in all T20 cricket. Interestingly, this was the first five-wicket haul by a bowler in an IPL match!

 

Queries Corner V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid were involved in two 300+ partnerships in Tests. Has any other Indian pair been involved in 300+ stands more than once? — B. K. Harinath, Mysuru V.V.S. Laxman and Rahul Dravid are the only pair to do so for India. However, in Test cricket, the South African pairs, Herschelle Gibbs & Graeme Smith and Hashim Amla & Jacques Kallis have been involved in 300+ stands on three occasions, while four other pairs — Don Bradman & Bill Ponsford, Mohd. Yousuf & Younis Khan, Mahela Jayawardene & Kumar Sangakkara and Ricky Ponting & Michael Clarke — have done it twice. In the recent Test in Johannesburg against Australia, South Africa captain Faf du Plessis, after being dismissed for a golden duck in the first innings, managed to register a century in the second. Has this been done before by any batsman? — S. Rajan, Nagpur This has occurred on quite a few occasions in Test cricket, du Plessis being the eighth. The first time it happened in November 1902 in Cape Town, when another South African Jimmy Sinclair, dismissed first ball in the first innings, went on to make 104 off 79 balls against Australia. The last batsman before du Plessis was India’s Mohammad Azharuddin (0 and 109) in Faisalabad in 1989. I read somewhere that in the Cape Town Test against Australia in March, over 30 catches were held by fielders from both sides. Is this true? — R. Bharath, Coimbatore Yes, this is true. As many as 34 catches were held by the fielders and wicket-keepers from both sides out of the 40 wickets that fell in the Test. 29 catches were held by the fielders and five by the wicket-keepers! This, incidentally, is the most number of catches taken in a Test. The previous best was 33 catches in the Perth Test between Australia and India in February 1992. How often has a batsman hit a six off the final ball of a T20I match to win the game? — Aniket Shetty, Mumbai Dinesh Karthik, in the final of the Nidahas Trophy recently, was the fifth batsman in T20I history to do so. Before Karthik’s dramatic six that enabled India to win the tournament against Bangladesh, Sri Lanka’s Chamara Kapugedera, England’s Eoin Morgan, Pakistan’s Zulfiqar Babar and Zimbabwe’s Vusi Sibanda were the other four to hit a six off the last ball of the match (over number 19.6) and win the game for their respective sides. Incidentally, Karthik is the only batsman in this list to hit the winning six when the runs required off the final ball was five or more! Note:  All figures are updated as on April 15, 2018.