Chris Gayle remains king of sixes in IPL, Rishabh Pant in elite league

Chris Gayle continued to lead the overall sixes tally in IPL with 292 sixes to his name while in th 2018 edition, Rishabh Pant entered an elite list with the most sixes by a batsman in this edition.

cricket Updated: May 21, 2018 10:01 IST
Chris Gayle continued to lead the overall sixes tally in IPL with 292 sixes to his name despite KXIP’s exit in the group stages. (PTI)

In 2008, when the Indian Premier League was in its inaugural edition, not many would have expected how the shortest format of the game would reinvent the game altogether. (FULL IPL 2018 COVERAGE)

Usually dubbed as a batsman-friendly format, the onus was a lot on the bowlers to try and sneak out a dot ball and more importantly not get hammered to the fence. For the batsmen, it was the complete opposite.

From Yuvraj Singh’s aggressive but clean strokes, AB de Villiers’s unimaginable shots to Chris Gayle’s non-chalant ability to hit sixes at will, batting records have been rewritten at will.

10 years on, a new record has been established by the batsmen who notched up the highest number of sixes in a single edition of an IPL season with 817 sixes.

The previous record of 731 sixes was recorded during the 2012 edition when Chris Gayle had topped the chart with 59 sixes to his name.

So far, 7,322 sixes have been hit across the 11 editions of the IPL of which Chris Gayle has the highest contribution with 292 sixes against his name.

Overall, in the 11 editions so far, Gayle has hit the maximum number of sixes in a single campaign on four occasions, including on three consecutive years between 2011 and 2013.

The next in line is De Villiers and although he’s as good a destructive batsman as the West Indian, De Villiers trails by 106 sixes despite played in 30 more matches.

This year, the chart is currently being dominated by Ambati Rayudu and Rishabh Pant. However, while the former has nearly ensured his side manages to finish in the top-two, Pant’s heroics have gone in vain as his side, Delhi Daredevils, was the first to be ousted from the tournament.