As a batsman, you get to play somewhere between 14 to 17 games in an IPL season if you are a regular member of your side. To be able to get to an individual tally of 700 runs in these many games in a format where you are supposed to play high risk cricket most of the time, it’s a commendable achievement.
But, there have been a few players who have managed to score 700 runs in a single season of the IPL. Here are the 5 players to achieve that feat –
#1 Chris Gayle (733 runs):
Chris Gayle was the first batsman in the history of the IPL to cross the 700-run mark in a single season. He did in 2012 in the 15 games that he played at the group stage. There were a total of 10 teams participating in the IPL in that season and each team had to play 16 group games.
Despite Gayle scoring so heavily, RCB couldn’t make it to the playoffs and Gayle didn’t get the opportunity to play a couple of more games which would have helped him add to his tally of runs even further. Gayle eventually finished with 733 runs in IPL 2012.
#2 Michael Hussey (733 runs):
Michael Hussey got past the 700-run mark in the very next season after Gayle and interestingly, he also finished with the exact same tally as Gayle. However, Hussey took 16 games to score those runs as compared to Gayle’s 15 games.
The no. of teams participating in that IPL had been cut down to 8, so each team only had 14 group games in their hands. Hussey got 16 games because Chennai Super Kings qualified for the playoffs and then played the final as well.
CSK, however, lost that final against Mumbai Indians.
#3 Virat Kohli (973):
973 runs scored by Virat Kohli in IPL 2016 is the highest tally of runs ever scored by a batsman in a single season of the IPL.
Kohli scored these runs in 16 games and with 4 hundreds which is also the most number of hundreds ever scored by a batsman in a single IPL season.
However, despite creating so many individual records, the tournament ended in disappointment for Kohli as his team RCB lost the final against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
#4 David Warner (848 runs):
It’s unthinkable that a batsman would score more than 800 runs in a single season of the IPL and would still not get the orange cap. It happened with David Warner in IPL 2016, as he scored 848 runs and still finished at no. 2 in the chart of top run scorers behind Virat Kohli.
Warner might not have got the orange cap, but he got what he wanted from the tournament on the collective front. Warner’s SRH won their first ever IPL trophy in 2016 by beating Kohli’s RCB in the final.
#5 Kane Williamson (735 runs):
Kane Williamson is generally not considered as someone whose game is ideally suited to the shortest format of the game. However, he showed a different dimension of his batting in IPL 2108 where he was the main batsman of the SRH line-up in David Warner’s absence.
Williamson was named the captain of the team for that season as well and he batted in an exemplary fashion, piling on runs right through the tournament.
Williamson, however, couldn’t lead SRH to the title as they were beaten by the Chennai Super Kings in the final.
