Published: May 30, 2016, 04:40 PM (IST)
Edited: May 30, 2016, 04:46 PM (IST)
With the end of the ninth season of Indian Premier League (IPL), let’s look at some of the remarkable incidents that happened for the first time in the history of this T20 extravaganza. The tournament was once again exceptional, with full of spectacular action and records being broken. Arguably, this was the most exciting season of the tournament with teams fighting for the top four position till the last game of league stage and obviously because of Virat Kohli, David Warner’s batting and Mustafizur Rahman, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s excellent bowling, followed by some highly competitive matches. Abhishek Kumar picks out some of the notable firsts from the ninth season of IPL: Full Cricket Scorecard: Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, IPL 2016 Final
1. Kohli scored 973 runs in IPL 9 and it was the first instance of any player scoring above 900 runs in a single season.
2. Warner ended the IPL season with 848 runs to his name. Thus, it was the first time when two players amassed more than 800 runs in a single edition of IPL.
3. In his course of scoring 973 runs, Kohli made four centuries, which is also a first in the history of IPL.
4. First time MS Dhoni’s team could not qualify for playoffs. In last eight editions of IPL, his Chennai Super Kings (CSK) always made it to the final four.
5. It is for the first time that Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) won the IPL.
6. This season also witnessed first instance of Suresh Raina missing a match in IPL. After playing 143 consecutive games [132 for CSK and 11 for Gujarat Lions (GL)], he missed a match against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on May 14, 2014 because of fatherhood.
7. This is also the first time when Raina could not surpass 400 runs in IPL. In last eight editions of this tournament, Raina consistently scored above 400 runs.
8. Warner became the first batsman to collect 400 runs in powerplays in the history of IPL.
9. It was the first time a team won the tournament without being in the top two after the league stage.
10. With SRH winning this IPL, first time a city based franchise (Hyderabad) won the title twice by beating the same team on both the occasions. Deccan Chargers (DC) from Hyderabad beat RCB in 2009 and SRH beat the same team this time.
11. After the first eight teams of IPL, it was for the first time when a newly added side — GL made it to playoffs in this tournament. Earlier in 2010, Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK) and Pune Warriors India (PWI) were added as two new teams in IPL but could not make it to playoffs.
12. For the first time Dhoni’s side ended the IPL season at seventh position.
13. It was the first instance that the ‘Purple and Orange Caps’ went to the winners and runners up of the tournament. Bhuvneshwar from SRH won the Purple Cap, while RCB’s Kohli took the Orange Cap.
14. Hyderabad became the first city to produce two IPL champions — DC in 2009 and SRH in 2016.
15. With this win, Yuvraj Singh became the only and first player to be a part of winning sides of ICC World T20, 50-over World Cup, Under-19 World Cup, Champions Trophy and IPL.
16. It was for the first time in the history of IPL when both top two run-getters and top wicket-takers were from two finalist teams. Kohli and Warner were top two run-getters, while Bhuvneshwar and Yuzvendra Chahal were top two wicket-takers in this IPL.
17. Mumbai Indians (MI) were once all out for 92 in this IPL in a league match against SRH. They are the first team to be dismissed at the same total of below 100 thrice in the history of IPL. In 2012 and 2013 too they were dismissed at the score of 92.
18. Warner and Shikhar Dhawan became the first opening pair in the history of IPL to add 700 plus run together in a single season of the tournament.
This article was first published at Criclife.com
(Abhishek Kumar is a cricket devotee currently staffing with Criclife.com and CricketCountry.com. He can be followed on Twitter @abhishekkr2593 and on Facebook at abhicricket.kumar)
