Indian Premier League is the most devastating league for bowlers globally. Before getting onto the list of the top 5 lowest powerplay scores in the IPL, it is necessary to get an insight into the powerplay phase.
The Indian Premier League is all about the batting scenarios, but many brave bowlers have overturned this in their favor. Though all game phases are in t20 format, the Powerplay is initially made for the batsmen. But, there are meager bowlers in the history of IPL like Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, and Lasith Malinga. They have started the teams with highly skilled batting line-ups in the powerplay phase. Umesh Yadav is one of the leading bowlers who took 50 wickets in the first six powerplay overs. IPL is the key asset among all t20 leagues happening around the world. Its popularity is proven by the fact that it is the richest cricket league globally.
Lasith Malinga is the star in the fast bowling line-up of IPL; he has taken 170 wickets in 122 games, though his streak was recently broken by the Caribbean pacer Dwayne Bravo. But, Bravo took 154 matches to reach 170 wickets. But Malinga did it in 122 encounters, So here are the top 5 lowest powerplay scores in the IPL by the teams.
#1 SRH (14/3) vs RR in 2022
Sunrisers Hyderabad is facing the wildest things in this IPL edition that have never happened before. SRH was chasing a total of 211 runs against the Rajasthan Royals. But, they were nowhere in the chase as compared to Rajasthan. The sharp bowling of Prasidh Krishna & Yuzi Chahal has done the trick for RR. The skipper Sanju Samson & his team was playing with the batting order of Sunrisers Hyderabad and rattled them on a score of 149/7 and finally won the game by 61 runs.
#2 RR (14/2) vs RCB in 2009
Facing Royal Challengers Bangalore in a league encounter of IPL 2009. The seaming conditions of South Africa had proved as a disguise for every team in that season. Chasing the total of 134 put by Anil Kumble, leading RCB, was looking like Mt. Everest for Rajasthan Royals. RCB has also made only 29 runs in their first 6 overs of Powerplay, but that seems decent before the catastrophe of the Rajasthan Royals. Finally, Rajasthan got all out on the score of 58 and lost the encounter by a huge margin of 75 runs.
#3 CSK (15/2) vs KKR in 2011
CSK has been so good with their batting in the latter half in highly tough seaming conditions at Eden Gardens. But they have lost their two openers so early before the end of the powerplay chunk. Both the openers fought bravely against the swing bowling of Brett Lee, Jacques Kallis & L. Balaji. But, given at the end, CSK reached 15/2 after 6 overs. But, later, due to DLS, the target for KKR became short, one of 52 runs, and they won the game with the help of impressive knocks from Gautam Gambhir & Jacques Kallis.
#4 KKR (17/4) vs RCB in 2020
Dinesh Karthik leading Kolkata Knight Riders, faced a rock bottom from the bowling line-up of Royal Challengers Bangalore in a league game of IPL 2020. KKR opted to bat first and looked to take advantage of the conditions, but conversely, all four top-order batters fell on a score of just 17 runs in 5.2 overs. And KKR only succeeded in putting the total of 84/8 in their 20overs. Lastly, RCB chased it down and won by 8 wickets, and 39 balls were still spare in the game.
#5 MI (17/3) vs KXIP in 2015
MI was chasing 178 runs against KXIP in their first meetup of the league phase. But, the fierce bowling of Mitchell Johnson & Sandeep Sharma has brought the top order of MI to the ground. Mumbai achieved the figure of 17/3 after the completion of Powerplay and, in the end, could only get to the total of 159/7, losing the game by 18 runs.
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