11 players with the most 'Man of the Match' awards in the first 11 IPL seasons
The Indian Premier League has completed 11 seasons and the twelfth season has started attracting some attention as Mumbai Indians made the first trade for the next season. In the 11 seasons of IPL, many unknown players have become household names and many one-season wonders have perished with time.
Only a few good players have put up performances on a regular basis and have risen to the occasion when their teams needed the most. These players played a major role in the success of their teams and their impact on the tournament has been huge. These players have more often than not decided the result of the game and were duly rewarded with the 'Man of the Match' awards for their services.
In the history of IPL, only 16 players have won 10 or more Man of the Match awards. The five players who have at least 10 MoM awards and do not feature in this list are - Virat Kohli(11), Virender Sehwag(11), Dwayne Smith(11), Amit Mishra(10), and Jacques Kallis(10).
In the list below are the 11 players with 12 or more Man of the Match awards in the first 11 seasons:
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#10 Mike Hussey and Ajinkya Rahane - 12
Mike Hussey played five seasons for the Chennai Super Kings before moving his base to Mumbai. While playing for CSK, he won the man of the match award on 10 occasions. His first man of the match award came when he stuck his only IPL century against Kings XI Punjab in 2008 at Mohali. Hussey's unbeaten 116 off just 54 balls propelled Chennai Super Kings to a massive total of 240 in 20 overs. As a result of Mr. Cricket's efforts, Chennai comfortably won the match by 33 runs.
His prolific run came in the year 2013 when he was the orange cap winner for the season. During that season he won the match of the match award on five different occasions. He ended the season with 733 runs at an average of 52.35. His outstanding performance with the bat helped CSK reach the finals in which they lost to Mumbai Indians.
After spending six years with Chennai, Mike Hussey moved to Mumbai after the mega-auction in 2014. In the two years with MI, he played only 13 matches for the franchise. In those matches, he scored 3 half-centuries and was awarded man of the match for two of the three half-centuries. Incidentally, he ended with the scores of 56 in all the three matches and his two 56s in 2014 earned him the awards.
Ajinkya Rahane and Rajasthan Royals are synonymous to each other. After playing just 10 matches in the first two seasons for Mumbai Indians, Rahane moved his base to Jaipur starting from the fourth season. In the 2012 season, he won his first man of the match award against Kings XI Punjab by scoring 98 runs. His first MoM award helped Rajasthan win the match by 31 runs.
In less than 10 days after falling short of the century by 2 runs, he went one step further by scoring a century against Royal Challengers Bangalore. As a result of the unbeaten century, he won his second match of the match award. In the next four seasons that he played for RR, he became the man of the match on 8 more occasions.
As a result of a two-year ban on Rajasthan, Rahane played for Rising Pune Supergiant for two seasons. In his first season with the new franchise, he added two more awards to his kitty. But after winning the two awards in 2016, Rahane has been silent for the last two seasons and Rajasthan will hope that he will be back to what he does best in the seasons to come.
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