Top 4 unlikely record-holders in the IPL
The Indian Premier League is soon to enter its second decade of existence. The first ten years have resulted in a stark change in the entire sport of cricket.
There have been a plethora of stellar performances with both bat and ball over the years. A vast range of incredible records have been created, and have subsequently been destroyed too.
There are some records which are held by players who one would think are outrageously unlikely to hold that record. Let's take a look at some of these improbable record-holders:
#4 Most hat-tricks in a season
There have been a mere seventeen hat-tricks across the ten IPL seasons. There are no surprises there, as hat-tricks are naturally hard to come by. These seventeen hat-tricks are shared between fourteen people.
Among these fourteen, twelve have taken the elusive hat-trick just the one time. Only two people have the privilege of having gotten three wickets in three consecutive balls on more than one occasion. Amit Mishra has gotten hat-tricks thrice, a feat that no other player has managed to achieve. There are no surprises there, however, as Amit Mishra is the IPL's second-highest wicket-taker in history.
The other bowler who has taken multiple hat-tricks is more baffling, primarily because he is traditionally more of a batsman! Yuvraj Singh. He became only the fourth player to bag a hat-trick when he got rid of Uthappa, Kallis and Boucher from the Royal Challengers Bangalore way back in 2009, when he played for the Kings XI Punjab.
Yuvraj shocked everyone, including himself, as he soon bagged his second hat-trick in the same season against the Deccan Chargers. He got rid of Gibbs, Symonds and Venugopal Rao and etched his name in IPL history as the first bowler to notch more than one hat-trick.
Yuvraj Singh still holds the record for being the only man to have captured more that one hat-trick in a single season. Considering how hard hat-tricks are to come by, lightning striking twice for the same bowler in the same season may not happen in the near future. It looks like Yuvraj Singh could hold this unlikely record for some time to come!