The eighth edition of the Indian Premier League, which started on 8 April and ended on 24 May, was won by Mumbai Indians. They put up an emphatic performance to clinch their second IPL title after defeating Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens on Sunday.
Though, Mumbai Indians might have won the title, but there were a number of players, who put up consistent performances for their team to turn triumphant, either scoring runs game after game or taking wickets at regular intervals.
In the batting department, it was Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner, who stood tall as he won the prestigious Orange Cap, which is given to the highest run-scorer in the tournament. The Australian scored 562 runs in the competition despite failing to take his team past the league stages.
Ajinkya Rahane was another consistent performer for Rajasthan Royals scoring 540 runs in the competition. The same number of runs was also scored by Mumbai Indians' opener, Lendl Simmons, who replaced Aaron Finch at the top of the order after the Australian suffered an injury. It was a blessing in disguise for Mumbai Indians as Simmons played some crucial innings in the competition.
Top 10 Highest Run Scorer List
David Warner: 562 runs
Ajinkya Rahane: 540 runs
Lendl Simmons: 540 runs
AB de Villiers: 513 runs
Virat Kohli: 505 runs
Chris Gayle: 491 runs
Rohit Sharma: 482 runs
Shreyas Iyer: 439 runs
Brendon McCullum: 436 runs
Kieron Pollard: 419 runs
Coming to the bowling department, there were a number of bowlers, who rose to the occasion with their performance. Dwayne Bravo walked away with Purple Cap as he surprised many by finishing the tournament as the highest wicket-taker in the tournament with 26 wickets. It was his change of pace and great variety, which helped him take important wickets.
Lasith Malinga has always been one of the best bowlers in the IPL and the eighth edition was no different as he was one of the main reasons for the team performing so well. He took 24 wickets. Yuzvendra Chahal from Royal Challengers Bangalore was the best spinner in the competition with 23 wickets in his name.
Top 10 Highest Wicket-Taker List
Dwayne Bravo: 26 wickets
Lasith Malinga: 24 wickets
Yuzvendra Chahal: 23 wickets
Ashish Nehra: 22 wickets
Mitchell Strac: 20 wickets
Harbhajan Singh: 18 wickets
Bhuvneshwar Kumar: 18 wickets
Mitchell McClenaghan: 18 wickets
Harshal Patel: 17 wickets
David Wiese: 16 wickets
It is not easy to score a century in the shortest format of the game, but four IPL players played brilliantly to figure in the IPL 2015 centuries list. One needs to take an aggressive approach towards batting, if one is to score a ton in the T20 format. AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum were four players, who scored a century each in IPL 2015.
AB de Villiers (Royal Challengers Bangalore): 133* runs from 59 balls against Mumbai Indians with 19 fours and 4sixes.
Chris Gayle (Royal Challengers Bangalore): 117 runs from 57 balls against Kings XI Punjab with 7 fours and 12 sixes.
Shane Watson (Rajasthan Royals): 104* runs from 59 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders with 9 fours and 5 sixes
Brendon McCullum (Chennai Super Kings): 100* runs from 56 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad with 7 fours and 9 sixes.
