5 highest partnerships in the IPL

Despite all the personal brilliance, despite all the personal accolades and feats, cricket is inherently a team game where cumulative efforts more often than not determine the eventual result.

While Twenty20 is all about fast-paced action, while it is all about personal brilliance with the bat, it is also about stitching partnerships together, it is also about hunting in pairs, it is also about understanding the specific roles and then gelling well together to get the job done out in the centre.

Now, let us take a look at five such batting partnerships which have topped the Indian Premier League charts.

#5 David Warner and Naman Ojha

Back in 2012, David Warner was included in the Delhi Daredevils side instead of Kevin Pietersen and he made an immediate splash.

It was his only second game in that season and he notched up his second hundred in the league as Delhi Daredevils swatted aside an inexperience Deccan Chargers bowling attack.

Chargers set Delhi a target of 187, and when Virender Sehwag was dismissed for four, they believed they could eek out a win.

But then Naman Ojha joined David Warner and the duo carved open the Chargers bowling attack as they put on an unbeaten 189 runs stand for the second wicket and won the game by nine wickets.

#4 Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli

Delhi Daredevils was on the receiving end of a Chris Gayle onslaught in their home ground as the Jamaican combined beautifully with a young Virat Kohli and plundered an unbeaten stand of 204 runs.

Batting first Royal Challengers Bangalore lost Tillekeratne Dilshan for only 11 runs. However, they did not lose another wicket in the innings as Kohli and Gayle sent the Delhi side on an excruciating leather hunt.

While the West Indian finished with 128, Kohli ended up with 73 as RCB peeled off 215 runs in their 20 overs.

Daredevils were spirited in their response, but the bridge was a tad too far for them as they lost steam on 194 in their allotted 20 overs.

#3 Adam Gilchrist and Shaun Marsh

For all the dominance of Chris Gayle, there is an inherent sense of beauty when Adam Gilchrist strode out to bat and then massacred bowling attacks.

This was out in full glory in Dharamsala against the Royal Challengers Bangalore back in 2011.

Punjab batted first on a belter of a batting track but lost their opening batsman Paul Valthaty rather cheaply.

However, this meant that Adam Gilchrist was joined in the centre by fellow Western Australian Shaun Marsh and together the southpaws presented an absolute aesthetic delight.

The RCB bowlers were a hapless unit as Gilchrist and Marsh drove, cut, swept, pulled, them to all corners of the ground.

When the wicket-keeper batsman was dismissed for 106, the partnership was worth 206 runs. Shaun Marsh remained unbeaten on 79 runs as Punjab piled up 232 runs in their 20 overs.

Such was the extent of the battering, that a strong RCB batting lineup folded up for a paltry 121 in the second innings.

#2 AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli

Arguably the two modern greats, and arguably two players who demand stadiums to be full when they bat, AB de Villiers, and Virat Kohli are redefining modern-day batting.

Back in 2015, Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to bat first when AB de Villiers decided to waddle in, look around and forced the Mumbai Indians bowling attack to surrender.

While de Villiers was making a mockery of the bowling attack, Virat Kohli proved to be an able ally at the other end and together they sliced through the hosts.

With four sixes and 19 fours, de Villiers remained unconquered at 133, while Kohli slammed four sixes and six fours to finish unbeaten on 82.

Together, they put up a stand of 215 as RCB finished with 235.

Mumbai Indians never got going as they were bundled out for 196 in response.

#1 AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli

It was another display of panache from Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers but this time it was the turn of Gujarat Lions to bear the brunt.

Batting first, RCB lost Chris Gayle very early in the piece, but then brought two stalwarts in Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers together.

What followed was a massacre as both the modern giants grabbed the Gujarat bowling attack and tore them apart.

Both brought up their centuries without breaking a sweat as RCB motored along to 248 runs in their allotted 20 overs.

While Kohli finished with 109 runs, de Villiers remained unbeaten on 129 runs. The partnership was worth a humongous 229 runs.

Gujarat were buried under this weight and never were anywhere in the chase as they were shot out for 104 runs.