IPL 2018: 5 Records which might not be broken this year

As the 11th edition of the IPL is about to reach its finale, there are still some all-time records which are unbroken till now and will not be surpassed this year too.

In the first ever IPL match in 2008, Brandon McCullum managed the highest T20 score by an individual when he assaulted Royal Challengers Bangalore and ended up with an unbeaten 158 of 73 balls while playing for the Kolkata Knight Riders.

Many new records in T20 cricket have been set ever since then and many of them have come in the IPL. There are some records which seem unbreakable, with some of them standing the test of time for many years now.

Let us take a look at some of these impressive IPL records that have stood the test of time.

#1 All-Time Record For Most Sixes

Before the start of IPL 2018, 'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle was leading the tally in the Indian Premer League with 265 maximums in just 100 innings, at an average of 2.65 sixes per match.

Lying far behind him in second was Suresh Raina of the Chennai Super Kings with 173 sixes in 157 innings and Rohit Sharma of the Mumbai Indians was in third with 172 sixes in 154 innings.

In the 10 innings he has played in IPL 2018 so far, Gayle has hit 27 more sixes, taking his tally to 292 sixers in 110 innings. With one league match to go for the Kings XI Punjab team, he might well end up crossing the 300 mark by the end of this IPL.

AB de Villiers and MS Dhoni have moved to the second spot with 185 IPL career sixes each, with Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina slipping to the fourth and fifth position respectively.

At this rate, Gayle's record will stand in the IPL history books for the next three years minimum and that too if the West Indian does not announce his retirement from the IPL during this time. Otherwise, if he plays like this for the next 3-4 seasons, it might take a decade or more for anyone to beat the record of most sixes in the IPL.

#2 Best Bowling Figures in IPL

Sohail Tanvir IPL 2008 Purple Cap Holder - Best IPL Bowling Figures

Many of the new generation IPL fans might not know this, but this is one of the oldest records in IPL, which was set in the first edition of the Indian Premier League by Pakistani bowler, Sohail Tanvir.

On 4th of May 2008, against the Chennai Super Kings team, in Jaipur, the Pakistani fast bowler produced a great spell of fast bowling. It led to the Rajasthan Royals defeating the Super Kings convincingly and Tanvir returned figures of 4-0-16-6 and also ended up winning the Purple Cap that year.

We have seen some great bowling performances over the last 10 years, but none have near to beating Tanvir's figures from 10 years ago.

Only Ankit Rajpoot has managed to take more than four wickets in an innings this year when he returned figures of 4-0-14-5 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Match 25 of IPL 2018, at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Uppal, Hyderabad. This was the sixth best bowling performance ever in the IPL.

Only Andrew Tye, who has taken four wickets in an innings three times in IPL 2018, seems able to challenge this record, but with just a few matches left this year, it appears that Sohail Tanvir's name would stand in the record books at the end of this season of IPL too.

#3 Best Strike Rate in an innings in IPL

This is one record which might stand unbroken even longer than any of Chris Gayle's records - a bowling record, which is surprisingly held by an Indian batsman and part-time bowler Suresh Raina.

It is also the world record for the best strike rate by a bowler in a T20 Innings which Raina shares with Hasan Raza of Pakistan and Dwayne Bravo of the West Indies.

In a match against the Rajasthan Royals on May 9th, 2011, in Jaipur, Raina took the wickets of Amit Singh and the Rajasthan Royals captain, Shane Warne, in just three balls without giving a run to return figures of 0.3-0-0-2, giving him a strike rate of 1.5.

In IPL 2018 so far, Nitish Rana holds the best bowling strike rate in an innings of 3.0 by getting two wickets for eleven runs in an over.

#4 Most runs in an IPL season by an individual

The poster boy of Indian Cricket, Virat Kohli, holds the record for most runs in an IPL season.

In IPL9, the current Indian captain was in the form of his life and he scored 973 runs in 16 innings with an amazing average of 81.08. He was not out four times and scored four centuries and seven half-centuries that year. His highest score was 113 runs and he faced a total of 640 balls in the tournament, with a strike rate of 152.03.

In IPL 2018, Lokesh Rahul of the Kings XI Punjab team has scored more than 600 runs in 13 matches at an average of 59.27. Rishabh Pant, Jos Buttler, Kane Williamson, Ambati Rayudu and Virat Kohli himself are at 500 plus mark till now.

With Jos Butler out of the IPL, as he has been selected for the English Test side, it would need a mammoth effort from the remaining five to surpass Kohli's record figures, which is not looking possible with a limited number of matches left.

#5 Highest score in an IPL inning by a player

Chris Gayle holds this record for five years now. In 2013, he scored 175 not out in just 66 balls against the Pune Warriors. It is also the world record for the highest individual score in T20 cricket worldwide.

He surpassed the record set by Brandon McCullum, when the New Zealander scored a 158 not out of 73 balls for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

In IPL 2018 so far, only four players have managed to score a century and Rishabh Pant of Delhi Daredevils managing the best of them all, by scoring 128 runs off 63 balls against the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

With Delhi Daredevils out of the reckoning for the playoffs, Pant has just two more matches left in this year's IPL. None of the other players have shown the patience and strike rate to score 150 plus in this season.

I still believe that this record of Chris Gayle's will only be beaten by Chris Gayle himself. But we will have to wait for IPL 2019 for that.