Top 5 most expensive spells by a captain in the IPL ft. Sam Curran

Punjab Kings (PBKS) captain Sam Curran has entered into the books of having bowled the most expensive spell by a captain in the IPL thanks to his 1/60 against the Kolkata Knight Riders KKR at Eden Gardens on Friday.

KKR batted first on a balmy evening in the City of Joy and put up a mammoth total of 261/6 thanks to impressive knocks from Phil Salt (75), Sunil Narine (71), and Venkatesh Iyer (39).

At the time of writing, PBKS are in the hunt, aiming to chase those runs down by the end of their allotted twenty overs. They are 100/1 in the eighth over of the second innings.

In this listicle, we bring to you the top five most expensive spells by a captain in this tournament.

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#1 1/60- Sam Curran v KKR in 2024

PBKS's Sam Curran comes first on this list for the 1/60 he bagged against KKR at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta on April 26, Friday.

Curran was taken to the cleaners by the KKR batters as he ended his quota of four overs having conceded 60 runs.

The left-arm seamer was not at his best as KKR openers Phil Salt and Sunil Narine tore into him and the rest of his colleagues.

The home team ended up scoring a mammoth 261-6 at the end of their allotted 20 overs.

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#2 1/55- Pat Cummins v RCB in 2024

Pat Cummins, who was appointed as the captain of the SunRisers Hyderabad ahead of the 2024 season of the IPL, comes second on this list thanks to the 1/55 he picked up against RCB on Thursday.

Cummins conceded 13.80 runs per over but ended up with the wicket of Dinesh Karthik as a consolation prize.

This was highly unusual of Cummins as he had been rather sharp all competition with the addition of the slower bouncer to his arsenal.

This will be a game that the Aussie will be keen on forgetting quickly.

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#3 0/53- R Ashwin v SRH in 2018

India off-spinner R Ashwin, who is one of the finest in his trade in the world at the moment, comes third on this list owing to the 0-53 he returned against SRH in 2018.

KXIP (now known as Punjab Kings) batted first at the PCA Stadium in Mohali and put up an extremely impressive 193-3 on the board thanks to a ton by Chris Gayle.

SRH responded in fine fashion, with Kane Williamson and Manish Pandey hitting half-centuries. Ashwin was far from his best that day, even though his team won the game by 15 runs in the end.

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#4 1/50- Shane Warne v KXIP in 2011

The late Shane Warne, who was the finest leg-spinner the world had seen, comes in the fourth position in this list.

Warne was taken for 50 runs while bagging just one wicket against Kings XI Punjab in the 2011 edition of the IPL.

The Australian legend, who is among the very few to have plied his trade for just one franchise in his entire IPL career - Rajasthan Royals - conceded his runs at an economy of 12.50 on that day at the PCA Stadium in Mohali.

KXIP scored 195/7 in 20 overs, while RR could only muster up 147/7.

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#5 1/50- Zaheer Khan v RCB in 2016

Former India seamer Zaheer Khan, who is possibly the finest left-arm pacer to have been produced by the country, unfortunately comes fifth on this list.

Zaheer's claim to shame is the 1-50 he returned against RCB while leading the Delhi Daredevils (now known as Delhi Capitals) at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru in 2016.

RCB batted first and scored a challenging 191-5 in 20 overs. DD got going well and managed to chase these runs down in a rather comfortable manner thanks to a splendid ton from Quinton de Kock and a half-century from local lad Karun Nair.

Earlier in the day, DD captain Zaheer was tucked into by Virat Kohli and company as he went for an economy of 12.50 in his four overs.