The IPL final is a big occasion in Indian cricket, isn’t it? Two of the best teams turn up in the showdown.
Everything might seem calm from the outside. But the players? There’s so much going on in their mind.
With a lot of clutter, it’s a bit hard to perform at the fullest. But a few batters locked in to deliver match-defining knocks.
Here, we’ll look at the top five highest individual scores recorded in IPL finals.
5. Manish Pandey (KKR): 94 vs Kings XI Punjab, 2014
KKR needed 200 runs to chase in the 2014 final. Mind you, no team had managed to chase a 200-run target before in a T20 tournament final.
But Manish Pandey pulled off an all-timer performance in the 2014 finale. He scored 94 runs from 50 balls after Kolkata faced an early setback.
And to do that under pressure takes a lot of courage. Pandey built crucial partnerships along the way to keep KKR in the game.
When he got out on the score of 179, KKR were almost home. Pandey’s heroics ensured KKR lifted the trophy for the second time.
4. Murali Vijay (CSK): 95 vs RCB, 2011
Murali Vijay was the prime architect of CSK’s second title triumph in 2011. He played a match-defining knock to make it two from two.
Vijay opened the batting alongside Michael Hussey. Both stitched a 159-run partnership for the first wicket.
After Hussey’s dismissal, Vijay kept the attack going. He was on the brink of a century, but a mistimed shot ended his knock on 95 off 52 balls.
His adventurous knock helped CSK put up 205 runs on the board, which proved to be more than enough.
3. Sai Sudharsan (GT): 96 vs CSK, 2023
We’ve got another 90s knock on this list. Unlike the above two knocks, this one went in vain.
Before rain decided to have a say, Sai Sudharsan pelted down on the CSK bowlers. He was pretty calm in his first 12 deliveries. And then the storm hit CSK hard in the last 10 overs.
Sudharsan went on a rampage, hitting boundaries all over the ground. He scored 96 off 47 balls at a strike rate of above 200.
This helped GT post 214 runs on board. You’d think what could go wrong from here? But rain and CSK batters took away the trophy from the Titans.
2. Wriddhiman Saha (Kings XI Punjab): 115* vs KKR, 2014
How would you feel if your team lost the match despite your century? Terrible, right?
Wriddhiman Saha perhaps felt the same in the 2014 summit clash. After two early jolts, Punjab looked under pressure.
But Saha dashed away all the pressure with his blinder of an innings. He smoked 115 runs off 55 deliveries with the help of 10 fours and 8 sixes.
But Pandey’s 94 outweighed Saha’s efforts to deprive Punjab of what could’ve been their first IPL title triumph.
1. Shane Watson (CSK): 117* vs SRH, 2018
While Saha’s knock ended up on the losing side, Shane Watson made sure to take his side home with a sensational hundred in the 2018 final.
With 179 needed, CSK didn’t get the desired start. They were already a wicket down in the fourth over. And Shane Watson was struggling against the new ball.
But then Watson rose like a hero. He sealed CSK’s third trophy with an unbeaten 117-run knock, the highest in an IPL final match.
With the start Watson got, no one would’ve thought he would score a hundred. But Watson, being an Australian, showed the ‘Aussie Mentality’ to rise to the big occasion.
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