Bowling in T20 cricket is a thankless job, isn’t it? With conditions tipped in batters’ favour, there’s nothing more discouraging than this for a bowler.
But bowlers have stood the tough test time and again to keep batters in check. A few of them did it with consistency throughout a tournament to take a bundle of wickets. And to do so in the Indian Premier League (IPL) speaks about the bowler’s mastery.
Here, we’ll look at the top five bowlers who picked up the most wickets in an IPL season.
5. James Faulkner (RR): 28 Wickets in 2013
James Faulkner is among those underrated players to have featured in the IPL. With plenty of variations at his disposal, he emerged as Rajasthan Royals’ lead wicket-taker in 2013.
Faulkner relied on cutters and slower balls, especially back-of-the-hand deliveries, to outfox batters. The former Australian bowling all-rounder ended up the 2013 season with 28 scalps in 16 matches.
While Faulkner fell short of the Purple Cap, his effort helped RR reach the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
4. Lasith Malinga (MI): 28 Wickets in 2011
Having a bowler like Lasith Malinga was more than enough to stoke fear among the opponent batters. His pinpoint yorkers and express speed made matters worse for batters.
And batters witnessed it in 2011 when Malinga dished out a powerful performance for Mumbai Indians. The slingy pacer picked up 28 wickets across 16 matches, including a five-wicket haul against Delhi Daredevils.
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3. Kagiso Rabada (DC): 30 Wickets in 2020
Kagiso Rabada breathed fire in the 2020 season for Delhi Capitals (DC). The tearaway pacer led DC’s bowling attack with finesse.
Rabada fetched 30 wickets in 17 innings to take DC into the season finale. While Delhi couldn’t win the trophy, he settled with the Purple Cap that season.
2. Harshal Patel (RCB): 32 Wickets in 2021
After limited chances between 2016 and 2020, Harshal Patel delivered a performance of his lifetime in 2021. And it was a huge one, as he levelled the record for taking the most wickets in an IPL edition.
In a season that took place across two countries, maintaining consistency wouldn’t have been easy. But Patel carried his form from India to the UAE, despite a gap of four and a half months between the two legs!
He used his medium pace and slower ball variations to mint 32 wickets for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). On the back of Patel’s performance, RCB qualified for the playoffs.
1. Dwayne Bravo (CSK): 32 Wickets in 2013
Dwayne Bravo occupies the top spot along with Patel. The former all-rounder was at his finest for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in the 2013 season.
Bravo perhaps didn’t have an express pace, but he was clever with his variations. And the Trinidadian made the most of his skills, especially in the death overs.
The right-arm medium pacer took 32 wickets in 18 matches to record the most wickets grabbed by a bowler in an IPL season. Bravo was, in fact, the first to grab more than 30 scalps in an edition.
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