Wednesday 5 April 2017 07:25, UK
Ahead of the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League, we pick out some of the statistical highlights.
In international cricket there is no movement of players because of the restrictions of nationality and birth, and in domestic cricket there had traditionally been little money and no thriving transfer market. The IPL with its initial auction, where players are bought and sold according to perceived market value, solved this problem and enabled teams to try to seek out market inefficiencies with pure data.
In the first edition, Rajasthan, at $67million (£53.8m) the cheapest franchise of the lot, won the title. The most expensive franchises, Mumbai Indians and Bangalore Royal Challengers, were eliminated before the semi-final stage.
Teams - and team budgets - have moved on since then. But who have been the biggest movers and shakers in the nine years of the competition and who might prevail this season when the sixty matches are done and dusted?
After so many games - 578 to be precise - so far, it is pretty much neck-and-neck at the top of the all-time IPL run-scoring charts with just 12 runs separating Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina - with Rohit Sharma close behind. Chris Gayle has played at least forty fewer matches than the leading four, but his batting average is the best of anyone with at least 1,000 runs in the competition.
Gayle also leads the way with five centuries, with Kohli (4) and AB De Villiers (3) just behind him. In total, there have been 42 centuries scored in the competition, which was launched by Brendon McCullum's unbeaten 158 in the first match in 2008. The first seven were all scored by overseas players, before Manish Pandey struck 114 not out for Bangalore against Deccan Chargers in 2009.
On the subject of Deccan Chargers, they are one of a total of 13 teams to have ever participated in the competition, although their overall record was not one to write home about, despite winning the 2009 title on foreign soil when the tournament was shifted to South Africa.
On to the bowlers and it is a refreshing mix of pace and spin, left-arm and right-arm making up the top 10 wicket-takers in IPL history:
471 different players have taken the field in IPL cricket so far. They range from Suresh Raina, who has played 147 matches to the 35 poor souls to play just a solitary match in the competition. So - who are these "cups of coffee" - as they are known in America? And were any unfortunate enough to neither bat nor bowl?
Of the 35, 20 actually batted, with Damien Martyn's innings of 19 for Rajasthan against Bangalore Royal Challengers in 2010 the highest score. Of the remaining 15 players, 11 actually bowled, which leaves just four players left. But wait a moment - Tanmay Mishra took a catch in his solitary outing, and Kedar Devdhar (who could also join compatriot Varun Aaron in the all-rhyming team) effected a stumping. So there are only two remaining.
Pankaj Dharmani was a good enough batsman to play one ODI for India and ended his career with a first-class average of more than 50. However, he only played in one IPL match and that was for Kings XI Punjab against Chennai Super Kings in 2008.
That year also saw Rajesh Pawar's only IPL experience, playing for Mumbai Indians against Kolkata Knight Riders. He had been part of India's squad for the 1998 Under 19 World Cup and ended his first-class career in early 2013 with 281 wickets with his left-arm spin, but his IPL career consisted of just that solitary match in which he neither batted, bowled nor took a catch.
Often thought of as a young man's game, there has been no shortage of oldies in the IPL, with nine players participating after turning 40. The oldest of the lot was Brad Hogg, who was 45 years and 92 days old when he took the field for Kolkata against Gujarat last May.
However, with Hogg not included in this year's tournament, that record could go as Sunrisers have included Pravin Tambe in its squad, and he will be 45 years and 179 days old on the opening day.
At the other end of the spectrum, Pradeep Sangwan is still the youngest IPL player, aged just 17 years and 179 days old when he played for Delhi against Chennai in 2008. Sarfaraz Khan and Ishan Kishan (another rhyming player!) have been the other 17-year-old players to feature.
Chris Jordan made an instant impact in last year's IPL, playing nine matches and ending up on the winning side in seven of them. Statistically, the best player in terms of results has been Sohail Tanvir, star of the inaugural competition, who won 10 of his 11 matches.
Throughout the history of the IPL it is possible to total the distribution of run-scoring by ball, as follows:
Notably, the run rates in the last two years of the competition have been the highest in history:
Interestingly, the year with the lowest run rate was 2009 - the year the competition was shifted to South Africa and took place in rather different conditions to those found in India.
In the 578 matches, 262 captains won the toss and chose to bat while 316 chose to bowl. Those results are somewhat borne out by the results, in that 255 matches have been won batting first whereas 313 have been won batting second, with four no-results and six ties.
So - as the tenth season gets underway, enjoy all the big-hitting but one stat more than any other demonstrates the extremes the competition can serve up.
On 13 April 2010, Kieron Pollard faced 13 deliveries for Mumbai against Delhi and hammered an unbeaten 45, including five sixes.
Nayan Doshi - one of Surrey's leading lights in their early successes in our own domestic Twenty20 competition also faced 13 deliveries in his final match of his IPL career - for Rajasthan against Kochi in 2011 but he was dismissed for - a duck! It takes all sorts!
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