Lightning knocks – Top five fastest fifties in IPL
Yuvraj Singh, in 2007, had the World at his feet by smashing six sixes in an over and racing to a fifty in only 12 deliveries. The impact of the knock can be still felt as no player managed to better the achievement. Almost 13 years down the line, no Indian has even been close to breaking the Southpaw’s record. Even in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the fastest fifty is off 14 balls which came from the bat of KL Rahul in his debut innings for Kings XI Punjab in 2018 against Delhi Daredevils.
In this process, Rahul broke the record of fastest IPL fifty which was jointly held by two players of Kolkata Knight Riders. Yusuf Pathan, in 2014, smashed 72 from only 22 balls against Sunrisers Hyderabad. It was the last league match of the 2014 edition for KKR and they needed a big win to finish in top two. Yusuf’s 15-ball fifty ensured the Knight Riders got to play a home qualifier and went on to lift the IPL title for the second time in three years.
Three years later, it was the turn of Sunil Narine who smashed 54 from 17 balls against the RCB team. Narine brought up his fifty in only 15 balls and levelled the record of Yusuf. Later in 2018, Narine scored a 17-ball fifty against RCB at the Eden Gardens. Till date, there have been 11 fifties in the IPL which came in 17 or less balls but Narine is the only player to have two such knocks. Suresh Raina threatened to set a new record for fastest IPL fifty in 2014 itself that too a week after Yusuf’s effort.
The No.3 batsman of Chennai Super Kings struck 12 fours and six maximums on his way to a 25-ball 87 in a qualifier match against Kings XI. He brought up his fifty in 16 balls which was the then 2nd quickest effort. Raina looked all set to break Gayle’s fastest century record as he needed only 13 more runs from four balls. But soon after the powerplay, Raina got runout with which the CSK’s hopes to land in the final also went missing.
There have been seven IPL fifties coming off 17 balls with the first of them coming in the 2009 edition’s semi-final. The then Deccan Chargers’ skipper Adam Gilchrist smashed a fifty off only 17 balls against Delhi Daredevils in the knockout game. It stood as the fastest IPL fifty until Yusuf and Raina’s knocks in the 2014 season. The fastest fifty for the 4-time champions Mumbai Indians is also off 17 balls by Kieron Pollard, Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya in 2016, 2018 and 2019 respectively against KKR only.
(Stats as on August 23, 2020)
