5 strange facts about the IPL
If you are a cricket enthusiast who knows everything about the IPL, here’s a test for you. Go through the facts below and see if you knew them, or can remember these IPL incidents. If not, it’s time to rewind and see them again from old YouTube clippings.
Who won 2 consecutive IPLs as player and coach?
Australian Darren Lehmann was a player with the Rajasthan Royals in 2008, when his team won the IPL. After this, he stopped and took up coaching duties. The next year, Lehmann was back again, as the Head Coach of the Deccan Chargers. And his team won again! Though not consecutive years, Ricky Ponting too was part of the winning team Mumbai Indians in 2013, and won the IPL again as a coach in 2015.
What exact game event happened twice at Chinnaswamy Stadium?
On May 6, 2011, in the KXIP vs. RCB match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Chris Gayle scored a century for KXIP, and RCB's Sreenath Aravind took 4 wickets. Exactly 4 years later, on May 6, 2015, the two teams met again at the same stadium. Unbelievably, Chris Gayle hit a century again, while Sreenath Aravind took exactly 4 wickets!
Who played only 1 ball and took a wicket in it?
Australia's Adam Gilchrist wins this strange bet. He bowled only one ball in Dharamsala in 2013. And in that one ball, he took Harbhajan Singh’s wicket!
What strange things happened in the first IPL match?
The first IPL match happened in 2008. The first ball of IPL was bowled by Praveen Kumar against Sourav Ganguly. The first wicket lost was also Sourav’s, caught out by Zaheer Khan. The first 4 IPL boundaries were scored in that match by Brendon McCullum, and he went to score the first IPL century.
Which batsman taped his mouth in protest?
Kieron Pollard and Chris Gayle faced each other in a decisive match in 2015. Pollard kept talking to distract Gayle, so umpires Richard Illingworth and Vineet Kulkarni reprimanded him for that. Pollard then went out between the overs and came back – with a piece of shiny tape on his mouth – which he kept on as a protest!