The 5 worst bowling figures in the IPL – nightmare performances from Luke Wood, Reece Topley and others
01/14/2025 04:19 AM
It’s no secret that T20 cricket is not a particularly bowler friendly environment.
The shortest format of the game is undoubtedly biased in favour of the batsmen. Every so often there is a spell or a game that simply takes things to the next level, a moment where a bowler walks into a perfect storm and is carted to all parts of the ground.
With the return of the IPL on the horizon, let’s take a moment to look at the five most expensive spells of bowling in IPL history. Warning, this could make for painful reading!
=4. Luke Wood (4-0-68-1), 27 April 2024
Playing for the Mumbai Indians against the Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, this was a run fest of note. The Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field first. England international Wood opened the bowling, and he ran slap bang into Jake Fraser-McGurk in a bad mood.
His opening over, which went for 19 (14 of which came from the first three balls), set the tone for the carnage that was to follow. He came back to bowl one over in the middle of the innings that went for just eight before an over of 15 (which included the wicket of Shai Hope) left him with one more over to bowl.
Brought back to bowl the 18th over the game it was Proteas star Tristan Stubbs who was facing – the over unfolded in horrific fashion for Wood going 4,4,6,4,4,4 – a total of 26 runs.
=4. Reece Topley (4-0-68-1), 15 April 2024
Another high-scoring game that saw a total of 549 runs scored, unfolded between Royal Challengers Bengaluru the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Opening the bowling for Bengaluru against a batting lineup that included Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Heinrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram must have been daunting. It soon took on horrific proportions for England quick Topley who bowled his allotted overs in four single-over spells.
He went for 20 first up, before a respectable over that went for just 11 and included a wicket. An over that went for 12 followed soon after before he was ripped apart by Abdul Samad in the penultimate over of the innings going for 25.
3. Yash Dayal (4-0-69-0), 9 April 2023
Poor Dayal, he is probably still in therapy as he played the unwanted role in one of the unlikeliest reversals of fortune ever seen in the IPL.
Dayal was playing for the Gujarat Titans against the Kolkata Knight Riders. It looked like the home side had the game in the bag as Dayal started the last over with KKR need 29 off 6 balls to win. up till then Dayal had bowled a solid spell of three overs, and he just needed to keep it tight to see his side over the line.
A single off the first ball for Umesh Yadav seemed promising. But it brought Rinku Singh on strike and that's where it got ugly for Dayal. Five consecutive sixes meant the over yielded 31 runs as Rinku secured the unlikeliest of wins and decimated Dayal’s bowling figures in the process.
2. Basil Thampi (4-0-70-0), 17 May 2018
Certainly not the biggest name in IPL, Thampi has played for Mumbai Indians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Lions. His moment of pain came in 2018 when he played for Hyderabad against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
The Bangalore batters took a liking to his fare as between them Moeen Ali, AB de Villiers and Colin de Grandhomme ripped him apart as he bowled his four overs in four one over spells.
There was no one standout over that was worse than the others, as he conceded 18, 14, 19 and 19 to finish with figures of 70 for no wicket – which at the time was the most expensive spell in IPL history.
1. Mohit Sharma (4-0-73-0), 24 April 2024
Sharma is an Indian international who bowls right arm medium. He is a solid performer with 164 T20 games to his credit for team like the Delhi Capitals, Kings XI Punjab, Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings.
But playing for the Titans against the Capitals in IPL 2024 Sharma ran into Rishabh Pant in in whirlwind mode. It had all gone swimmingly for Sharma as he bowled one over at the midway point of the innings that went for 12. Held back to the end he then bowled three consecutive overs at the death.
The first two went for 16 and 14 respectively before he was tasked with bowling the final over of the innings. With wickets in hand Pant opened up scoring 31 from the final over which included four sixes as he raced his way to 88 from 43 and to gift Sharma the worst ever figures by a bowler in the IPL.
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