12th Edition IPL is already started and almost every team have played their round 2 matches. KKR, Chennai and Sunrisers Hyderabad are the only teams who are unbeaten so far. Both KKR and Chennai have played 2-2 matches while Sunrisers will play their second-round match tonight against Rajasthan Royals at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. As the 12th of IPL started, both Suresh Raina and Virat Kholi crossed the milestone of 5000 IPL runs. IPL has been one of the best platforms for a lot of new emerging players to show what they are capable of. Lots of players have come and go till 12th Edison of IPL and only a few of them have succeeded to write their name history book of IPL. So far more than 650 games were played in the history of IPL and only 52 times we witnessed centuries from the batsmen. Out of 52, Gayle alone has scored six centuries in IPL. Let's look at the top 5 batsmen of IPL in terms of the most IPL centuries
Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle started his IPL career from Kolkata Night Riders. In two seasons with KKR, his best scores were 44 and 88 but after he joined RCB in 2011, we started to see the Gayle storm. With two centuries in 5th Edison of IPL, he added 733 runs in his IPL account. He ended the fourth and fifth editions of IPL as a leading run scorer with 608 and 733 runs. Gayle scored his first century against his former team KKR in the 4th edition of IPL, he scored not out 102 from 55 balls in that inning. On the same season, he scored another century against his current team KXIP. He played an inning of 107 runs from just 49 balls. In 5th IPL season, he scored another century, this time he scored unbeaten 128 runs in 62 balls. In 2013, Gayle played an unbelievable inning which almost broke every single individual as well as team records. Gayle's not out 175 runs in just 66 balls inning against Pune Warriors made him the highest individual run scorer in a single inning of t-20 cricket. His 175 runs inning helped RCB to set an all-time highest t-20 grand total of 263 runs. Gayle's record-breaking inning consists seventeen sixes (most in the single inning) and thirteen fours. Gayle reached the century mark in just thirty balls in that inning, which is yet to be broken by any batsmen. In 8th IPL season, he scored another century against his current team. He played an inning of 117 runs from 57 balls. Last year after RCB released him, he scored his first IPL century under KXIP shirt against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He played not out 104 runs innings from 63 balls.
Virat Kohli
Virat Kohli has been one of the most consistent players in IPL history. Yesterday, after playing an inning of 46 runs against Mumbai, he became the second player in IPL history to reach the 5000 runs mark. Suresh Raina(5034 runs) who is an all-time leading run-scorer in IPL history has reached that milestone just a few days ago. Since the start of IPL, He has never left RCB and scored 4 centuries under RCB shirt. In 9th Edition of IPL, he ended the tournament as a leading run scorer with 973 runs from 16 matches, which is the highest run scored by any batsmen in single IPL season. Virat Kohli scored his all 4 centuries in that season, he scored his first century against Gujarat Lions(not out 100 runs from 63 balls) but it didn't help Bangalore to win the match. His second century came against Pune (not out 108 runs from 58 balls). The third century came against Gujarat lions(109 runs from 55 balls) and the fourth century came against Kings XI Punjab(113 runs from 50 balls).
Shane Watson
Similar to Virat Kohli, the Australian All-rounder Shane Watson has also scored four IPL centuries. So far He has played with Rajasthan Royals, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in IPL. He only failed to hit the century from RCB. Like Virat Kohli's first century, his first IPL century also couldn't help his team to win the match, he played a 101 runs inning from 58 balls against his current team CSK in 2013. He scored his second hundred(not out 104runs in 59 balls) from RR in IPL against KKR in 2015. After Rajasthan Royals was suspended 2 years by BCCI after they were found guilty on match-fixing incident, he went to RCB but he couldn't score any century in his 2-year spell at RCB. Last year, Watson joined Chennai Super Kings. He scored two century in the last edition of IPL from Chennai and including the title-winning unbeaten knock of 117 runs in 57 balls in the final against Sunrisers Hyderabad. He scored his third century ( 106 runs from 57 balls) against his former team Rajasthan Royals. Shane Watson has been also been a great bowling option for his team. Out of 119 matches he played in IPL, he has taken 92 wickets so far. Watson was selected as the most valuable player twice in IPL season 2008 and 2013.
AB De Villiers
Abhram Benjamin de Villiers is one of the most destructive batsmen in limited format of cricket. He has always been known for his explosive batting in t-20 and his dynamism during the fielding. Because of his capability to score the boundaries in every corner of the ground, he is nicknamed as Mr.360 of cricket. The 35-year-old former South African captain started his IPL career from Delhi Daredevils (Currently Delhi Capitals). In second IPL season, he scored his first IPL hundred from Delhi against Chennai Super Kings. He scored unbeaten 105 runs from 54 balls. In 2011, he joined RCB. In 2015, he scored his first century (not out 133 runs in 59 balls) for RCB against Mumbai Indians. Which is also his personal best in t-20 cricket. He scored his third century(unbeaten 129 runs from 52 balls) against Gujarat Lions. He made 229 runs partnership with RCB captain Virat Kohli(109 runs in 55 balls) in that match. ABD also holds the world record of fastest ODI fifty, hundred and 150 runs.
David Warner
Last year, David Warner was suspended alongside Steve Smith after they were found guilty in tempering incident in a test match against South Africa and were suspended for 1 year by Australi Cricket Board. We thought it will be hard for SRH to start the tournament without their captain Warner, they surprisingly played exceptionally well in the group stage and reach the final of the competition but unfortunately, they lost against CSK in the final. The Australian international has scored 3 centuries so far in the IPL and on his return match of this year IPL, he was just sort of 15 runs for his fourth century. David Warner scored his first IPL hundred from Delhi Daredevils in the third edition of IPL against KKR. He played a not out inning of 107 runs in 69 balls. He scored his second match-winning unbeaten century (109 runs from 54 balls)for Delhi against Deccan Chargers in 2012. After Delhi released Warner in 2014, he joined Hyderabad and has been a key player for SRH. He once again scored a century against KKR in the 10th edition of IPL. He scored the match-winning knock of 126 runs from 59 balls in that match.
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