Most expensive bowling spells in IPL from 2008 to 2025

Cricket is ideally a battle between bat and ball but with time, the game has favoured the batters more, and even fans have showered their love over batters when they hit the bowlers out of the park on a consistent basis rather than cheering a bowler for an aggressive spell in the middle or for containing the batter from hitting freely. 

With the modern-day rules and stadium dimensions giving batters the freedom to hit all around the park, bowlers feel the heat to come out with performances that could get them some say in the game. 

However, the IPL has seen more high-scoring games than low-scoring games and even big scores have been chased down with ease and overs to spare. In between all this madness, the bowlers were being punished even when they bowled good balls and welcomed some unwanted expensive spells to their names.

 Here's a look at the 5 most expensive bowling spells of the IPL:

5. Mujeeb Ur Rahman | 0/66 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad (2019)

Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the youngest to take a five-wicket haul in ODIs, got the taste of IPL’s power hitters when SRH locked horns with Kings XI Punjab (now PBKS) in the 48^th match of the 2019 edition of IPL. The match was played at Hyderabad and everyone was hopeful for a spinner-friendly pitch. KXIP played with three spinners and the duo of R. Ashwin and M. Ashwin conceded 62 runs with three wickets in their combined share of eight overs. 

However, Mujeeb couldn’t hit the right areas and was targeted by the SRH batters in their first innings. Mujeeb started on an expensive note, and in the two overs he bowled in the powerplay, he conceded 28 runs. Mujeeb looked clueless and struggled to spin the bowl like his counterparts and remained wicketless till his 3^rd over which conceded 12 runs and took his figures to 40 runs in 3 overs. 

The bowling figures which already looked ugly got even worse when his Afghanistan teammate, Mohd. Nabi and Kane Williamson smashed the bowler for three sixes and a four in the 18^th over and Mujeeb returned with a figure of 0/66 in his share of four over. It turned out to be a rather ordinary night for the spinner, who was still young and learning.