Ranking the top 5 finishers in IPL history

Batting during the death overs is one of the most difficult skills to master in the game of cricket as there are various things the batsman needs to consider. While it may look like there isn’t a whole lot of thinking required and that the batsman can just swing his bat, it isn’t the case.

Batsmen need to take into account the bowlers they will be up against, the number of wickets left, the number of overs left, the dimensions of the ground, his batting partner’s ability with the bat as well as how quickly he is in running between the wickets.

When batting first, finishers also need to assess how the pitch is behaving and what would be a good score. During a run-chase, they already know the number of runs required and will have to decide whether they want to take it right to the end or try and finish it off quickly.

Thus, being a finisher is not an easy task by any means and we have seen quite a few amazing finishers even in the IPL.

Here’s a look at the top 5 death over batsmen in the history of the IPL:

5. Hardik Pandya

India’s best finisher at present, Hardik Pandya has gone from strength to strength since making his IPL debut for the Mumbai Indians back in 2015. He showed highly encouraging signs that season and his power-hitting was just what the Indian team required as well. He was brought into the Indian limited-overs’ team and he hasn’t looked back since.

In the death overs (17-20), he has scored 836 runs in 55 innings at a strike-rate of 192.2 and at an average of 31. Even in general, his strike-rate of 159.26 is the 4th highest in IPL history. The power-hitter also scored the 5th fastest fifty in IPL history and did so in just 17 balls.

Pandya might not look like the strongest man physically, but he certainly packs a punch and is one of the cleanest hitters of a cricket ball. He has helped Mumbai Indians win 4 IPL titles with his destructive batting and pretty useful bowling.