IPL 2023: Winning the IPL itself is the main aim of all the teams in the fray, and that is, after all, the ultimate prize. And anything else won is merely a consolation to help soothe the wounds resulting from losing the title.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t count. Apart from the trophy itself, individual top-tier achievements are also awarded. This encourages the cricketers to display match-winning performances that take their sides as far as possible in the tournament.
Some of the notable awards for stellar individual performances that are a part of the Indian Premier League include:
- Orange Cap
- Purple Cap
- Player of the Match
- Player of the Series
- Emerging Player of the Year
- Fair Play Award
- Maximum Sixes Award
- Most Valuable Player
Of this long list of awards, the top two being, the Orange Cap and the Purple Cap are the most sought-after as they award the highest run scorer and highest wicket-taker in the competition, respectively. That they are most desired just behind the title itself in terms of bragging rights is testimony to its appeal. In this article, we shall be detailing some of the more illustrious holders of the Orange Cap since the inception of the IPL to the most recently completed edition in 2022. The entire list of Orange Cap holders is available in the online archives of The Sportstar, should you wish to take a look.
All Orange and Purple caps winners are awarded monetary compensation, with their names etched on the leaderboards. When indulging in a 5 player fantasy cricket game, you may select the best five players for the digital card game. For that purpose, being aware of the IPLs Orange Cap holders will be helpful. Remember that you will need bowlers, too, as the famous saying goes, “bowlers win matches.”
The best batters from the IPL who have earned the Orange Cap are many. Yet some who stand head and shoulders above the rest and have done their franchises proud are listed here.
1. Shaun Marsh:
As a child, Shaun Marsh was exposed early on to cricket as he spent considerable time traveling with his father, Geoff Marsh, the former Australian opening batsman. Spending time on the road with the Australian team and watching the greats play saw Marsh develop into one of the finest talents Cricket Australia has put forth.
The elegant left-hander’s first-class debut was for Western Australia as a 17-year-old. His maiden century came in the match against New South Wales in 2003 as a 19-year-old in a game with Test veterans Steve and Mark Waugh for company. Marsh’s Test career took off with a bang when he scored a century against Sri Lanka on his debut.
He has been a value addition for his IPL side, the Kings XI Punjab, now the Punjab Kings. And was the leading run-scorer in 2008 for the Punjab Kings when he won the Orange Cap and was awarded the Player of the Year title.
2. Sachin Tendulkar:
Sachin Tendulkar arrived on the cricketing stage at 16. Known as the Little Master, this pocket-sized dynamo turned into the most prolific run maker of all time. The biggest compliment came from Don Bradman when he shared his thoughts on Sachin’s strokeplay. According to the Don, Sachin played like he used to.
His IPL team is the Mumbai Indians, for whom he played between 2008 and 2013, scoring 2334 runs across 78 matches. Further, he got himself the Orange Cap in the 2010 edition, scoring 618 runs, and was instrumental in guiding them to IPL glory as a player and coach.
3. Chris Gayle:
Chris Gayle is a Jamaican left-hander with a healthy disdain for opposition bowlers, and it has served him well as he bulldozed his way to not one but two back-to-back Orange Caps in the IPL in 2011 and 2012.
With his towering presence at the crease, he has the ability to decimate the hard-fought figures of even the thriftiest of bowlers. Among his many strengths, perhaps the biggest one is his outstanding hand-eye coordination, allowing Gayle to plunder runs at will.
A better portion of his runs has come from fours and sixes in his IPL career, and they number an astounding 405 and 357, respectively.
4. Robin Uthappa:
Robin Uthappa has always been an attractive batter to watch, as he unleashed a flurry of by-the-book strokes and yet was unafraid to take the aerial route.
Though his career has been a bit of a hit-and-miss when playing for the national side, he came into his own when he ventured into the IPL. The IPL teams he represented were Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Kolkata Knight Riders. In his IPL career, he has scored 4952 runs in 205 appearances. The crowning glory of his career came when he helped KKR lift the 2014 title and bagged the Orange Cap to boot.
5. David Warner:
David Warner is an extraordinary batter whose feats in all three formats when playing for Australia will be overshadowed by the ball-tampering he admitted to orchestrating in the tour of South Africa in the infamous Cape Town test in 2018.
Though he escaped being punished by the ICC, Cricket Australia banned him from international and domestic cricket for 12 months and excluded him from leadership roles for life.
His cricketing career got a second lease of life in the IPL, and in 2021 became just the fourth batter to pass 10,000 runs in T20. He also has the distinction of bagging three Orange Caps in 2015, 2017, and 2019 – one more than swashbuckling Jamaican Chris Gayle. Another feather in his IPL cap came when he led the Sunrisers Hyderabad to the 2016 IPL title.
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