Gayle and Malinga take top honours......

The IPL is now five seasons old, over which period 4931 innings have been played in 323 matches, but the best batting performance in these five seasons remains the one that was played by an opener in the first innings of the very first match of the competition. Brendon McCullum's unbeaten 158 off 73 balls for Kolkata Knight Riders, when he creamed 13 sixes off the hapless Royal Challengers Bangalore attack, remains at the top of the pile of best innings with 81.10 points, well clear of Sanath Jayasuriya's 114 off 48 in the same season for Mumbai Indians against Chennai Super Kings.

The top three innings are all hundreds, but the fourth one is a bit of a surprise: Harbhajan Singh's unbeaten 49 off 18 is fourth, but one look at the match scorecard and the context of his runs explains his high position: Harbhajan came in to bat at 119 for 7 in the 17th over, and blasted 49 to lift his team to 172; in reply, Deccan Chargers were bowled out for 131.

Virender Sehwag is the only player to feature three times in the top 15 - in third, eighth and 15th spots. Adam Gilchrist takes the fifth and sixth spots for innings of 85 (off 35) and 109 (off 47). Both these knocks were in identical chases, but the century came in an easier chase, when Gilchrist and VVS Laxman combined in an unbeaten first-wicket partnership of 155 against Mumbai Indians; his 85 came in a chase of 154, against Delhi Daredevils, but this time Chargers lost four wickets, and the second-highest score was only 24. Yusuf Pathan and Chris Gayle are the others to feature more than once.

Best IPL batting performances

Batsman	Innings	Strike rate	For	Against	Season	Points
Brendon McCullum	158 off 73	216.44	KKR	RCB	2008	81.10
Sanath Jayasuriya	114 off 48	237.50	MI	CSK	2008	72.41
Virender Sehwag	119 off 56	212.50	DD	DC	2011	66.29
Harbhajan Singh	49 off 18	272.22	MI	DC	2010	65.47
Adam Gilchrist	85 off 35	242.86	DC	DD	2009	65.38
Adam Gilchrist	109 off 47	231.91	DC	MI	2008	65.23
Yusuf Pathan	100 off 37	270.27	RR	MI	2010	64.55
Virender Sehwag	94 off 41	229.27	DD	DC	2008	64.47
Chris Gayle	128 off 62	206.45	RCB	DD	2012	63.07
Suresh Raina	98 off 55	178.18	CSK	RR	2009	62.73
Yusuf Pathan	62 off 30	206.67	RR	DD	2009	62.50
MS Dhoni	70 off 40	175.00	CSK	RCB	2011	62.08
Chris Gayle	107 off 49	218.37	RCB	KXI	2011	60.95
Rohit Sharma	109 off 60	181.67	MI	KKR	2012	60.49
Virender Sehwag	75 off 34	220.59	DD	RR	2010	60.00

The two best batting performances are from the 2008 season, and the two best bowling ones are from 2009. Anil Kumble leads the way, for his 5 for 5 against Rajasthan Royals in Cape Town in 2009. Amit Singh comes in in second place for his spell of 3 for 9 in a relatively high-scoring match against Kings XI Punjab in which 344 runs were scored in 40 overs. That's followed by Sohail Tanvir's 6 for 14 against Chennai Super Kings.

Because of a significant amount of weightage being given to the economy rates, some of the best performances in the table below are those in which bowlers have taken two or three wickets, but at very good economy rates. Rahul Sharma's 2 for 7 off four overs, for instance, came in a match against Mumbai Indians in which 299 runs were scored in 40 overs, and no other bowler went at less than five runs per over. Similarly, Lasith Malinga (3 for 9 versus Deccan Chargers) and Dale Steyn (3 for 8 against Royal Challengers make it to the top ten because of their economy rates as well.

Best IPL bowling performances

Bowler	Spell	Econ rate	For	Against	Season	Points
Anil Kumble	5 for 5	1.57	RCB	RR	2009	71.80
Amit Singh	3 for 9	2.25	RR	KXIP	2009	70.54
Sohail Tanvir	6 for 14	3.50	RR	CSK	2008	70.15
Rahul Sharma	2 for 7	1.75	PW	MI	2011	67.99
Amit Mishra	4 for 9	2.25	DC	KXIP	2011	67.86
Ajit Chandila	4 for 13	3.25	RR	PW	2012	66.96
Lasith Malinga	3 for 9	2.25	MI	DC	2011	66.02
Ishant Sharma	5 for 12	4.00	DC	KTK	2011	64.79
Dale Steyn	3 for 8	2.00	DC	RCB	2012	63.56
Amit Mishra	5 for 17	4.25	DD	DC	2008	63.33
Munaf Patel	5 for 21	5.25	MI	KXIP	2011	63.20
Sohail Tanvir	3 for 10	2.50	RR	RCB	2008	62.44
Ravindra Jadeja	5 for 16	4.00	CSK	DC	2012	62.09
Harbhajan Singh	4 for 17	4.25	MI	DD	2009	61.85
Shoaib Akhtar	4 for 11	3.66	KKR	DD	2008	61.30

In terms of overall numbers, there's no doubt regarding the best batsman in all IPL seasons put together. Six batsmen have scored more runs than Gayle, but none as been as consistently destructive as Gayle: over 42 innings, he averages 50.11 at a strike rate of almost 162. He is also the only batsman to score three hundreds, and was Player of the Tournament in 2011. Gayle's 12 Man-of-the-Match awards are the joint-highest in all IPL matches - he shares the record with Yusuf Pathan.

Averaging out the rating points for all batsmen, Gayle's average score of 24.30 is about 20% better than the next-best, Shaun Marsh's 20.11. Marsh is one of three Australians who occupy the slots immediately after the top position, while Indian batsmen dominate the rest of the top ten, with five of them in the next six. Sehwag is marginally ahead of Sachin Tendulkar, while Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni round off the top ten.

Top batsmen overall in IPL

Batsman	Matches	Runs	Average	Strike rate	Points
Chris Gayle	43	1804	50.11	161.79	24.30
Shaun Marsh	42	1603	45.80	135.96	20.11
Shane Watson	39	1242	40.06	146.80	18.75
Matthew Hayden	32	1107	36.90	137.51	18.55
Virender Sehwag	66	1879	30.30	167.31	16.24
Sachin Tendulkar	64	2047	37.90	119.21	15.90
Michael Hussey	29	958	39.91	120.65	15.86
Gautam Gambhir	72	2065	33.30	128.90	15.52
Suresh Raina	81	2254	33.64	139.39	15.41
MS Dhoni	78	1782	37.12	136.44	14.82

Not only is Malinga the leading wicket-taker in IPL, he also has the best average points (calculated by averaging out his points for every IPL bowling performance). Malinga is a couple of points clear of Muttiah Muralitharan, who is in second place. The rest of the top ten is bunched together very closely, with less than three points separating the second-ranked Muralitharan from the tenth-ranked Ashish Nehra.

Top bowlers overall in IPL

Bowler	Matches	Wickets	Average	Economy rate	Points
Lasith Malinga	56	83	16.63	6.36	25.44
Muttiah Muralitharan	55	57	24.47	6.48	23.50
Dale Steyn	52	59	22.10	6.58	23.49
Amit Mishra	59	74	20.67	7.10	23.08
Anil Kumble	42	45	23.51	6.57	22.97
Morne Morkel	31	38	23.26	7.36	22.23
R Ashwin	49	49	22.95	6.22	22.05
Munaf Patel	57	70	21.48	7.37	21.51
Ryan Harris	34	44	22.15	7.69	21.45
Ashish Nehra	44	48	24.83	7.55	20.93

Salient points about the performance analysis methodology

• Each batting and bowling performance by every player in the IPL gets a score, based on the runs scored and the strike rate, or the wickets taken and the economy rate.
• The batting position is factored in, since it's easier for a top-order batsman to score more runs in a limited-overs format.
• The batting strike rate is weighed against the scoring rate in the match. Thus, runs scored in a high-scoring match counts for less than the same runs scored in a low-scoring game. A similar logic holds for the economy rates for bowlers. However, extra points are given for runs made when batting second in a high run-chase.
• For bowlers, top-order wickets count for more than tail-end wickets.
• Bowlers who bowl their full quota of four overs get full value for their performance, compared to those who bowl only a fraction of their four-over quota.