After nine exciting weeks of action, season 15 of the Indian Premier League has finally drawn to a close with the Gujarat Titans beating the Rajasthan Royals in the final in front of 100,000 fans in Ahmedabad to win the title in their maiden season in the competition. IPL 2022 was the highest-scoring edition of the tournament in its history, with eight centuries and over 1000 sixes smashed across 70+ games.
There have been plenty of memorable performances from world-class players in season 15 of the most prestigious T20 competition in the world, and here are our Man’s Life IPL 2022 awards.
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Jos Buttler was by far and away the best batter in the IPL this season, finishing with the second-most prolific campaign in IPL history and equalling Virat Kohli’s record from 2016 for the most centuries in a single year (4). Buttler’s extraordinary performances took a thin Rajasthan Royals batting lineup to the final in IPL 2022, and the Englishman’s incredible display of ball-striking and consistency will forever be remembered as some of the best batting this tournament has ever seen.
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Although Yuzvendra Chahal’s form dipped towards the latter end of the season, the leg-spinner finished the season with the purple cap, picking up 27 wickets at an average of 19. Despite playing the entire league stage on batting-friendly pitches in Mumbai and Pune and bowling tough overs for RR at the death, Chahal finished with an impressive economy rate of 7.7 and was one of the primary reasons why the Royals made it to the IPL final.
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IPL 2022 saw the resurgence of Hardik Pandya as a force in Indian cricket and the all-rounder led the Gujarat Titans to their maiden title in their debut season in the competition. Hardik finished the campaign with an impressive win percentage of 73%, becoming just the first skipper since Rohit Sharma to lift the trophy in their first season as captain. Looking from the outside in, Pandya helped inculcate a positive atmosphere in the Gujarat Titans camp that helped bring out the best in players while also showing some impressive tactical understanding on the field.
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Quinton de Kock registered the third-highest IPL score of all time in IPL 2022 as the South African opener creamed a majestic unbeaten 140 of just 70 deliveries against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the DY Patil Stadium. De Kock broke all sorts of batting records in this awe-inspiring knock, sharing the highest opening partnership (210) with KL Rahul in IPL history and scoring the most runs by a batter in the final five overs of an innings (71)
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Amongst all the players featuring in their maiden IPL campaign, Tilak Varma stood out from the crowd, showing plenty of maturity and high-level skill in a struggling Mumbai Indians’ side. Varma finished the season as Mumbai’s second-highest run-getter, scoring 397 runs at a healthy average of 36 and an impressive strike rate of 131. Varma showed incredible game IQ at age 19, with the youngster always looking to move the game forward and be busy at the crease.
More impressively, Varma displayed an other-worldly ability to take on spin, averaging 186 at a strike rate of 148 against the spinners in IPL 2022 with an even more astonishing dot ball % of just 17.5.
Jos Buttler ✈, KL Rahul, Rahul Tripathi, Hardik Pandya (c), David Miller ✈, Andre Russell ✈, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Rashid Khan ✈, Mohsin Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Umran Malik
[Featured Image Credit: Gujarat Titans]
Shivaan Shah