Overseas players dominate big-hitting in IPL

Six in the top 10 big-hitters in the current season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) are from overseas. Eight of them have a 150 plus strike rate, though only West Indian Chris Gayle (19), South African Francois du Plessis (14) and Englishman Owais Shah (14) have hit sixes in double digits.

Chris Gayle

Ironically, turbanator Harbhajan Singh, captain of Mumbai Indians, leads the pack of four Indians. He may have averaged only 23, but his strike rate is 154, equalling IPL-V highest auctioned player Ravindra Jadeja's batting average of 23.00. Jadeja, with 146.00, ranks at No 9 just above Rajasthan Royals orange cap holder for highest aggregate Ajinkya Rahane.

Francois du Plessis

The Mumbai man with 146.00 is two places below Delhi Daredevils all-rounder Irfan Pathan with 150.00. Chennai Super Kings' Albie Morkel has the highest strike rate of 158.00 and he leaves behind the explosive hitter from Royal Challengers Bangalore Chris Gayle who has blasted the opposition by scoring at 157.00.

Shah bash
Out of the pack, Rahane and Shah both belonging to the Royals who have scored more than 250 runs each have an healthy batting average of 53.00 apiece.
Gayle who has sent the ball 19 times over the ropes in just five games, is clearly fast ahead in hitting sixes. Du Plessis of Chennai Super Kings, with 138 runs scored per 100 balls, and Shah of Rajasthan Royals (154 strike rate) are ranked second in most number of sixes, with 14 each. As for fours, Rahane has cut, pulled, flicked and drove to the boundary 43 times, leaving Kolkata's captain Gautam Gambhir a distant second with 28 fours. Purple cap holder for most wickets, Morne Morkel of Delhi Daredevils, heads the list with 15 and has the best strike rate with a wicket after every 9.2 balls.

Munaf Patel, with 10 wickets from five matches, is one of the three Indians in the top 10 wicket-takers. He is at No 4. The other two are Piyush Chawla of Punjab at eight and Ashok Dinda of Pune at nine with eight wickets each. Mumbai's Lasith Malinga (injured) has the lowest economy rate of 4.54 and a bowling average of 8.00 after four matches.u00a0