The most six-happy team in IPL

Adam Gilchrist: nine sixes in IPL 3, and 57 in all IPL matches © AP

They’ve been the most prolific six-hitters in the first two seasons of the IPL, and they’re at it in season three as well. Deccan Chargers have played only four matches so far – the lowest of all teams – but they’ve already racked up 28 sixes, an average of seven per match. Given that they’re also pretty high up on the points table, Deccan are well on course to smash the 100-sixes barrier that no team has managed to so far (though Deccan managed 99 last year). An entry into the semi-finals would guarantee them 16 matches, and at the current average they’ll go up to 112 by then.

Adam Gilchrist, with nine sixes, and Andrew Symonds (eight) have been the chief instigators for ensuring that a quarter of the runs scored by Deccan have been in sixes. Gilchrist has the most sixes in all IPLs put together, and he’s clearly showing no signs of letting up. Chennai is well represented too, with Mathew Hayden hitting 11 sixes and Suresh Raina nine.

At the other end of the scale are the Kolkata Knight Riders, averaging a puny three sixes per match. Owais Shah is their leading six-hitter with five, but 13 batsmen from other teams have done better than him. Mumbai Indians are pretty low in that table as well, but their captain has shown that you don’t need to hit sixes to score quickly – he’s hit only one in 165 deliveries, and yet he has scored 248 runs at a strike rate of 150.30.