In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as fifer) refers to a bowler taking five or more wickets in a single innings. The achievement becomes even for remarkable in T20 cricket where a bowler can only bowl a maximum of 24 balls (4 Overs).
Ever since its inception in 2008, the five wicket haul landmark has been breached 26 times by 24 different bowlers (15 Indian and 9 Overseas). Players from 11 different franchises out of the 13 franchises that has participated in IPL over the years have taken five-wicket hauls. The defunct Pune Warriors India and Kochi Tuskers Kerala are the only 2 franchises that have no players who have taken a five wicket haul.
The first five-wicket haul in IPL history was taken by Pakistan’s Sohail Tanvir. Tanvir who played for the Rajasthan Royals scalped 6 wickets for 14 runs against Chennai Super Kings.
Anil Kumble of Royal Challengers Bangalore holds the record of the most economical five-wicket haul scalping 5 wickets for 5 runs in a 4 over spell in IPL 2009. He is also the oldest bowler to scalp 5 wickets in IPL at the age of 38.
The record of taking the least economical five-wicket haul is being held by Arshdeep Singh of the Punjab Kings who took 5/32 bowling with an economy rate of 8.00 in 2021.
Jaydev Unadkat holds quite a record when it comes to take 5 wicket hauls. He is the youngest bowler to take a five wicket haul in IPL 2013 aged 21. He along with Australia’s James Faulkner are the only bowlers to take multiple five-wicket hauls in the IPL (2). Unadkat along with Lakshmipathy Balaji and Andrew Tye are the only bowlers to take a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul in the same match.
Australia’s Andrew Tye along with West Indies’ Alzarri Joseph are the only bowlers to take a five-wicket haul on their IPL debut itself. While Tye grabbed 5 wickets for 17 runs, Joseph went on to grab a 6 wicket haul in his debut. Joseph also holds the record of best bowling figures in an IPL match with 6/12.
Apart from Joseph, Sohail Tanvir and Adam Zampa are the other two bowlers to grab a 6 wicket haul. Notably no Indian bowler features in that list yet.
The List of Bowlers who have taken a 5 Wicket Haul is being shown chronologically:
(Updated till 06/05/2022.)
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