Arguably the hardest T20 tournament in the world is the IPL and the players playing the tourney will be under the spotlight every time. The expectation surrounding them is too high and it results in a lot of pressure on an individual to perform. These are just for a normal league game in the IPL, so you can imagine the pressures when it comes to the playoffs/ knockouts.
Just like every T20 league, IPL practices the format of playing an Eliminator, Qualifiers and Final in its playoff itinerary. The importance these games has is tremendous and whoever does well are noticed & will be become part of the IPL folklore. There are individuals who have consistently done well at this phase and helped their team come on top. An impactful 50 or more runs can be considered match-winnings and significant contribution by a batter in the T20 format.
We will talk about the batters who have hit the most number of 50+ scores in successful IPL playoff games.
| Player | Fifty Plus scores | Total Runs (in these games) | Strike Rate (in these games) |
| Suresh Raina (CSK) | 5 | 321 | 165.46 |
| Faf du Plessis (CSK) | 3 | 203 | 145.00 |
| Michael Hussey (CSK) | 3 | 205 | 137.58 |
| Venkatesh Iyer (KKR) | 3 | 158 | 166.31 |
| Shane Watson (CSK, RR) | 3 | 219 | 185.59 |
| AB de Villiers (RCB) | 2 | 145 | 170.58 |
| Ruturaj Gaikwad (CSK) | 2 | 130 | 138.29 |
| Rohit Sharma (MI) | 2 | 118 | 153.24 |
| Lendl Simmons (MI) | 2 | 113 | 138.54 |
| Murali Vijay (CSK) | 2 | 208 | 189.09 |
Key Insights:
There are 2 other batters who have have 2 scores of fifty or more in a IPL knockout or playoff game (winning cause). They are Suryakumar Yadav who did so for Mumbai in 2019 & 2020 and the other is David Warner who hit two of them in 2016 edition.
Suresh Raina not only leads with most fifty plus scores in successful game for his team, the Chennai Super Kings but also struck 423 runs in 13 games for the side in IPL knockouts. Those are the most runs for any player in a winning cause. Shubman Gill comes in 2nd spot with 312 runs in six games, while MS Dhoni has 280 runs in 18 successful IPL playoff games.
Raina has seven scores of 50 or more IPL playoffs, which is the most for any player irrespective of result and four batters (Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, Dwayne Smith and Venkatesh Iyer) share the second place with 4 fifty plus scores each.
There are seven batters who have hit a century in IPL playoff games and six has resulted in a win. The only player whose century came up short of a win was Wriddhiman Saha’s 115* for PBKS against KKR in IPL 2024 final.
