IPL 2022 | KL Rahul joins a list of elites, with a ton on his 100th appearance

India’s stylish opener, KL Rahul, has made a habit of scoring runs at the top of the order. The ease with which he has been mustering his runs is amusing, if not surprising. In his 100th outing in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rahul struck another magnificent hundred against the Mumbai Indians, leading his team to victory.

Like all of his innings, this one saw a calm and composed Rahul. And once he was set, the acceleration came before MI could plan to weather it. Mumbai also didn’t help themselves by bowling too many short deliveries at the LSG skipper, who has an incredible record of scoring163 runs off 58 short balls in IPL without being dismissed even once.

With this century, Rahul has also joined an elite list of batters who have scored more than one hundred against an IPL team. Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli, and David Warner are the only ones to have achieved this exclusive feat before.

Rahul seems to have developed a knack for playing well against the Mumbai Indians. He has now scored seven scores of 50+ against them in just 14 innings, equalling the record of Suresh Raina, who also has the same number of 50+ scores in 34 innings.

This knock has also pushed Rahul from 21st to 2nd in the Orange cap list, only behind Jos Buttler. The Karnataka opener has already won the Orange cap once in IPL 2020, scoring 670 runs to his name.

KL Rahul now owns the record for the highest score in their 100th IPL game by any player. Let’s take a look at some of the innings that previously held this record by some of the stalwarts of our game.

Faf du Plessis’ 86 against KKR:

The 100th game could not have come at a more critical time for Faf, as he faced the Kolkata Knight Riders in the 2021 IPL finals. They say big players rise on big occasions, and the former Proteas skipper had every plan to uphold this belief. 

Faf, opening the batting for Chennai Super Kings (CSK), kept one end secure and played the anchoring role for most of the innings. 

But as soon as CSK felt the need to tee off, Faf changed gears like a freshly oiled Maserati. His 86 runs helped CSK reach 192, which was enough for them to win the title.

Warner’s 69 against RCB:

David Warner has been arguably one of the most consistent performers in the IPL. Having scored 5000 plus runs at an average above 40, the Australian opener has made a name for himself in the IPL too. And there was no way he would miss out in his 100th game in IPL. 

Playing for the Sunrisers, Warner opened the batting with his fellow Southpaw, Shikhar Dhawan. Warner took on Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) bowling from the start as he and Dhawan scored 50 runs even before the powerplay ended. 

Even after losing wickets from the other end, Warner continued his aggressive approach, scoring 69 off just 38 balls, with a strike rate of 182. His knock proved crucial, as the Sunrisers managed to score 208 and won the game by just eight runs.

Maxwell’s 55 against the Capitals:

Glenn Maxwell is one of the most popular T20 players across the globe. Wherever he goes, he goes with swag, and that’s precisely how he arrived at the crease in his 100th IPL game, playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Early in his innings, he took on the Bangladesh pacer Mustafizur Rahman. 

But his big challenge was against his old nemesis- Kuldeep Yadav. The match-up was not in his favour, but who cares about match-ups when you are as ridiculously talented as Maxwell is. In the 9th over of the game, Maxwell scored 23 runs off Kuldeep Yadav, hitting him left, right and centre of the ground. 

The Australian star reached his 50 off just 30 balls with a delicate glance off Shardul Thakur. Although Kuldeep Yadav eventually got his revenge, he managed to lure Maxwell into playing another big hit on a delivery that dipped beautifully. Maxwell was caught near the long-on boundary, but not before scoring a quickfire 55 that put RCB into a respectable position.