The 13th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2020) is set to get underway from September 19, with the finals being played on 8th November in UAE.
Over the years, fans have witnessed some extraordinary display of cricket, some of which are too unreal to be true.
Across 12 seasons of the IPL, the best performing cricketers have been privy to this coveted award but in this article, we take a look at the top three players who have received the most number of Man-of-the-Match Awards in IPL history.
David Warner (17 MoM awards)
Explosive Australian top-order batsman David Warner has won 17 M.O.M awards in IPL cricket. The boisterous left-hander has aggregated 4706 runs in the T20 league at an astounding strike rate of 142.39 and a whopping average of 43.17.
Warner is one of the most successful openers in IPL history, he has scored four centuries and a mind-blowing 44 half-centuries. Warner holds the records for the most runs by an overseas player (4706), most half-centuries by a batsman (44) and the highest individual score by a captain (126) in the IPL.
AB de Villiers (20 MoM awards)
Watching De Villiers at his pristine best is a sublime experience for cricket lovers. When the Proteas is on song, no boundary seems to be too big and the bowlers appear clueless.
The legendary South African batsman has featured in 154 matches in the IPL and has aggregated 4395 runs, including 33 fifties and 3 hundreds at an astonishing strike rate of 151.24.
His highest score of 133* (off 59 balls) in the Indian Premier League came against the Mumbai Indians in the 2015 edition of the IPL.
Chris Gayle (21 MoM awards)
Leading the list is swashbuckling Caribbean opener Chris Gayle, with a total of 21 Man-of-the-Match awards to his name. In 125 matches that the Jamaican has played in the IPL, he has scored 4484 runs at a whopping strike rate of 151.03. Chris Gayle is the fastest batsman to score 4000 runs in IPL and has been instrumental in his team’s wins on multiple occasions.
He also holds the record for the highest individual score in T20s when he blasted a murderous 175* (off 66 balls) against Pune Warriors India in the 2013 edition of the IPL.
