In IPL 2009, played entirely in South Africa, batters scored 45.8% of their runs by running between the wickets. By IPL 2025 that figure had fallen to 33.3%, the lowest in the league's history, while the share coming from fours and sixes climbed to 66.6%. Across 278,205 deliveries in the ball-by-ball archive from 2008 to 2025, no trend runs more consistently in one direction than this one.
The usual story is that the single is dying. The numbers say something more interesting. Batters in 2025 took 38.6 singles per 100 balls faced, slightly more than the 35.7 of 2008. The single survived. What collapsed was the two, from 8.00 twos and threes per 100 balls in 2009 to 6.02 in 2025. And once fielders on the rope stopped being given chances to cut off the ball, the boundary filled the gap. This piece covers the records of running between the wickets: the batters who built careers on it, the innings that depended on it most, and the marks still in play when Royal Challengers Bengaluru open their defence in IPL 2027.
The Running Game: How the IPL Learned to Stop Sprinting
2008 to 2013: when two runs were a weapon
The first IPL season, in April and May 2008, was faster than many people remember: the run rate was 8.31 and a boundary came every 5.60 balls. Then 2009 moved to South Africa. On the slower, bigger grounds at Centurion, Durban and Johannesburg, the boundary rate dropped to one every 7.22 balls and the run rate fell to 7.48. Teams had to run. Twos and threes reached 8.00 per 100 balls faced, a peak no later season has matched.
The best innings of that season shows the method. On 21 May 2009 at SuperSport Park in Centurion, Manish Pandey scored 114 off 73 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Deccan Chargers, the first IPL hundred by an Indian. It included 14 twos, still the most in a single IPL innings, and 50 of his 114 runs came from running. From 2010 to 2013, back in India, the share of runs from running stayed between 41.6% and 43.3% every season.
2014 to 2021: the plateau
For eight seasons the balance hardly moved. Boundary share ranged from 57.7% (2016) to 62.0% (2018), and twos and threes stayed between 6.2 and 7.7 per 100 balls. This was the era of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers at their peak, and both ran as hard as they hit. In 2016, the season Kohli made 973 runs, the league as a whole still scored 42.2% of its runs by running.
The 2020 and 2021 seasons, played largely in the UAE, kept the old balance alive a little longer. Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah have big outfields and slow surfaces, and twos and threes rose back to 7.49 per 100 balls in 2020, the highest since 2016.
2022 to 2025: the boundary takes over
The 2022 expansion to ten teams, and the Impact Player rule from 2023, changed the balance. Teams carried an extra specialist batter, so they lost less by losing a wicket, and batters swung with more freedom. Sixes rose from 687 in 2021 to 1,062 in 2022, then 1,124, 1,261 and a record 1,301 in 2025. A boundary came every 4.65 balls in 2025, against 6.24 in 2021.
Running didn't disappear; it became the smaller share. The single held its ground because, even in the most aggressive line-ups, rotating the strike between big hits is still the cheapest way to keep the score moving. The two is a different matter: with deep fielders positioned for the boundary, the ball reaches them before a second run is safe.
The dot ball fell with it
The share of legal deliveries that produced no run at all fell from 39.1% in 2009 to 32.3% in 2025. Bowlers didn't get worse. Batters stopped accepting the defensive push. The fewest dot balls in a full 20-over IPL innings is 19, by Sunrisers Hyderabad in their 277 against Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad on 27 March 2024. Nineteen days later SRH reached 287 at Bengaluru with only 22 dots.
Data Deep-Dive: The Running Record Book
Every season, one table
All figures from the ball-by-ball archive, first and second innings only (Super Overs excluded). "Running share" is runs off the bat scored as ones, twos and threes; "dot %" is legal deliveries with no run of any kind.
| Season | Run rate | Boundary share | Running share | Dot % | Balls per boundary | 2s & 3s per 100 balls |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 8.31 | 62.8% | 37.1% | 38.0% | 5.60 | 5.89 |
| 2009 | 7.48 | 54.1% | 45.8% | 39.1% | 7.22 | 8.00 |
| 2010 | 8.13 | 58.3% | 41.6% | 35.8% | 6.10 | 6.85 |
| 2011 | 7.73 | 57.7% | 42.1% | 38.2% | 6.46 | 6.49 |
| 2012 | 7.83 | 56.5% | 43.3% | 36.3% | 6.53 | 6.78 |
| 2013 | 7.68 | 57.2% | 42.7% | 38.4% | 6.48 | 7.06 |
| 2014 | 8.20 | 58.8% | 41.1% | 36.3% | 6.10 | 7.65 |
| 2015 | 8.37 | 60.8% | 39.2% | 36.3% | 5.74 | 7.02 |
| 2016 | 8.31 | 57.7% | 42.2% | 34.1% | 6.02 | 7.68 |
| 2017 | 8.41 | 59.6% | 40.3% | 34.0% | 5.80 | 6.69 |
| 2018 | 8.65 | 62.0% | 37.8% | 34.4% | 5.49 | 6.18 |
| 2019 | 8.41 | 60.9% | 38.9% | 35.6% | 5.70 | 6.53 |
| 2020 | 8.29 | 58.0% | 41.9% | 34.7% | 6.07 | 7.49 |
| 2021 | 8.05 | 58.2% | 41.7% | 36.2% | 6.24 | 6.47 |
| 2022 | 8.54 | 62.7% | 37.3% | 37.1% | 5.58 | 6.27 |
| 2023 | 8.99 | 63.2% | 36.8% | 33.9% | 5.22 | 6.60 |
| 2024 | 9.56 | 66.0% | 34.0% | 32.9% | 4.77 | 6.58 |
| 2025 | 9.63 | 66.6% | 33.3% | 32.3% | 4.65 | 6.02 |
The 2008 figure stands out: the first season's 62.8% boundary share was not beaten until 2023. Early IPL cricket was not timid; it was the South African season and the long middle period that pulled the average down.
The career running leaderboard, 2008–2025
| Batter | Runs | Singles | Twos | Threes | Runs by running | Boundary share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virat Kohli | 8,671 | 2,808 | 476 | 21 | 3,823 | 55.9% |
| Shikhar Dhawan | 6,769 | 2,102 | 299 | 23 | 2,769 | 58.9% |
| Rohit Sharma | 7,048 | 2,096 | 274 | 7 | 2,665 | 62.1% |
| David Warner | 6,567 | 1,682 | 370 | 24 | 2,494 | 61.9% |
| MS Dhoni | 5,439 | 1,622 | 344 | 15 | 2,355 | 56.7% |
| Suresh Raina | 5,536 | 1,708 | 271 | 11 | 2,283 | 58.7% |
| Ajinkya Rahane | 5,032 | 1,629 | 274 | 19 | 2,234 | 55.6% |
| KL Rahul | 5,235 | 1,624 | 268 | 5 | 2,175 | 58.5% |
Kohli's lead is enormous. His 3,823 runs by running alone would rank him 22nd on the all-time IPL run list. He leads singles by 706 and twos by 106. Warner holds the threes record with 24, one ahead of Dhawan. Dhoni's 344 twos rank third. For a batter known for sixes at the death, he was also one of the league's fastest runners between the wickets.
Boundary-dependence: the two extremes (minimum 2,000 runs)
| Most boundary-reliant | Boundary share | Least boundary-reliant | Boundary share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andre Russell | 78.6% | JP Duminy | 48.2% |
| Chris Gayle | 75.8% | Steve Smith | 50.7% |
| Yashasvi Jaiswal | 73.3% | Ravindra Jadeja | 51.0% |
| Adam Gilchrist | 72.9% | Manish Pandey | 52.0% |
| Virender Sehwag | 72.3% | Jacques Kallis | 52.9% |
| Nicholas Pooran | 71.3% | Kane Williamson | 53.1% |
Russell took 449 singles and 60 twos from 1,525 balls and never ran a three. Gayle scored nothing off the bat from 43.8% of the balls he faced, and still struck at 149.3. At the other end, the batter who ran most efficiently was de Villiers: among batters who faced at least 1,500 balls, nobody scored off the bat more often. He failed to score from only 30.5% of deliveries, ahead of Steve Smith and David Miller (31.2% each) and Shubman Gill (31.3%).
Single-innings marks
| Record | Holder | Figures | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Most runs by running in an innings | David Warner | 50 of 100* (55): 24 singles, 13 twos | SRH v RCB, Hyderabad, 31 Mar 2019 |
| (joint) | Manish Pandey | 50 of 114* (73): 22 singles, 14 twos | RCB v Deccan Chargers, Centurion, 21 May 2009 |
| (joint) | Virat Kohli | 50 of 100 (63): 31 singles, 8 twos, 1 three | RCB v Gujarat Lions, Rajkot, 24 Apr 2016 |
| Most singles in an innings | David Warner | 37 in 107* (69) | Delhi Daredevils v KKR, Delhi, 29 Mar 2010 |
| Most twos in an innings | Manish Pandey | 14 | Centurion, 21 May 2009 |
| Fewest running runs in a fifty | Romario Shepherd | 53* (14): one single, 4 fours, 6 sixes | RCB v CSK, Bengaluru, 3 May 2025 |
| Fewest boundaries in a fifty | Virat Kohli | 50 (43): one four, one six, 29 singles | RCB v CSK, Dubai, 25 Oct 2020 |
Shepherd's innings is the extreme case of the new era: 52 of his 53 runs came in fours and sixes. Kohli's Dubai fifty five years earlier was the opposite: he reached 50 with ten runs in boundaries and forty by running. Both came against Chennai Super Kings, with opposite results: Shepherd's RCB won by two runs, Kohli's RCB lost by eight wickets.
Legacy Impact — What This Means Now
Strike rotation as a sign of trouble
The most surprising team record runs against the running game. The most singles in a 20-over IPL innings is 67, reached three times: Deccan Chargers against Pune Warriors in Hyderabad on 10 May 2011, Rising Pune Supergiant against Kings XI Punjab in Indore on 8 April 2017, and Delhi Daredevils against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on 8 April 2018. All three lost. So did the fourth and fifth on the list, Chennai Super Kings on 66 against Delhi Capitals at Chepauk on 5 April 2025 and Delhi Daredevils on 66 against Mumbai Indians at the Brabourne in April 2010. None of those five innings reached 170.
A high single count usually means a team could not find the boundary. Running adds value on top of boundaries, but it can't replace them. That doesn't make running worthless. The best runners in the league's history, Kohli, de Villiers and Gill, were also strong boundary hitters, and the singles they took on top of their fours and sixes are what made them hard to bowl at.
The records in play for IPL 2027
Three running marks are within reach of current players:
- Kohli's 3,000th single. He entered IPL 2026 on 2,808 singles in the archive, and no other batter has reached 2,200. At his recent rate (198 singles in 2024, 217 in 2025), the 3,000 mark falls during IPL 2026 or early in IPL 2027. Either way the milestone is his alone: Rohit Sharma, the nearest active batter, entered 2026 more than 700 behind.
- The season boundary-share record. It has risen every season since 2021 and stood at 66.6% after 2025. A short-boundary season in 2027 could push it towards 68%, territory no season had come near before 2024.
- The team dot-ball floor of 19. SRH's 2024 record came with an opening pair, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, who almost never block. With more line-ups built the same way, 18 dots in 120 balls is a realistic target.
One mark looks safe: Pandey's 14 twos from 2009. With modern field settings and shorter ropes, no batter has run more than 13 in an innings since.
CricMind's Oracle does not measure running between the wickets. Its ratings move on results, margins and recent form. That is deliberate: as the single-heavy defeats above show, how a team scores matters less than whether it scores enough, and a side that keeps grinding out 150s will drift down the ratings whether it runs hard or not. When the Oracle publishes its locked calls for IPL 2027, every probability will be on the record before a ball is bowled, and graded afterwards.
Three Takeaways
- The single survived; the two declined. Singles per 100 balls rose from 35.7 in 2008 to 38.6 in 2025, but twos and threes fell from a 2009 peak of 8.00 to 6.02, and the running share of runs fell from 45.8% to 33.3%.
- Kohli's running record is the IPL's most secure batting mark. 2,808 singles, 476 twos and 3,823 runs by running through 2025, with leads of more than 700 singles and 1,000 running runs over his nearest pursuers.
- Single-heavy innings tend to lose. All five of the most single-heavy 20-over innings ended in defeat, none of them reaching 170. Running adds most when it comes on top of boundaries, not instead of them.
For more of the IPL record book, see the highest partnerships in IPL history, the bowlers who bowled the most dot balls, the extras record book and how the powerplay was rewritten.
FAQ
Who has taken the most singles in IPL history?
Virat Kohli, with 2,808 singles in the ball-by-ball archive from 2008 to 2025. Shikhar Dhawan (2,102) and Rohit Sharma (2,096) are second and third. Kohli also leads for twos (476) and total runs by running (3,823).
Which season had the highest share of runs from boundaries?
IPL 2025, when 66.6% of runs off the bat came from fours and sixes, just ahead of 2024 (66.0%). The lowest was IPL 2009 in South Africa, at 54.1%.
What is the record for most twos in an IPL innings?
Fourteen, by Manish Pandey during his 114* off 73 balls for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Deccan Chargers at Centurion on 21 May 2009, the first IPL hundred by an Indian.
Which IPL innings had the fewest dot balls?
Sunrisers Hyderabad's 277 for 3 against Mumbai Indians in Hyderabad on 27 March 2024 contained only 19 dot balls in 20 overs, the lowest in a full IPL innings.
Who is the most boundary-reliant batter in IPL history?
Among batters with at least 2,000 runs, Andre Russell scored 78.6% of his runs in fours and sixes, ahead of Chris Gayle (75.8%) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (73.3%). JP Duminy is the least reliant, at 48.2%.
Does taking lots of singles help IPL teams win?
Not on its own. All five innings with the most singles in a full 20 overs (66 or 67 each) ended in defeat. Singles help when they come on top of regular boundaries, not when they replace them.
Which batter had the lowest dot-ball percentage in the IPL?
AB de Villiers failed to score off the bat from only 30.5% of the balls he faced (minimum 1,500 balls), the best of any IPL batter. Steve Smith and David Miller (31.2%) and Shubman Gill (31.3%) follow.