Thirty-seven runs. Twice in eighteen seasons of the IPL, a bowler has walked back to his mark six legal deliveries after starting an over and watched 37 runs appear beside his name: Prasanth Parameswaran to Chris Gayle at Bengaluru on 8 May 2011, and Harshal Patel to Ravindra Jadeja at the Wankhede on 25 April 2021. Across 44,955 completed overs bowled in the IPL from 2008 to 2025, nobody has gone higher.
This is the complete record of the over as a crime scene. We went through the Cricsheet ball-by-ball file for every IPL match from 2008 to 2025 and pulled out every over that cost 25 runs or more. There are 186 of them, which is one in every 242 overs. Only 28 reached 30. They tell a clear story: the 30-run over was a freak in 2011, and by 2024 it had become a weekly event.
The 37 Club: Two Overs Nobody Has Topped
Gayle vs Parameswaran, 8 May 2011: the over that finished a chase
Royal Challengers Bangalore were chasing 126 against Kochi Tuskers Kerala, a franchise that played only the 2011 season. The third over of the chase went to Prasanth Parameswaran, a left-arm seamer from Kerala, and it went like this: 6, 7 (a six off a no-ball), 4, 4, 6, 6, 4. Gayle took 36 off the bat and the no-ball added one more.
By the end of that over the chase was effectively over. Gayle made 44 off 16 balls and RCB won by nine wickets with 37 balls to spare. Parameswaran finished with 2.1-0-44-0. It is the only one of the two 37-run overs to come in a powerplay, against the new ball, which tells you how far ahead of his era Gayle was.
Jadeja vs Harshal Patel, 25 April 2021: the last-over demolition
Ten years later the record was equalled from the other end of the innings. Chennai Super Kings were 154/4 after 19 overs against RCB at the Wankhede. Harshal Patel, who went on to win the 2021 Purple Cap, bowled the last over. The ball-by-ball: 6, 6, 7 (six off a no-ball), 6, 2, 6, 4. Jadeja hit five sixes in the over, the most by anyone in a 37-run over, and made 62* off 28. CSK reached 191/4.
Harshal finished with 4-0-51-3, three wickets and an over he would rather forget. Jadeja then took 3-13 with the ball, RCB were bowled out for 122/9 and CSK won by 69 runs. It is the clearest single-match all-round performance in this whole record: a batter who scored 36 in an over and then bowled four overs for 13.
Cummins' 35, 6 April 2022: the 14-ball fifty
Third on the list is the one nobody saw coming. Kolkata Knight Riders were chasing 162 against Mumbai Indians at Pune when Pat Cummins faced Daniel Sams in the 16th over. 6, 4, 6, 6, 3 (no-ball), 4, 6: 35 runs, 34 off the bat. Cummins reached fifty in 14 balls, equalling KL Rahul's IPL record, finished on 56* off 15, and KKR won by five wickets with four overs left. Sams ended with 3-0-50-1.
The 33s: Shepherd, Raina and a Gayle cameo from 2010
Three overs cost 33. Romario Shepherd took 32 off Khaleel Ahmed in the 19th over at Bengaluru on 3 May 2025, and RCB beat CSK by just two runs that night: the over was worth more than the margin. On 30 May 2014, in Qualifier 2 at the Wankhede, Suresh Raina took 32 off Parvinder Awana in the sixth over on his way to 87 off 25. It is the costliest playoff over in IPL history. It still was not enough: Virender Sehwag's 122 had pushed Kings XI Punjab to 226/6 and CSK lost by 24 runs. And on 4 April 2010 at Eden Gardens, Ravi Bopara's over cost 33, with four Gayle sixes (then a KKR player) plus seven runs in wides.
The Data Deep-Dive: Every 30-Run Over Since 2008
The 30-run club, 2008–2025 (top 15 of 28)
| Rank | Runs | Batter (off the bat) | Bowler | Batting side | Over | Date | Batting side won? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1= | 37 | Ravindra Jadeja (36) | Harshal Patel | CSK | 20th | 25 Apr 2021 | Yes, by 69 runs |
| 1= | 37 | Chris Gayle (36) | P Parameswaran | RCB | 3rd | 8 May 2011 | Yes, by 9 wkts |
| 3 | 35 | Pat Cummins (34) | Daniel Sams | KKR | 16th | 6 Apr 2022 | Yes, by 5 wkts |
| 4= | 33 | Romario Shepherd (32) | Khaleel Ahmed | RCB | 19th | 3 May 2025 | Yes, by 2 runs |
| 4= | 33 | Suresh Raina (32) | Parvinder Awana | CSK | 6th | 30 May 2014 | No (Qualifier 2) |
| 4= | 33 | Chris Gayle (24) | Ravi Bopara | KKR | 13th | 4 Apr 2010 | No |
| 7= | 32 | Romario Shepherd (32) | Anrich Nortje | MI | 20th | 7 Apr 2024 | Yes, by 29 runs |
| 7= | 32 | Riyan Parag (30) | Moeen Ali | RR | 13th | 4 May 2025 | No, by 1 run |
| 9= | 31 | Rinku Singh (30) | Yash Dayal | KKR | 20th | 9 Apr 2023 | Yes, by 3 wkts |
| 9= | 31 | Chris Gayle (30) | Rahul Sharma | RCB | 13th | 17 Apr 2012 | Yes, by 6 wkts |
| 9= | 31 | Rishabh Pant (30) | Mohit Sharma | DC | 20th | 24 Apr 2024 | Yes, by 4 runs |
| 9= | 31 | Harpreet Singh & Sam Curran | Arjun Tendulkar | PBKS | 16th | 22 Apr 2023 | Yes |
| 9= | 31 | Nicholas Pooran & Marcus Stoinis | Abhishek Sharma | LSG | 16th | 13 May 2023 | Yes |
| 14= | 30 | Rahul Tewatia (30) | Sheldon Cottrell | RR | 18th | 27 Sep 2020 | Yes, by 4 wkts |
| 14= | 30 | Virat Kohli (30) | Shivil Kaushik | RCB | 19th | 14 May 2016 | Yes |
Shepherd is the only batter to appear twice in the top ten for overs he scored alone, a year apart and for two franchises. Gayle is the only one to appear three times in the top fifteen.
How the expensive over took over: 25+ run overs by season
| Season | Overs of 25+ | Overs bowled | One in every… |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 8 | 2,176 | 272 |
| 2011 | 7 | 2,759 | 394 |
| 2015 | 3 | 2,201 | 734 |
| 2019 | 13 | 2,323 | 179 |
| 2021 | 4 | 2,330 | 583 |
| 2022 | 21 | 2,877 | 137 |
| 2023 | 10 | 2,873 | 287 |
| 2024 | 24 | 2,738 | 114 |
| 2025 | 22 | 2,775 | 126 |
From 2008 to 2021 the IPL averaged eight overs of 25+ a season. The 2022, 2024 and 2025 seasons alone produced 67. Ten teams and more matches explain part of it. The rest is the change in rate: in 2015 a 25-run over came once in 734 overs; in 2024 it came once in 114. The bowling did not get six times worse. Batting changed: the 200-club scoring revolution and the Impact Player rule from 2023 let teams bat deeper and swing from ball one.
When it happens: the over number that hurts
| Phase | Overs of 25+ | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Powerplay (overs 1–6) | 36 | 19% |
| Middle (overs 7–15) | 43 | 23% |
| Death (overs 16–20) | 107 | 58% |
| — of which the 19th | 32 | 17% |
| — of which the 20th | 35 | 19% |
The last two overs of an innings produce 36% of all 25-run overs: when wickets in hand stop mattering, every ball is a swing. The odd number in the middle overs is the 13th, with 13 entries. That over often goes to a fifth bowler or a spinner, and batters like Gayle (2010 and 2012) and Parag (2025) have punished it.
The repeat offenders
| Batters with 20+ runs in a 25+ over | Count |
|---|---|
| Chris Gayle | 11 |
| Andre Russell | 5 |
| Kieron Pollard | 5 |
| Rishabh Pant | 4 |
| Sunil Narine | 4 |
| Bowlers who conceded 25+ in an over | Count |
|---|---|
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 5 |
| Harshal Patel | 4 |
| Shivam Mavi | 4 |
| Sandeep Sharma | 4 |
Gayle's eleven is the most lopsided number in this record: more than double the next man. That the bowlers' list is led by Bhuvneshwar, a two-time Purple Cap winner (2016 and 2017), says something about this record. Exposure does as much damage as poor bowling. The bowlers who bowl the 19th and 20th overs most often are the ones who meet the 30-run over most often.
Five Sixes in an Over: The Seven-Time Club
No one has hit six sixes in a single IPL over from 2008 to 2025. Five sixes has happened seven times:
| Batter | Bowler | Date | Sequence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ravindra Jadeja | Harshal Patel | 25 Apr 2021 | 6 6 6nb 6 2 6 4 |
| Chris Gayle | Rahul Sharma | 17 Apr 2012 | 1 6 6 6 6 6 |
| Rahul Tewatia | Sheldon Cottrell | 27 Sep 2020 | 6 6 6 6 0 6 |
| Marcus Stoinis & Jason Holder | Shivam Mavi | 7 May 2022 | 6 6 6 W 6 6 |
| Rinku Singh | Yash Dayal | 9 Apr 2023 | 1 6 6 6 6 6 |
| Pooran & Stoinis | Abhishek Sharma | 13 May 2023 | 6 wd 6 W 6 6 6 |
| Riyan Parag | Moeen Ali | 4 May 2025 | 1 6 6 6 6 wd 6 |
Rinku's over is the most famous of them, because it won the match. On 9 April 2023 in Ahmedabad, KKR needed 29 off the final over against Gujarat Titans. Umesh Yadav took a single and Rinku hit the last five balls for six. KKR won by three wickets. Yash Dayal finished 4-0-69-0. Tewatia's 2020 over at Sharjah was the turning point of the then-record 224-run chase against Kings XI Punjab. Parag's 2025 sequence is the cruellest: five sixes in a row, 95 off 45 balls, and Rajasthan Royals still lost by one run.
Legacy Impact: What the 37-Run Over Means Now
Do the 30-run overs decide matches? Mostly, yes. Of the 184 matches with a decided result that contained a 25-run over, the batting side won 126, which is 68.5%. In the 30+ bracket the batting side won 20 of 27 decided games, about 74%. That is a big edge for a single over. The exceptions show its limits: Raina in 2014, Parag in 2025 and the 30-run over Phil Salt led off Mitchell Starc in April 2025 all came in matches the scoring side lost, because a single over cannot cover for 19 others.
The more striking legacy is the RCB innings of 14 May 2016 against Gujarat Lions, when Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers both made centuries. The 18th over, from Dwayne Bravo, cost 30. The 19th, from Shivil Kaushik, also cost 30, and Kohli took all of it. Sixty runs in twelve legal balls: no other side had two 30-run overs back to back from 2008 to 2025.
Expensive overs are the hardest events for any forecasting model to see coming, and they are why CricMind's Oracle publishes pre-match calls as probabilities, not certainties. A side whose lower order includes a Shepherd, a Rinku or a Jadeja carries a tail risk that no pre-match number fully captures. Every call is locked before the toss and graded afterwards, in public. The Matchup Machine lets you test two sides against each other on the same maths.
The ball-by-ball record in this piece covers the IPL from 2008 to 2025. Given how fast the frequency rose in 2022, 2024 and 2025, the realistic question is not whether 37 will fall but who bowls the over when it does. The ingredients are clear from the data: a death over, a short boundary, a batter with nothing to lose and a no-ball or wide to let the over run past six balls. The two 37s both needed a no-ball. A true 36 off six legal balls has still never happened in the IPL.
For the other end of the scale, see the highest team totals in IPL history, the greatest run chases and Gayle's 17-six innings record.
Three Takeaways
- 37 is the ceiling, and a no-ball built both of them. Gayle (2011) and Jadeja (2021) share the record. Neither over had six legal balls going for six, and no IPL batter has hit six sixes in an over from 2008 to 2025.
- The 25-run over went from rare to routine. From one in 734 overs in 2015 to one in 114 in 2024. The 2022, 2024 and 2025 seasons produced 67 of the 186 overs of 25+ in eighteen years.
- The death overs are where it happens, but the 13th over is the ambush. 58% of 25-run overs come in overs 16–20; the 13th, a traditional fifth-bowler over, is the most expensive middle-overs slot.
FAQ
What is the most runs scored in a single over in IPL history?
37 runs, done twice: Chris Gayle off Prasanth Parameswaran (RCB vs Kochi Tuskers Kerala, 8 May 2011) and Ravindra Jadeja off Harshal Patel (CSK vs RCB, 25 April 2021). Both overs included a no-ball that was hit for six.
Has anyone hit six sixes in an over in the IPL?
No. From 2008 to 2025, the most sixes in an IPL over is five, achieved seven times. Ravindra Jadeja (2021), Chris Gayle (2012), Rahul Tewatia (2020), Rinku Singh (2023) and Riyan Parag (2025) all did it alone. Two more five-six overs were shared between two batters.
What was the most expensive over in an IPL playoff?
Parvinder Awana's sixth over to Suresh Raina in Qualifier 2 on 30 May 2014 at the Wankhede cost 33 runs. Raina made 87 off 25 balls, but Kings XI Punjab won by 24 runs.
How many 30-run overs have been bowled in the IPL?
28 overs cost 30 or more runs between 2008 and 2025, out of 44,955 overs bowled. 186 overs cost 25 or more.
Which bowler has conceded 25+ runs in an over the most times?
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, five times, followed by Harshal Patel, Shivam Mavi and Sandeep Sharma with four each. All are frequent death-over bowlers, which increases their exposure to big-hitting overs.
Which batter has taken 20+ runs in a 25-run over most often?
Chris Gayle, eleven times. Andre Russell and Kieron Pollard are next with five each.
Does a 30-run over usually win the match?
Usually. The batting side won about 74% of decided matches that contained a 30-run over, and 68.5% of those with a 25-run over.