TATA IPL 2023: Some great opening batsmen like Sachin Tendulkar, Adam Gilchrist, Mike Hussey, Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Sourav Ganguly, and others have played in this cash-rich league tournament, and they have also shared some big partnerships as the openers for their teams.
229 runs stand between Virat Kohli, and AB de Villiers is the highest partnership for all wickets. Kohli and ABD shared this huge stand against Gujarat Lions in the IPL 2016 season.
But this partnership didn’t come at the top. It came after RCB lost Chris Gayle early in the game.
So let us look at the highest opening partnerships in the Indian Premier League –
This was the first 200-run partnership at the opening position in the IPL which came last year. The Lucknow Super Gants (LSG) openers batted all the way through their innings and shared a mammoth opening stand of unbeaten 210 runs in their 20 overs.
Quinton de Kock smashed the second century of his IPL career and it was the sixth overall of that season.
The South African wicket-keeper-batsman smashed an unbeaten 140 runs off just 70 balls, and skipper KL Rahul too didn't shy away from scoring runs at the other end.
In this huge partnership, the Karnataka opener was unbeaten on 68 runs from 51 deliveries.
Warner and Bairstow were the destructive opening pair for SRH. In the current edition, these two players do not play for the same franchise.
Warner is the captain of the Delhi Capitals team in absence of Rishabh Pant. While Bairstow isn’t playing in the TATA IPL 2023 season.
The former openers from the Sunrisers Hyderabad team had shared the highest partnership in the IPL history till KL and De Kock broke the record.
The 185-run stand between Warner and Bairstow was the highest opening stand, and that came in the IPL 2019 season against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Bairstow smashed 114 runs in just 56 balls, and Warner was not out on 100 runs from 55 deliveries.
The former skipper of Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam Gambhir, is the current mentor of Lucknow Super Giants. Gauti was a terrific opener in the IPL too.
He was joined by the dangerous Aussie opener, Chris Lynn, in this opening stand of unbeaten 184 runs. Lynn played well for KKR. But after he got out of that team. His form has somehow disappeared.
Gauti and Lynn shared this stand against Gujarat Lions in IPL 2017 season.
GL (Gujarat Lions) posted 184 runs, and in reply, Lynn scored an unbeaten 93 runs, and Gambhir scored 76 runs to his name, which helped the Purple Army, Kolkata Knight Riders to chase this target down with ease.
The current skipper of the Lucknow Super Giants team, KL Rahul, is the only player who has been mentioned twice in this list. KL was with Mayank Agarwal in this mammoth opening partnership.
When KL played for Punjab Kings, he shared the third-highest opening partnership as per this list. Rahul and Agarwal shared a stand of 183 runs against Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2020 season at Sharjah.
Punjab Kings posted a huge score of 223 runs on the board mainly because of this opening stand.
Agarwal scored 106 runs from 50 deliveries while KL Rahul played the role of a second fiddle just like he did in the partnership of unbeaten 210 runs, which is mentioned in the first position.
Rahul scored 69 runs from 54 balls. But still, Punjab lost this game despite the mammoth score and the brilliant opening partnership.
The IPL 2020 wasn't a great season for Chennai Super Kings. In that season, they couldn't qualify for the playoffs for the first time, and in the last season as well, a similar performance was repeated from the Yellow Army.
In the season of disaster, the partnership between Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis gave the fans of CSK something to cheer for.
The South African and Australian opener duo shared an unbeaten stand of 181 runs against Punjab Kings in a run chase. The PBKS team batted first and set a target of 179 runs for CSK.
In reply, Shane Watson scored an unbeaten 83 runs from 53 balls, and Faf du Plessis, the current skipper of the RCB team, scored 86 runs from 53 balls and took CSK to a comfortable ten-wicket win over the Punjab Kings team.
