Top opening pairs in IPL

Here are the stats and facts regarding the top opening partners and partnerships in Indian Premier League.

There have been many different opening combinations for all the teams at different stages of the tournaments and in different seasons.

Let’s have a look at the best 5 opening pairs till date.

Best opening pairs based on number of runs scored

Inn	Runs	Batsman 1	Batsman 2	For	Avg	50s	100s	Ducks	HS
23	976	Mike Hussey	Murali Vijay	CSK	44.36	7	2	0	159
24	842	Adam Gilchrist	Herschelle Gibbs	DC	35.08	6	1	2	101
24	732	Virender Sehwag	Gautam Gambhir	DD	30.5	4	1	1	122
20	718	Sanath Jayasuriya	Sachin Tendulkar	MI	35.90	4	1	0	127
26	634	Virender Sehwag	David Warner	DD	25.96	1	1	1	146

Mike Hussey and Murali Vijay have been a very consistent opening pair for Super Kings in the last 2 editions of the IPL and are continuing the same in the 6th edition too.

Best batting averages for opening pairs

(Minimum of 5 innings)

Inn	Runs	Batsman 1	Batsman 2	For	Avg	50s	100s	Ducks		HS
7	440	Rahul Dravid	Shane Watson	RR	62.85	3	1	1	134*
16	335	Brendon McCullum	Mahela Jayawardene	KTK	55.83	1	1	1	128
10	533	Brendon McCullum	Gautam Gambhir	KKR	53.33	4	1	0	113
9	413	Adam Gilchrist	VVS Laxman	DC	51.62	2	1	0	155*
23	976	Mike Hussey	Murali Vijay	CSK	44.36	7	2	0	159

Highest Partnership for the first wicket

Runs	Balls	Batsman 1	Batsman 2	For	Vs	Venue	Year
163	108	Dwayne Smith	Sachin Tendulkar	MI	RR	Jaipur	2012
159	89	Mike Hussey	Murali Vijay	CSK	RCB	Chennai	2011
155	72	Adam Gilchrist	VVS Laxman	DC	MI	Mumbai	2008
146	70	Virender Sehwag	David Warner	DD	KXIP	Delhi	2011
139	104	Mike Hussey	Murali Vijay	CSK	KXIP	Mohali	2013

Some Facts

* Murali Vijay/Mike Hussey and Swapnil Asnodkar/Graeme Smith are the only opening pairs to score 2 century partnerships in IPL.

* Matthew Hayden/Parthiv Patel have registered 3 ‘Duck’ opening partnerships.

* Murali Vijay/Mike Hussey also hold the record for most 50s by opening pairs(5).

* Dwayne Smith/Sachin Tendulkar (108) and Mike Hussey/Murali Vijay (104) are the only pairs to face 100 balls in a match for the first wicket.

(Stats are updated till the end of the CSK vs KXIP game on 10th April, 2013)