In a damp finish, the Indian Premier League 2024 league stage ended on Sunday with rain playing spoilsport in the last match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). (IPL Coverage)
The result meant that RR finished third on the table behind leaders Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad. In one of the most dramatic turnarounds in the history of the tournament, Royal Challengers Benagaluru won six consecutive games and took care of their net run rate to finish fourth in the league stage.
With the league stage done and dusted it is time to look back at some of the top moments from the first 70 games of IPL 2024. In this piece we look at the top five bowling figures in the season.
Tushar Deshpande 27/4 vs SRH
Despite CSK scoring 212, they knew if there is one team against whom you can not rest easy it was SRH. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma were the two big threats in front of CSK.
At this point, Tushar Deshpande rose up to the occasion getting rid of both SRH openers and in total picking three wickets in the powerplay. Deshpande's powerplay spell broke the back SRH's batting and they could never recover.
CSK won the match with ease and Deshpande finished with four wickets.
T Natarajan 19/4 vs DC
In a game where 465 runs were scored, T Natarajan finished his four over spell with giving away just 19 runs.
He took four wickets to finish off DC's chase and give SRH a big 67-run victory after they had put up 266 in the first innings.
Natarajan's last and the 19th over of DC's chase ended up as a triple-wicket maiden as the left-armer ended up with a well-deserved four-wicket-haul.
Yash Thakur 30/5 vs GT
With just 163 to defend and the pace sensation Mayank Yadav walking off he field due to fitness concerns, odds were stacked up against LSG when they were playing GT early in the season.
Yash Thakur then came to the fore and took the first fifer of the season to not just help LSG win but also win big.
Thakur first removed GT skipper and batting lynchpin Shubman Gill and then came back in the mid innings to dismiss Vijay Shankar and Rashid Khhan in the same over.
To complete his fifer, Thakur got rid of Rahul Tewatia and Noor Ahmed to bag the Player Of The Match award.
Jasprit Bumrah 21/5 vs RCB
Despite runs going all around him, Jasprit Bumrah has stood out in this tournament with his economy rate and wicket-taking abilities. One of his best performances of the season came early in the season against RCB.
In his opening over, Bumrah got Virat Kohli. When the pacer came back in the death overs, he got rid of a set Faf du Plessis. He went on to pick up three more wickets to stop RCB to a below par total which was then chased by MI with ease.
In his last two overs, the Indian pace spearhead gave away just 14 runs while earning four wickets.
Sandeep Sharma 18/5 vs MI
Sandeep Sharma used his experience to come up with league stage's best bowling figures when RR faced MI for the second time in the season.
First, Sharma showed his swing bowling skills dismissing Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in his first two overs.
Then he came back at the death to get the wickets of a set Tilak Varma, a dangerous Tim David and Gerald Coetzee to complete his fifer.
In his last over and the 20th over of MI's innings, Sharma gave away just 3 runs while picking up 3 wickets.
IPL 2024 Playoffs Schedule
Qualifier 1
Tuesday May 21: Kolkata Knight Riders vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Ahmedabad
Eliminator
Wednesday May 22: Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Ahmedabad
Qualifier 2
Friday May 24: Winner of Eliminator vs Loser of Qualifier 1, Chennai
Final
Sunday May 26: Winner of Qualifier 1 vs Winner of Qualifier 2, Chennai
