Chennai Super Kings (CSK) left-arm wristspinner Noor Ahmad's 3 for 36 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) at Chepauk has taken him to the top of IPL 2025's Purple Cap leaderboard with seven wickets. Lucknow Super Giants' (LSG) Nicholas Pooran and Mitchell Marsh are the top two in the Orange Cap charts, while CSK's Rachin Ravindra is the latest entrant to the top five of that list.
In the match against RCB, Noor Ahmad removed on-song RCB opener Phil Salt for 32 - aided by MS Dhoni's quick stumping - before dismissing Virat Kohli for 31. He returned to get Liam Livingstone for 10 to surpass Shardul Thakur's tally of 6. In the opening game against Mumbai Indians (MI) in Chennai, Noor picked up 4 for 18 in a Player-of-the-Match performance. The Afghanistan left-arm wristspinner was picked up by CSK for INR 10 crore at the auction.
Shardul Thakur is second with six wickets from two games. He put up a Player-of-the-Match winning 4 for 34 against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Thursday night, getting rid of Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan off consecutive balls in the third over, and later accounting for Abhinav Manohar and Mohammed Shami. An injury replacement for Mohsin Khan, Thakur picked up 2 for 19 in LSG's first game, the loss to Delhi Capitals (DC), opening the bowling and sending back Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel in the first over.
RCB's Josh Hazlewood also entered the top three of the bowling charts with his performance against CSK. Hazlewood rocked the home team with two early wickets, removing opener Rahul Tripathi for 5 and captain Ruturaj Gaikwad for a duck. He returned in the 13th over to remove Ravindra Jadeja for 25 to finish with figures of 3 for 21. In the first match against Kolkata Knight Riders, he took 2 for 22.
Nick Knight and Cheteshwar Pujara on Pooran's six-hitting ability
The Orange Cap table
Nicholas Pooran has been hitting sixes for fun for a while even though he doesn't "plan to hit sixes", and at IPL 2025, he is also racking up superb numbers from No. 3: 75 from 30 against DC and 70 from 26 against SRH. One came batting second and the other batting first. He is also on top of the six-hitters' leaderboard with 13 from two innings, and no one has a higher strike rate, at the moment, than his 258.91.
Mitchell Marsh, who goes out to bat at the top of the LSG order, is behind Pooran with 124 runs - 72 in 36 against DC and 52 in 31 against SRH - from two games. A batter-only this season as he returns from injury, Marsh's consistent runs give LSG breathing room at the top.
Travis Head is at No. 3, as he shows no stopping after an exhilarating IPL 2024. In the first game, against Rajasthan Royals (RR), his 67 came from 31 balls as SRH nearly broke the IPL's all-time record. Against LSG, his 47 came from 28 balls.