The Purple Cap is awarded to the player who takes the most wickets in an IPL season. In the event of a tie, it goes to the player with the best economy rate.
The first winner of the Purple Cap in the league’s inaugural season back in 2008 was Sohail Tanvir, who took 22 wickets for the Rajasthan Royals. He remains the only Pakistani to have won the award, though that in part reflects the fact that Pakistani cricketers have largely been barred from playing in the tournament.
Two men have won the award twice. Dwayne Bravo of the West Indies, who is also the leading IPL wicket taker of all time, won it for the Chennai Super Kings, in 2013 and 2015.
And Bhuvneshwar Kumar of the Sunrisers Hyderabad won it in back-to-back seasons, in 2016 and 2017.
Bhuvneshwar is one of five Indian winners of the cap. The others are R.P. Singh and Pragyan Ojha of the now-defunct Deccan Chargers, Mohit Sharma of the Chennai Super Kings, and last year’s winner, Harshal Patel of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Apart from Tanvir and Bravo, there has been one overseas winner from Australia, Andrew Tye of the Kings XI Punjab, and one from Sri Lanka, Lasith Malinga of the Mumbai Indians.
The other three winners – Morne Morkel of the Delhi Daredevils, Imran Tahir of the Chennai Super Kings, and two years ago, Kagiso Rabada of the Delhi Capitals – are all South Africans.
Ojha’s 21 wickets in 2010 is the fewest wickets ever required to win the cap. Bravo in 2013 and Patel in 2021 share the record for the most wickets taken in a season – 32 in each case.
However, arguably Harshal’s was the greater achievement, because there were only eight teams playing in the IPL last year, whilst in 2013 the league had been expanded to nine franchises.
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