The Australian cricket players since the start of the Indian Premier League all the way back in the year 2008, have been an important and cherished part of the tournament. Be it by scoring runs or being involved in the high voltage action that unfolds on the field in every single game, the Aussies find a way to make a way into it. Here we will have a look at the names of the 4 Australian players who managed to outscore their peers in IPL and won the coveted Orange Cap.
1. Shaun Marsh – IPL 2008
Announcing his arrival in the tournament in style in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League was the Australian cricketer, Shaun Marsh, who managed to get on his head the coveted Orange Cap at the end of the season.
In that edition of the Indian Premier League, playing for the now called Punjab Kings, he had played in a total of 11 matches. And, there he had managed to score as many as 616 runs at a strike rate of 139.68, and an average of 68.44. This tally of his included the 1 century and 5 fifties that he had hit in those 11 games.
2. Matthew Hayden – IPL 2009
The second season of IPL, saw another Australian player taking home the Orange Cap, with Matthew Hayden topping the charts in terms of scoring runs in the tournament in the year 2009. Even after his international retirement earlier that year showed what all he had left in him, and that proved to be a lot.
Playing for the Chennai Super Kings, Hayden featured in the team’s playing XI on 12 occasions where he managed to get to his name 572 runs at an average of 52, all of this while, maintaining an excellent strike rate of 144.81. This showed that he not only scored runs but did that on a regular basis.
3. Michael Hussey – IPL 2013
‘Mr. Cricket’ as he is called by his fans and friends, Michael Hussey showed everyone that ease and grace could be used to outscore everyone in T20 cricket, which until that time was considered to be a job that had to be executed by only the hard hitters of the time.
For becoming the third Australian to earn the Orange Cap in the history of IPL, Hussey had to score a mammoth 733 runs in the 17 games that he played in, hitting a total of 6 fifties in the process, helping his strike rate stay at 129.5, and his average climb to 52.35.
4. David Warner – IPL 2015, IPL 2017, IPL 2019
David Warner has become one of the faces of the Indian Premier League in recent years. After having a slow start to his run in the tournament, Warner has adapted his game to suit the play style of the tournament so well that the Australian has won the Orange Cap in IPL three times now.
It all started in the 2015 season of the tournament where he scored 562 runs in 14 games. And after that, there was no looking back for the ‘pocket-sized’ dynamite’. Warner bettered his 2015 numbers in the 2017 season, where he managed to get 641 runs in 14 games. He was back at the top of the leader board again in 2019, where, with the Sunrisers Hyderabad, he managed to score 692 runs in total in the 12 matches that he played for the team that season.
