IPL: Malinga leads the clan of bowling oppressors

Sunil Narine vs KXIP - 22 wickets in 11 matches

Sunil Narine's overall numbers in the Indian Premier League itself are quite flattering, but going by those lofty standards, his numbers against Kings XI Punjab look even better. He started off with a five-fer against them in a narrow two-run loss at the Eden Gardens in 2012. Next year, he picked a hat-trick in Mohali as Kolkata Knight Riders faced another narrow defeat against the familiar foes. Knight Riders bowled first in all but one game against Kings XI where Narine featured and he did well in choking them in the middle and death overs as his miserly economy rate of 6.50 suggests. He has conceded above 30 in his four overs only once in 11 innings against them highlighting the difficulty to put him away.

Lasith Malinga vs KXIP - 22 wickets in 11 matches

Like Narine, Lasith Malinga is another bowler who has made the most of playing against Kings XI. Though he has leaked runs at a slightly higher clip against them compared to his overall numbers, he has made it up by taking wickets. He has never been wicketless in the 11 matches against them. His best performance against them came in 2010 where he picked 4 for 22 at the Brabourne.

Lasith Malinga vs DD - 19 wickets in 11 matches

Another team which had to bear the brunt of Malinga's mastery was the Delhi Daredevils. Just like against Kings XI, Malinga has never been wicketless against the Daredevils. He has 19 scalps against them in 11 matches and his solitary five-fer in IPL also came against them in 2011. He tore through the Delhi batting line-up taking 5 for 13 in that game dismissing three of them before they could score. His 19 wickets is also the most against Delhi by any bowler in IPL.

Dwayne Bravo vs MI - 26 wickets in 13 matches

No one has taken more wickets against a particular team in IPL than Bravo, against his first IPL employer, the Mumbai Indians. In the five knockout matches against Mumbai, Bravo has picked up 14 wickets at an astounding 9.78 per dismissal and a wicket every 7.71 balls. His economy rate is a stupendous 7.61 against them in these games considering the fact that he came in as the sixth bowler in each of these games and bowled bulk of his overs in the death. In addition to this, he also bowled a match-winning spell of 4-0-22-2 prizing out two top scorers from the Mumbai innings - Nitish Rana and Jos Buttler - in a must win game for his current team, the Gujarat Lions, against Mumbai in Kanpur last season.

Sandeep Sharma vs RCB - 12 wickets in seven matches

Sandeep Sharma's record against the Royal Challengers Bangalore hardly looks extraordinary compared to the other entries here - 12 wickets in just seven matches at an economy rate of 8.95 which is on the higher side. What fast tracks his entry here is the wood he holds over Kings XI's bogeyman Chris Gayle dismissing him thrice in six games. These three were the only games where Gayle failed to score a fifty against KXIP in his last ten innings. Gayle had a strike rate of 119 against him, compared to 173 against the rest of Kings XI bowlers. Both his Man of the Match winning efforts against Royal Challengers came in the 2014 edition, when he took 3 for 15 and 3 for 25. He ran through Royal Challenger's top order in both these games with all his wickets coming inside the Powerplays.

R Ashwin vs KKR - 18 wickets in 14 matches

With 18 wickets in 14 matches, Ravichandran Ashwin is the leading wicket-taker among all teams against Knight Riders. His sole Man of the Match performance in IPL came against Knight Riders in the 2010 season where in a spell of four overs he knocked out Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum and David Hussey inside the Power Play in a must-win encounter for both the sides. He conceded runs at just 6.56 against them and has conceded over 30 only once in 14 innings, with that lone instance coming in the finals of 2012 edition.

Umesh Yadav vs KXIP - 15 wickets in 12 matches

Another bowler whom the Kings XI team brought the best out of, was Umesh Yadav. What merits Umesh a place in the list are his three Man of the Match awards against Kings XI - the most for any bowler against a particular opposition. In his first two games against them, both for Delhi Daredevils in 2012, he broke the back of Kings XI's batting line-up with figures of 3 for 21 and 3 for 19. His next match-winning effort came in the first qualifier in 2014 taking 3 for 13 bagging the prized scalps of Virender Sehwag, Glenn Maxwell and George Bailey, while booking Kolkata Knight Riders a berth in the final. His average and economy rate against Kings XI reads 21.53 and 7.17 in comparison to 31.04 and 8.38 respectively.