One of the rarest and most magnificent feats in cricket is hitting 5 sixes in one over, even in the big-hitting world of the Indian Premier League (IPL), where flat pitches, short boundaries, and fearless batters are the standards. Pulling off this achievement requires an extraordinary combination of timing, power, placement, and in most cases, an almost supernatural level of nerve.
Across 17-plus seasons of IPL, only the prominent five batters have managed to take a bowler apart to this extreme degree in a single over, and each of those cases came with its own legacy.
The Complete List: Players Who Hit 5 Sixes in One Over in IPL
| Players | Team | Opposition | Targeted Bowler | Year | Venue |
| Chris Gayle | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Pune Warriors India | Rahul Sharma | 2012 | M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru |
| Rahul Tawatia | Rajasthan Royals | Punjab Kings | Sheldon Cottrell | 2020 | Sharjah Cricket Stadium |
| Ravindra Jadeja | Chennai Super Kings | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Harshal Patel | 2021 | Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai |
| Rinku Singh | Kolkata Knight Riders | Gujarat Titans | Yash Dayal | 2023 | Narendra Modi Stadium, Ahmedabad |
| Riyan Parag | Rajasthan Royals | Kolkata Knight Riders | Moeen Ali | 2025 | Eden Gardens, Kolkata |
Five remarkable names. Five breathtaking overs. Five moments that brought the stadiums to a standstill and rewrote what fans thought was possible in a T20 match. Here’s the full story behind each one.
1. Chris Gayle vs Rahul Sharma — IPL 2012
The first time a batter 5 sixes in one over, it had to be none other than The Universe Boss. The left-handed batter from Kingston was in his peak years at Royal Challengers Bangalore when he turned on the bowler from Pune Warriors over at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, and delivered one of the most jaw-dropping displays the league had ever seen at the time.
How Strong Was the Opposition
Pune Warriors India were not promising in 2012. They finished ninth on the IPL table that season, struggling throughout with both batting consistency and bowling depth. Their attack looked inexperienced. Gayle made his hits look routine even when they were anything but that.
State of Play
RCB were not sweating when this over arrived. It was the 13th over of the innings, a mid-innings phase where teams typically look to rotate the strike and build through the middle before accelerating at the death. There was no scoreboard emergency.
The Man with the Ball
Rahul Sharma’s leg-spin was picked apart ball by ball as Gayle’s massive hands sent each delivery sailing into the Chinnaswamy crowd. The leg-spinner, who had limited IPL experience at that stage of his career, relied on turn and flight, but against a batter of Gayle’s footwork and bottom-hand power, those variations offered little protection.
What Those Six Balls Did to the Game Instantly
The 30-run over made Gayle’s total 81 off 48 balls and drove RCB’s scoring rate from 7.5 to 10.4 runs per over in a single passage of play. It put the match firmly beyond Pune Warriors’ reach and established the blueprint for how Gayle could single-handedly shift a game’s momentum in the space of one over.
It was the first time IPL fans comprehended that five sixes in a single over was something that was absolutely possible.
2. Rahul Tewatia vs Sheldon Cottrell — IPL 2020
While Gayle’s over was destructive, Rahul Tewatia’s was flat-out miraculous, doubt, failure, and then an explosion of defiance that nobody saw coming.
The 2020 IPL was held in the UAE amid the pandemic, and Sharjah Cricket Stadium, with its notoriously compact straight boundaries, became the stage for one of the tournament’s most memorable nights.
Rajasthan Royals needed 51 runs off the final three overs against Punjab Kings. Their chances of winning were statistically almost zero.
How Strong Was the Opposition
Punjab Kings were a competitive side in 2020 with genuine quality across their bowling attack. They had made 223 runs themselves that evening, which reflected the batting conditions at Sharjah, but their death-bowling resources were not without experience. This was not a weak or inexperienced attack, which makes what followed all the more unbelievable.
State of Play
Rajasthan needed 51 off 18 balls when Tewatia came to face the 18th over. Death bowling is, by design, the phase of the game that most favours the fielding side. Bowlers have all their variations in play, field placements are optimised for boundary prevention, and batters are under maximum pressure to connect cleanly from ball one. Tewatia himself had been in miserable form earlier in the chase, scratching around for 8 off 23 balls with almost nothing going his way. The match, by every reasonable reading, was Punjab’s to lose.
The Man with the Ball
Sheldon Cottrell was a left-arm seamer from the West Indies, known for his distinctive military salute celebration and his ability to generate movement off a length at 130–135 kmph. The specialist powerplay and death bowler was not a tearaway quick, but he was disciplined and had the pace and angles to make life uncomfortable for right-handed batters. What he could not account for was Sharjah’s boundary length, and one of the strangest momentum shifts any IPL match had ever produced.
What Those Six Balls Did to the Game Instantly
Five consecutive sixes off Cottrell, 30 runs in one over, reduced the requirement from 51 off 18 to 21 off 12 balls. Rajasthan completed the chase, and Tewatia finished with 53 off 31 balls. The win was recorded as IPL’s highest successful run-chase to that point.
Past the numbers, those six balls fundamentally changed how the cricketing world viewed a match being “done.” If Tewatia could do that, in that situation, from that position on the scorecard, nothing was over until the last ball was bowled.
This remains the most unbelievable of all five instances on this list.
3. Ravindra Jadeja vs Harshal Patel — IPL 2021
The 2021 IPL offered a sharp reminder that when Ravindra Jadeja picks up his bat with intent, no bowlers, including the tournament’s best, are safe.
The Saurashtra all-rounder is one of cricket’s great all-rounders, but his batting has often played second fiddle to his fielding gallantry.
How Strong Was the Opposition
Royal Challengers Bangalore were a strong side in 2021 with serious bowling depth, not a weakened or struggling team, but a playoff-qualifying unit packed with match-winners at every position. That makes Jadeja’s assault on their best bowler in the final over even more significant.
State of Play
The over was the final over of CSK’s innings at the Wankhede Stadium. Jadeja arrived at the crease in the penultimate phase and was on 26 off 21 balls, aggressive but not yet destructive. With the last over approaching and CSK looking at a total somewhere around 154, the tactical situation was clear: swing from the first ball, take risks, and extract every possible run before the innings closed.
The Man with the Ball
Harshal Patel’s toolkit is built around deception, slower balls that sit in the pitch, back-of-a-length cutters, the disguised change of pace, and the occasional well-directed yorker. Against Jadeja in that over, he ran through every variation in his armoury and found an answer waiting for each one. Jadeja read him like a book, backing himself to get under each delivery and send it into the stands.
What Those Six Balls Did to the Game Instantly
The over produced 37 runs, one of the highest-scoring individual overs in IPL history. CSK’s total jumped from a projected 154 to 191, a shift that completely altered the complexion of the match.
RCB’s best bowler had been taken apart in the final over before their own batting innings even began, and the dressing room mood going into the chase reflected it. CSK won comfortably.
For Jadeja, this was a career-defining episode with the bat. For Harshal, it was the night his best work in a brilliant season was briefly overshadowed.
4. Rinku Singh vs Yash Dayal — IPL 2023
Rinku Singh vs Yash Dayal at the Narendra Modi Stadium in 2023 is not just the greatest over in IPL history by impact; it may be the most dramatic single over in T20 cricket, the over that is destined to be replayed for the next 50 years.
How Strong Was the Opposition
Gujarat Titans were the reigning IPL champions heading into 2023. They were built on smart team construction, disciplined bowling, and the ability to shut out chasing sides in the final stages.
State of Play
Kolkata Knight Riders needed 29 runs off the final over. Win probability models placed KKR’s chances at 5% to 8% at the start of the over. Rinku Singh was at the crease, a 25-year-old from Aligarh who had spent years knocking on the door of professional cricket without the platform his talent deserved.
Five wickets were down, the big hitters were gone, and Yash Dayal had the ball in hand with the match all but sealed.
The Man with the Ball
Yash Dayal is a left-arm seamer operating in the 135–140 kmph range, quick enough to be uncomfortable but reliant primarily on hitting his lengths and angling the ball into right-handers. He had successfully defended totals in similar situations before and had no obvious technical flaw that suggested what was about to happen.
On that night, Rinku was simply unstoppable. Dayal’s length deliveries, his full balls, his attempted variations, all of them met the same fate.
What Those Six Balls Did to the Game Instantly
KKR won off the penultimate delivery. Win probability shifted from approximately 8% to 100% across five balls, the sharpest single-over momentum reversal in IPL history. Rinku did not celebrate with any great fanfare. He barely seemed to register what he had done as the stadium around him descended into chaos.
For Dayal, it was a brutal experience, but one he handled with composure, returning to form in the matches that followed.
For Rinku Singh, it was the moment the cricketing world learned his name and never forgot it.
5. Riyan Parag vs Moeen Ali — IPL 2025
The youngest player on this list, Riyan Parag, was consistently setting himself as one of India’s most exciting young batting talents through his seasons with the Rajasthan Royals.
By 2025, he was no longer a promising youngster on the fringes; he was a top-tier match-winner. The Eden Gardens against the Kolkata Knight Riders showed exactly what he was capable of.
How Strong Was the Opposition
Kolkata Knight Riders managed a well-balanced attack in 2025 with quality across pace and spin. Their middle-overs bowling, particularly their use of spin to dry up runs in the 10th to 16th over phase, had been one of their most effective weapons through the season. They were not a side that gave away easy runs to batters who played without a plan.
State of Play
Rajasthan were chasing 207 when Parag found himself on strike in the 13th over. The required rate was sitting just above 11 runs per over, demanding but not impossible, provided the acceleration came from the right batter at the right time.
The middle overs are typically where chasing sides either keep themselves in the hunt or fall too far behind for the death overs to rescue them. Parag recognised that this was the over to attack, and Moeen Ali’s off-spin offered the matchup he wanted.
The Man with the Ball
Moeen Ali is an experienced and decorated off-spinner with an international pedigree across all three formats. Moeen’s consistency and control are usually abundant to keep run rates in check through the middle overs.
What Those Six Balls Did to the Game Instantly
The over slashed the required rate from 11.5 down to 8.7 runs per over, swinging the chase firmly back in Rajasthan’s favour. Parag went on to score 95 off 45 balls, a brilliant, match-shaping innings by any measure.
In the end, Rajasthan fell short by a single run, making Parag the only batter on this list to hit five sixes in one over without finishing with a victory.
The effort was undeniable. The result, by the cruellest of margins, went the other way.
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Conclusion
This deed has occurred only five times across all 17-plus IPL seasons and over 1,000 matches played. That places it at roughly one occurrence every three seasons, an extraordinary rarity for a format specifically designed to produce high scores and boundary-heavy cricket.
Three of the five instances occurred during death overs (overs 18-20), where the stakes are highest, and bowlers have far more tactical latitude to vary their deliveries. Two came in the middle overs, where batters can more freely take on the challenge. Venue dimensions also played a role; Sharjah’s short boundaries made Tewatia’s assault more possible, while Rinku’s power at the Narendra Modi Stadium reflected raw physical strength overcoming a large ground.
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