14 Maiden Overs in 17 IPL Seasons Bhuvneshwar Needed 190 Matches Praveen Kumar Did It in 119

Last Updated:

April, 2026

It’s possible for two players to each have achieved the same total number of maiden overs bowled within the Indian Premier League (IPL) but actually both bowlers can have differed greatly in how they achieved or created that same total number of maiden overs.

Just as Praveen Kumar and Bhuvneshwar Kumar each hold the record for the most maiden overs in IPL history with 14 maiden overs bowled, the records indicate the different time periods in which each player reached that total (i.e., Praveen achieved the 14 maiden overs in 119 IPL matches while Bhuvneshwar has had 190 IPL matches).

According to the rules and definitions of how a maiden over is understood in playing formats of cricket, a maiden over

consists of no runs scored to an innings by either batter during the course of six consecutive balls thrown at the same type of delivery or thrown in each of those six consecutive deliveries. Therefore, for the purposes of statistical measurement, every delivery thrown to an opposing batter that results in a run score is considered a dot ball for the entirety of the over, which creates the terminology “maiden over.”

This table shows who has achieved the Most Maiden Overs in IPL History. What it does not show is how different each bowler’s method was, and why the number 14 tells almost nothing on its own.

All-Time Top 10: Most Maiden Overs in IPL History

No.	Player	Matches	Maiden Overs	Wickets	Economy	Role	Strike Rate	100s
1	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	190	14	198	7.69	Seam	152.03	4
2	Praveen Kumar	119	14	90	7.73	Seam	157.89	3
3	Trent Boult	119	11	143	8.38	Seam	149.05	4
4	Irfan Pathan	103	10	80	7.77	Seam	151.42	0
5	Dhawal Kulkarni	92	8	86	8.3	Seam	142.44	0
6	Jasprit Bumrah	145	8	183	7.24	Seam	160.74	1
7	Lasith Malinga	122	8	170	7.14	Seam	143.86	1
8	Sandeep Sharma	110	8	120	7.85	Seam	154.7	1
9	Dale Steyn	95	7	97	7.4	Seam	156.17	1
10	Amit Mishra	162	6	174	7.35	Leg Spin	129.34	1

4 Things This Table Does Not Tell You

Praveen Kumar bowled 14 maidens in 119 matches. Bhuvneshwar needed 71 extra matches to reach the same number.

Although both players hold identical records for the same length of time, Praveen Kumar has a much better average of 8.5 between maidens as opposed to Bhuvneshwar Kumar who averages 13.6. Praveen Kumar retired from playing in the IPL after 2017. Had Praveen Kumar continued to participate in the IPL through 2026 and possessed an average of 8.5 games between maidens he clearly would have accumulated an even greater margin to Bhuvneshwar Kumar in terms of total maidens bowled than he has now created by raw quantity versus happening.

Bumrah has 183 IPL wickets and only 8 maiden overs. Praveen Kumar has 90 wickets and 14. More wickets does not mean more maidens.

Bumrah’s skill is not limiting run-scoring; it is wicket-taking. His greatest ball types are yorkers and bouncers which dismiss batters and his swinging deliveries do not keep batters at one end for an entire six-ball over. In order to bowl a maiden over you need to be a bowler who can create a build-up of pressure for all six balls, rather than just have one ball delivery that can be played around and cannot be scored off. Praveen Kumar was that type of bowler; Bumrah has never been.

Nine of the top 10 maiden over bowlers in IPL history are pace bowlers. Amit Mishra is the only spinner, with 6 maidens in 162 matches.

The situation can not be a coincidence, since, in T20 cricket, maidens are also typically achieved in the first 6 overs (the powerplay) when the ball is generally swinging and when batters have nowhere to score (as fielders will cover the majority of areas). Spinners bowl during the second half of each innings when batters have settled into their innings, and will be looking to make runs off spinners. In fact, the way T20 cricket works largely excludes spinners from being able to achieve maidens. Therefore, Mishra’s 6 maidens in 162 matches is the best record a spinner could obtain in this format.

Dhawal Kulkarni has 8 maiden overs in 92 matches. Dale Steyn has 7 in 95 matches. Two bowlers the IPL almost forgot are both inside the top 10.

Kulkarni has not really been considered to be one of the big names of IPL cricket. He has played for seven different teams but he has not won an IPL title. Steyn is considered one of the greatest fast bowlers in the history of Test cricket, but injuries have derailed his IPL career. Malinga and Bumrah are consistently rated amongst the very best bowlers, but neither of them is held in the same high regard as Kulkarni and Steyn are based solely on their ability to demonstrate the most difficult of skills that any T20 bowler can demonstrate. This ranking does not take into account the reputation of the players.

The Match Record That Has Not Been Beaten

Mohammed Siraj’s accomplishment of bowling two maiden overs in one match is remarkable. Achieving just one maiden over in this short format of cricket is an achievement itself. In the 20 years of professional cricket since the inception of the IPL prior to 2008 and since the start of professional cricket dates back nearly 20 years prior to this period, no other bowler has achieved this milestone

It has not been repeated. Two maidens in a match requires a batter who does not score off six consecutive deliveries, twice in the same innings. That needs conditions, form, and a batter who gets tied in knots. All three factors landing in the same match is not something you can plan for.

In his 17 years as a professional bowler he has only bowled three maiden overs, having just added a second two in just one match. Given the significant difference between these numbers, this only further demonstrates the quality of the achievement.

Most Maiden Overs in a Season: Last 5 IPL Editions

Season	Most Maiden Overs	Team	Maidens	Economy
2025	Jofra Archer	Rajasthan Royals	2	6.8
2024	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	SRH	1	7.5
2023	Mohammed Shami	Gujarat Titans	1	8.2
2022	Umesh Yadav	KKR	1	9.1
2021	Bhuvneshwar Kumar	SRH	1	7.60

In four of the last five IPL seasons, the leading maiden over bowler in that season managed just one. The entire tournament. One maiden over from the best bowler in that category across 74 matches and hundreds of overs. That is how rare this stat has become.

Jofra Archer’s two maidens in IPL 2025 stand alone as the only time a bowler has led the season tally with more than one. His opening spell for Rajasthan Royals that season drew comparisons to Siraj’s double maiden, and reminded the IPL what express pace plus accuracy looks like when a bowler is fully fit.

Will the Record of 14 Ever Be Beaten?

Royal Challengers Bengaluru remain in IPL 2026 playing with BP Bhuvneshwar. The record is already common among him. Each damsel he rolls in this place contributes to it. He has no five more seasons left at the age of 36. But a single and one or other place makes the record again to 15 or 16 and de facto more difficult to get.

The other candidate is named Jasprit Bumrah. He has also 8 career maidens and is just 31. It is possible to reach the numbers because he will be impactful and play four or five more seasons in the IPL as long as he is fit. In the given instance, Bumrah’s bowling style works against him, however. And then he is a wicket-taker. Maiden overs should be done a second way, so that he merely ties a batter down full six balls, and does not go to kill. The manner in which he rolls is not it.

The biggest competitor is the young swing bowler who has yet not withstanded himself at the IPL level. A younger Praveen Kumar or Bhuvneshwar who is capable of moving the ball in either direction in the powerplay, and dropping straight enough lines to last six balls without giving in. That bowler somewhere has it. He is simply yet to show up.
14 is safe until at least 2029. It may already be 16 or 17 by then.

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