South Africa’s Albie Morkel holds the record for hitting the longest six in IPL history, he smashed Deccan spinner Pragyan Ojha for a six that was measured at 125 meters.
During the 2022 Indian T20 League match between Punjab and Gujarat, Liam Livingstone hit the biggest six of the season, measuring 117 meters. The shot made into the all-time top 10 list, but was well short of Morkel’s record. He featured three times in the top 5 of last year’s list of longest sixes.
10. Liam Livingston
Livingstone surged to 30 off 10 balls, with 28 off those runs coming in a single over off his last six deliveries faced, with the mammoth 117-metre blow the undoubted highlight of his knock.
With five overs to go, Punjab Kings were heavy favourites, needing 27 runs to win. However, they wouldn’t have expected to be walking off the park with victory secure with four overs still to spare, especially with India Test star Mohammed Shami coming on to bowl.
9. Ben Cutting
Sunrisers Hyderbad all-rounder Ben Cutting set the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2016 final on fire with a blistering 15-ball 39 knock.Cutting was batting on 16 as the scoreboard read 184/7 after 19 overs.
Watson’s second ball was a full-toss to Cutting, who pummeled it high over deep square leg which cleared the Chinnaswamy Stadium! The ball travelled a distance of 117 metres, making it the longest six of this season.
8. Gautam Gambhir
Gautam Gambhir, one of the most successful players and leaders in the IPL, owns a record for one of the biggest sixes in the tournament’s history. In 2013, his 117-meter six for the Kolkata Knight Riders was regarded as one of the season’s pure hits. Throughout the season, he blasted massive sixes, but this was his longest maximum in the IPL.
On the delivery of S. Sreesanth against Rajasthan Royals, he hit a magnificent six of 117 metres. In that IPL season, he was one of KKR’s most successful players. Due to their poor batting performance, KKR went on to lose the match
7. Ross Taylor
2008 was some year when it came to big six hitting in the IPL with Taylor’s effort the 3rd from that season to sit in the top 5 biggest IPL sixes of all time.
This particular strike came against his fellow Kiwi and a man known for his own big hitting feats, Jacob Oram who bowled a fairly innocuous looking delivery full on off-stump with Taylor producing incredible bat speed to whip it over the mid-wicket boundary for one of the biggest sixes you’ll ever see.
6. Yuvraj Singh
Again it’s difficult not to take into account the altitude of the Supersports Park at Centurion when considering its role in this contribution to the list of biggest sixes. Not for first time the IPL was forced to move outside of India for the 2009 instalment of the tournament and one of the games all-time biggest six hitters in Yuvraj Singh took advantage of the thinner atmosphere to hit this monster six.
In a twist of fate the man getting hit out of Centurion is none other than Albie Morkel – I guess if you dish it out you’ve got to be able to take it back! It is a ball in the slot but equally it is met with such a clean and forceful swing that it simply flies over the boundary for one of the biggest sixes in IPL history.
5. Chris Gayle
The first of 2 massive sixes hit by the one and only Universe Boss to feature in this list with both of them coming in the same innings! That innings is arguably the greatest T20 knock ever played with Gayle going on to make the highest individual score in IPL history 175*, the fastest century in IPL history (30 balls) and the most sixes in an innings (17).
To say that the Pune Warriors bowlers were shell shocked by the end of the innings would be an understatement but young left armer spinner Ali Mortaza had to endure the biggest six of the day and to date Chris Gayle’s longest in a swashbuckling career in the IPL.
4. Robin Uthappa
For the past 15 years, Dwayne Bravo was one of the most skillful and successful death-overs bowlers in the Indian T20 League. But he was on the receiving end of one of the biggest hits in the tournament’s history. A length ball on the stumps was spotted early by Robin Uthappa, who hit the ball with such force that it disappeared deep into the crowd at the Wankhede Stadium.
3. Adam Gilchrist
Going even higher up in terms of altitude, the thin air in Dharamsala has seen its fair share of big sixes in IPL matches over the years. In this game Australian great Adam Gilchrist made mince meat of the RCB bowling attack as he stroked a century from just 53 balls.
Gilchrist was already well set when Charl Langeveldt attempted a slower ball which the left-hander picked and pumped high into the mountain air, over cow corner and out of the ground. To quote the words of the commentator the ball had gone “out of the ground, out of the stadium and was running down the hill”.
2. Praveen Kumar
5 of biggest sixes in IPL history have been hit at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, a ground that at 934m above sea level is the highest of the regular venues used to host matches in the IPL.
Praveen Kumar is probably not a name that most cricket lovers would expect to see on a list of the biggest sixes in IPL history but with his RCB side in dire straights at 78-6, Praveen showed some of the more established batsmen in the line-up how to go about things firstly by smoking Yusuf Pathan for a 124m six over long-on and then taking down Shane Warne with a couple more meaty blows. RCB would go onto lose the match but Praveen had at the very least given himself a total to bowl at.
1. Albie Morkel
The biggest six ever hit in the IPL came from South African all-rounder Albie Morkel. The left-handed Morkel had a fantastic career in the IPL playing for 4 franchises across a 9 year span. However, his best period came for the men in yellow and he hit this monster of a six measuring 124m off the bowling of Pragyan Ojha.
I’ve seen several other sources state this six was measured at 125m but I’m going to stick with the original distance shown by the broadcasters. Regardless of the final measurement, what makes this hit even more impressive when compared to many of the others on this list is that it happened at sea level. In fact, given the location of the MA Chidambaram Stadium and the size of the six there is a pretty good chance that the ball ended up on the beach!