Chris Lynn

The arrival

Chris Lynn's first IPL season was 2012, with Deccan Chargers, a signing made outside the auction.

That first season brought 1 match and 6 runs. The best was still to come.

The peak

The high point with the bat was 2018, for Kolkata Knight Riders: 491 runs at an average of 32.7, striking at 130.2 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 138.1, with 3 fifties, and a highest score of 74. There were two seasons of 400 runs or more in all (2018 and 2019).

Measured against the league around it, though, the most destructive season was 2017: 295 runs at a strike rate of 181.0, 48 runs per hundred balls quicker than the IPL as a whole that year.

Franchise by franchise

2012, Deccan Chargers. 1 match and 6 runs.

2014 to 2019, Kolkata Knight Riders. Bought at the 2014 auction for ₹1.30 cr. 40 matches and 1,274 runs; champions in 2014.

2021, Mumbai Indians. Arrived outside the auction. 1 match and 49 runs.

3 spells with three franchises in all. The longest was with Kolkata Knight Riders, 2014 to 2019. 2013, 2015 and 2020 are missing from the record: seasons without an IPL appearance.

How the runs came

Across the career, Chris Lynn struck at 140.6. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 134.9, so Chris Lynn scored about 6 runs per hundred balls faster than the typical batter of the time. 70% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 132 fours and 66 sixes.

The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 41% of the balls Chris Lynn faced were dot balls, a higher share than 82% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 14.3 balls, and a four every 7.2.

The fielding record: 12 catches.

At the auction

Chris Lynn went under the hammer six times, bought four times and left unsold twice. The highest price was ₹9.60 cr, paid by Kolkata Knight Riders in 2018, more than 4 times the base price. The price climbed with the reputation: ₹9 lakh in 2011, ₹2 cr by 2020. Being bought did not always mean playing: no match followed for Deccan Chargers in 2011 and Mumbai Indians in 2020.

Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.

The legacy

Chris Lynn made 42 IPL appearances, the last for Mumbai Indians in 2021, and won 4 player-of-the-match awards.