IPL playerIndia2008 to 2014
Venugopal Rao
On scorecards: Y Venugopal Rao · Right-hand bat
Venugopal Rao, a batter, played seven IPL seasons for three franchises. One title came along the way.
The arrival
Venugopal Rao was there from the start, in the league's first season, 2008, signed by Deccan Chargers outside the auction.
That first season brought 11 matches, 288 runs and 2 wickets at 9.79 an over.
The peak
The high point with the bat was 2011, for Delhi Daredevils: 336 runs at an average of 28.0, striking at 120.0 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 121.0, with 1 fifty, and a highest score of 60.
Franchise by franchise
2008 to 2010, Deccan Chargers. 33 matches, 446 runs and 6 wickets; champions in 2009.
2011 to 2013, Delhi Daredevils. Bought at the 2011 auction for ₹3.15 cr. 25 matches and 468 runs.
2014, Sunrisers Hyderabad. Bought at the 2014 auction for ₹55 lakh. 7 matches and 71 runs.
3 spells with three franchises in all. The longest was with Deccan Chargers, 2008 to 2010.
Bat, ball and method
Across the career, Venugopal Rao struck at 117.8. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 123.8, so Venugopal Rao scored about 6 runs per hundred balls slower than the typical batter of the time. 54% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 77 fours and 37 sixes.
The ball-by-ball record adds the detail. 38.8% of the balls Venugopal Rao faced were dot balls, a higher share than 77% of the 140 batters who have faced 500 balls or more in the IPL. A six came every 22.6 balls, and a four every 10.9.
With the ball, 6 wickets in 216 deliveries, at 9.36 runs an over against a league rate of 7.67 for the same seasons: 1.69 an over more expensive than the typical bowler of the time.
The fielding record: 13 catches and 3 run-outs.
At the auction
Venugopal Rao went under the hammer twice. The highest price was ₹3.15 cr (US$700k), paid by Delhi Daredevils in 2011, more than 7 times the base price. The market cooled over time: the last purchase, in 2014, cost ₹55 lakh.
Seasons without an auction entry were played under a retention, a trade or a signing made outside the auction.
The legacy
Venugopal Rao made 65 IPL appearances, the last for Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2014.
Season by season
| Season | Team | M | Runs | HS | Avg | SR | 50/100 | Wkts | Econ | Best | Ct | POTM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Deccan Chargers | 11 | 288 | 71* | 36.0 | 137.1 | 2/0 | 2 | 9.79 | 2/25 | 0 | ||
| 2009 | Deccan Chargers | 16 | 124 | 32 | 11.3 | 108.8 | 0/0 | 4 | 8.13 | 2/23 | 7 | Champions | |
| 2010 | Deccan Chargers | 6 | 34 | 24 | 8.5 | 79.1 | 0/0 | 0 | 10.00 | - | 0 | ||
| 2011 | Delhi Daredevils | 14 | 336 | 60 | 28.0 | 120.0 | 1/0 | 0 | 13.00 | - | 4 | ||
| 2012 | Delhi Daredevils | 10 | 132 | 36 | 22.0 | 104.8 | 0/0 | 0 | 13.00 | - | 0 | ||
| 2013 | Delhi Daredevils | 1 | 0 | – | – | – | 0/0 | – | – | – | 0 | ||
| 2014 | Sunrisers Hyderabad | 7 | 71 | 27 | 23.7 | 112.7 | 0/0 | 0 | 8.00 | - | 2 |
Franchise journey
- Deccan Chargers: 2008 to 2010
- Delhi Daredevils: 2011 to 2013
- Sunrisers Hyderabad: 2014
Ball-by-ball detail
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Dot balls faced | 38.8% |
| Balls per four | 10.9 |
| Balls per six | 22.6 |
| Dot balls bowled | 27.3% |
| Balls per wicket | 36 |
| Catches | 13 |
| Run-outs | 3 |
| Stumpings | 0 |
At the auction
Sources
- CricArcade IPL season statistics
- CricArcade IPL auction archive
- Kaggle IPL Complete Match Dataset 2008-2026, ball-by-ball, cross-checked against Cricsheet