The Indian Premier League, a brainchild of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, is in the midst of its eighth season. Eight teams are participating and the action is heating up with the Rajasthan Royals being defeated for the first time in six matches on April 21. It was a tight affair in which the crowd was witness to the first super over of the tournament.

There may be eight teams in this season of the IPL, but there have been a total of 11 different teams that have participated over the last eight seasons: Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Mumbai Indians (MI), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Kings XI Punjab (Kings XI), Rajasthan Royals (RR), Delhi Daredevils (DD), Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), Deccan Chargers (DC), Pune Warriors India (PWI), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SH) and Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK).

There have been centuries scored, sixes smashed, wickets taken and catches dropped, all captured by us in these 14 essential charts for you.

Overall team performance



The Chennai Super Kings, led by Indian One-Day International captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is the most successful IPL team across all eight seasons. They are the only team with a win percentage above 60. The Kochi Tuskers Kerala lasted only one season, winning six out of their 14 matches but the Sunrisers Hyderabad, in their third season, aren’t doing themselves any favours by only winning one of their four matches so far. Delhi Daredevils, largely considered as one of the worst performing teams, is the only team to have lost over 60 matches.

Highest team totals



The Chennai Super Kings, in the inaugural season, scored 240 runs in their 20 overs, only to be bettered by the Chennai Super Kings team of 2010, when they scored 246. Three years afterwards, the Royal Challengers Bangalore outscored them to post 263 runs for the loss of five wickets.

Lowest team totals



On the flip side, the Rajasthan Royals lasted only 15.1 overs in 2009, scoring a pitiful 58 runs in their chase. The Kolkata Knight Riders, in the inaugural season, posted the lowest score batting first. They made 67 runs in 15.2 overs.

Successive wins



Kolkata Knight Riders, during the 2014 season, went on an impressive eight match winning streak that included lifting the trophy. They followed that up with a win in their first game of the 2015 season against the Mumbai Indians. The Royal Challengers Bangalore broke their streak in the next game with a 3 wicket victory. Rajasthan Royals had won six matches in a row in the inaugural season to lift the trophy then.

Successive losses



Delhi Daredevils narrowly avoided having the worst losing streak in IPL history by defeating the Kings XI Punjab on April 15. Their losing streak got stopped at 11 successive matches which makes them tied for the worst spot with Pune Warriors India who achieved it in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. Delhi Daredevils also lost seven matches in a row during the 2013 and 2014 seasons.

Highest successful run chases



The Rajasthan Royals were such a pleasant surprise during the inaugural season in 2008. Against the Deccan Chargers, the Rajasthan Royals scripted a famous victory by becoming the first team to successfully chase over 200 runs. Since then, it’s been done a number of times. Kings XI Punjab has done it twice. Once against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, and the second time against the Chennai Super Kings.

Most matches played



Not surprisingly, the list contains only Indians. Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Robin Uthappa and Virat Kohli make up the top five. Suresh Raina has played more matches courtesy of being part of the most successive team in IPL history, the Chennai Super Kings.

Most runs



Suresh Raina hasn’t only played the most number of matches but with 3,390 runs, he tops the list of most runs by a batsman in the eight season history of the IPL. He’s scored these runs at a healthy average of 35.31. Rohit Sharma is the only other player to have scored more than 3,000 runs. Gautam Gambhir is close behind with 2,992. Chris Gayle is the highest foreigner in the list, coming in at fourth place, with 2,835 runs. Gayle’s average is one of the best with 47.25 runs.

Most wickets



Out of the top ten wicket takers, three are foreigners. One of them, Lasith Malinga, tops the list with a 124 wickets, 18 more than the next best, Amit Mishra, with 106. The other two foreigners are Dale Steyn, at sixth, with 90 wickets and Dwayne Bravo, at tenth, with 82 wickets. Malinga is also the only player in the top ten with an average below 20.

Wicketkeeper dismissals



Former Australian wicketkeeper, Adam Gilchrist has topped the list of dismissals with 67 – 51 catches and 16 stumpings – along with Dinesh Kartik and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, both also at 67. While Gilchrist is the only keeper with over 50 catches, it is Karthik, Dhoni and Uthappa with most number of stumpiings at 20.

Most catches



Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, by playing more matches, have had the opportunity to take more catches. Raina has 66 to his name and Sharma with 56. Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo, AB de Villiers, and David Warner are the non-Indians in the list.

Most ducks



You may wonder as to who has scored the most number of ducks. Well, Amit Mishra, the second highest wicket taker, has 10 ducks to his name. He ties for first place along with Harbhajan Singh, Manish Pandey and Gautam Gambhir. Rahul Sharma though has the distinction of having the least number of runs per duck at 8.25. Jacques Kallis has nine ducks to his name, but he does score a healthy 269.67 runs per duck. Gambhir himself scores 299.2 runs per duck.

Most sixes



If you think that big hitting West Indian Chris Gayle would have the most number of sixes in the Indian Premier League history, you’d be thinking right. Chris Gayle has scored as many as 200 sixes. That’s 1,200 runs just in sixes. The next highest is Suresh Raina at 136. That’s a difference of 64 sixes. The other big hitting West Indian, Kieron Adrian Pollard has some catching up to do with only 92 sixes to his name.

Most extras



These are the extras scored by the team batting.  In 2008, the Kolkata Knight Riders, against the Deccan Chargers, posted 112 in their chase of 111. David Hussey topped scored with 38 but the next highest was the Extras column with 28 runs.

The Kings XI Punjab, back in 2011, posted a massive 232 in the first innings against the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Adam Gilchrist scored a magnificent century in only 55 balls. Shaun Marsh contributed with 79 runs. Third in the runs column was the Extras, with 27.

(Based on figures till April 21, 2015)