by A no ball in the IPL is not a minor inconvenience. It is a free run, an extra delivery, and a free hit all rolled into one.
For the batter, it’s almost perfect. They get to face an extra ball knowing full dismissal is off the table on the very next delivery.
For the bowler’s team, it means one mistake can hand the opposition a gear-shift moment in any over.
The five bowlers on this list did it more than anyone else in IPL history.
Bowlers With the Most No Balls in IPL History
One of them did it 39 times, and his name will catch most fans off guard.
Why No Balls Carry Extra Weight in the IPL?
The no ball rule exists in all formats. The consequence in T20, especially the IPL, is unusually steep.
Step over the front crease and the batting side receives one extra run. The illegal delivery is re-bowled.
And then the next ball is a free hit, where only a run-out can end the batter’s innings.
In Test cricket, batters still need to survive.
In T20, a free hit on ball 18 of a death over is a licence to attack without any consequence.
Teams score at a noticeably higher rate off free hits than off standard deliveries.
Fast bowlers are the most common offenders.
The more pace you generate, the harder you drive off the front foot, and the more likely you are to carry a few centimetres past the line.
Pressure, fatigue, and high-effort spells all increase that risk.
Top 5 Bowlers With the Most No Balls in IPL History
| Rank | Bowler | No Balls | Matches Played | Wickets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jasprit Bumrah | 39 | 155 | 186 |
| 2 | Umesh Yadav | 24 | 148 | 144 |
| 3 | S. Sreesanth | 23 | 44 | — |
| 4 | Ishant Sharma | 23 | 117 | 96 |
| 5 | Amit Mishra | 21 | 162 | 174 |
5. Amit Mishra (21 No Balls, 162 Matches)
Amit Mishra is the only spinner on this list, and that tells you something.
Leg-spin bowling doesn’t naturally push bowlers past the crease. The action is slower and more controlled, without the aggressive front-foot drive that fast bowlers use to build pace. Yet Mishra still racked up 21 no balls across a 17-season IPL career.
The explanation is straightforward: volume. He bowled 561.5 overs across four clubs, including Deccan Chargers, Delhi Capitals, Sunrisers Hyderabad, and Lucknow Super Giants. Across that many deliveries, a small number of no balls becomes inevitable.
His career stat that actually stands out is the hat-trick count. Three in IPL history, more than any other bowler. The 21 no balls barely register next to that.
4. Ishant Sharma (23 No Balls, 117 Matches)
Ishant Sharma has carried a front-foot problem through much of his career.
His tall frame, long delivery stride, and high bowling action create a lot of momentum toward the crease.
When he bowls with maximum intensity, that momentum sometimes takes him across the line.
It has been a recurring issue at the international level too, not just in the IPL.
Across 117 matches and 403.1 overs between 2008 and 2026, Ishant collected 23 no balls along with 96 wickets at an economy of 8.37.
He is still bowling for the Gujarat Titans in IPL 2026.
3. S. Sreesanth (23 No Balls, 44 Matches)
The number matches Ishant’s. The story doesn’t come close.
Sreesanth bowled those 23 no balls in 44 matches, compared to Ishant’s 117.
That frequency is the highest on this list and makes Sreesanth a clear statistical outlier.
The reason his no balls drew attention beyond the numbers: in 2013, Sreesanth was accused of deliberately overstepping during Rajasthan Royals’ IPL season as part of a spot-fixing arrangement.
The BCCI banned him from cricket. Courts later overturned the ban, but the specific allegations around deliberate no balls were never resolved cleanly in the public record.
He played for Punjab Kings, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, and Rajasthan Royals between 2007 and 2013, bowling 880 deliveries across his entire IPL career.
2. Umesh Yadav (24 No Balls, 148 Matches)
Umesh Yadav made his IPL name through pace, aggression, and consistency across a long career.
He appeared for four franchises between 2010 and 2024, playing 148 matches and taking 144 wickets from 3,050 deliveries.
Among those 3,050 balls were 24 no balls. His standout IPL season was 2014 with the Kolkata Knight Riders, where he took 11 wickets as they won the title.
Bowling at high pace across that many seasons and matches, some no balls were always likely.
His record reflects a bowler who chose aggression and accepted the occasional cost.
1. Jasprit Bumrah (39 No Balls, 155 Matches)
This is the number that makes people read the sentence twice.
Jasprit Bumrah, 39 no balls. The all-time IPL record. Fifteen more than second place. The only bowler in the history of the competition to cross 30.
The same Bumrah whose yorkers in the 19th over are studied on coaching courses. The same bowler who has made batting at the death feel like a near-impossible task across 18 seasons of IPL cricket.
His action explains part of it. The low-arm, slingy, side-on style generates movement and deception, but it puts constant pressure on his front-foot placement during release.
Add the fact that Bumrah almost always bowls his hardest spells in the tightest moments, closing out games for the Mumbai Indians, defending small totals, attacking in finals, and the no ball count becomes more understandable.
He has 186 IPL wickets, five title medals with the Mumbai Indians, and the record no one else is close to.
The first two are why people rate him so highly. The third is just a number that comes with bowling at maximum for 18 years.
On the “Least No Balls” Question
Some searches ask which bowler has the fewest no balls in IPL history, or which bowler has never bowled one.
There is no public database that ranks bowlers by no-ball frequency from lowest to highest.
The IPL and ESPNcricinfo publish ball-by-ball records, but no-ball frequency per bowler is not aggregated as a searchable table.
As a general rule, spinners bowl far fewer than pace bowlers, which is why only Mishra appears here.
Among pace bowlers, those with a more upright, compact action tend to overstep less.
But who holds the cleanest record exactly, that data is not publicly available.
FAQs
- Q: Who holds the record for most no balls in IPL history?
Jasprit Bumrah, with 39 across 155 matches. No other bowler in IPL history has reached 30.
- Q: Which bowler has the worst no-ball rate per match in IPL history?
Among the top five, S. Sreesanth has the highest rate. He bowled 23 no balls in just 44 matches, far more per game than anyone else on this list.
- Q: What is a free hit and when does it apply in the IPL?
A free hit is awarded after any no ball. On the next delivery, the batter cannot be dismissed except by a run-out. It applies to all no balls in T20 cricket, including front-foot oversteps.
- Q: Is Amit Mishra really the only spinner with notable no balls in IPL history?
He is the only spinner in the all-time top five. Spin bowling actions rarely produce overstepping, making Mishra’s 21 no balls unusual for his role.
- Q: Which bowler has never bowled a no ball in IPL history?
No public record tracks this specifically. Ball-by-ball data exists in archives but the IPL does not publish a ranked table of bowlers by the fewest no balls bowled.
- Q: Did Sreesanth deliberately bowl no balls in the IPL?
Allegations in 2013 claimed he did so as part of a spot-fixing arrangement. The BCCI banned him, though courts later overturned the ban. Whether specific deliveries were deliberate was not conclusively established in court.
The Bigger Picture
Looking at the five names on this list together, four were Indian internationals. Three played in the same era.
And the one at the top is widely considered among the best fast bowlers of the modern game.
That consistency tells the real story. Bowlers with the most no balls in IPL history are not bad bowlers.
They are, mostly, high-pace bowlers who bowl hard for a long time.
No balls are the price of that intensity, particularly in a format that extracts maximum effort from every delivery.
Bumrah’s 39 isn’t a character flaw. It’s 18 seasons of bowling at full tilt in the moments that matter most.
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