Mark Boucher

The arrival

Mark Boucher arrived through the auction: Royal Challengers Bangalore paid ₹1.8 cr (US$450k), against a base price of ₹80 lakh, at the very first IPL auction.

That first season brought 10 matches and 225 runs. It would stay the best season of the career with the bat.

The peak

The high point with the bat was 2008, for Royal Challengers Bangalore: 225 runs at an average of 32.1, striking at 127.1 in a season when the league as a whole struck at 129.1, with 1 fifty, and a highest score of 50 not out.

Franchise by franchise

2008 to 2010, Royal Challengers Bangalore. Bought at the 2008 auction for ₹1.8 cr. 27 matches and 388 runs.

2011, Kolkata Knight Riders. Arrived outside the auction. 4 matches and 6 runs.

2 spells with two franchises in all. The longest was with Royal Challengers Bangalore, 2008 to 2010.

How the runs came

Across the career, Mark Boucher struck at 127.5. The league around those same seasons, weighted by how much batting each one involved, struck at 124.3, so Mark Boucher scored about 3 runs per hundred balls faster than the typical batter of the time. 52% of the runs came in fours and sixes: 32 fours and 13 sixes.

The fielding record: 14 catches, 7 run-outs and 3 stumpings.

At the auction

Mark Boucher went under the hammer three times, bought once and left unsold twice. The price was ₹1.8 cr (US$450k), paid by Royal Challengers Bangalore in 2008.

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

The legacy

Mark Boucher made 31 IPL appearances, the last for Kolkata Knight Riders in 2011, and won 2 player-of-the-match awards.