---
type: story
title: "The Powerplay Batters Nobody Is Talking About"
description: >
  Three MLC players are posting powerplay strike rates that would rank in IPL 2026's top 10 — above
  Virat Kohli. You almost certainly haven't heard two of their names.
tags:
  - MLC
  - IPL
  - powerplay
  - batting
status: active
last_verified: 2026-06-23
timestamp: 2026-06-23
license: CC-BY-4.0
source_system: CricketStudio
source_boundary: derived_claims_only
canonical_page: https://okf.cricketstudio.ai/stories/mlc-powerplay-batters-nobody-talks-about/
resource: https://okf.cricketstudio.ai/stories/mlc-powerplay-batters-nobody-talks-about/
entity_id: cricketstudio:story:mlc-powerplay-batters-nobody-talks-about
dataset_version: 2026-06-11
provenance:
  source: CricketStudio aggregation of Cricsheet CC BY 3.0 (cricsheet.org) — MLC all-time (2023–2025), IPL 2026
  confidence: high
  notes: >
    MLC powerplay figures are all-time across 3 seasons. IPL 2026 powerplay figures are for the
    2026 season only. Minimum qualifying threshold: 30 balls faced in the powerplay (overs 1–6).
    All figures from CricketStudio derived-claim layer.
related:
  - ../dossier/mlc-powerplay-batting-leader.md
  - ../metrics/powerplay-strike-rate.md
  - ../scorebook/players/virat-kohli.md
---

# The Powerplay Batters Nobody Is Talking About

## The Question Nobody Asked

Who are the best powerplay batters in franchise T20 cricket right now — and are they all in the IPL?

## What the Data Says

**MLC all-time powerplay leaders (minimum 30 balls):**

| Batter | Team | Powerplay SR | Balls |
|--------|------|-------------|-------|
| MJ Owen | Washington Freedom | **194.3** | 123 |
| FH Allen | San Francisco Unicorns | **188.0** | 225 |
| R Ravindra | Washington Freedom | **187.6** | 129 |

**IPL 2026 powerplay context (minimum 30 balls):**

- [Virat Kohli](https://players.cricketstudio.ai/players/virat-kohli) (Royal Challengers Bengaluru): **174.8 SR** from 206 balls — ranked #13 of 45 qualifying batters

All three MLC leaders would sit above [Kohli](https://players.cricketstudio.ai/players/virat-kohli) if placed on the IPL 2026 powerplay leaderboard.

FH Allen's 225 balls is the largest powerplay sample in MLC history — this is not a small-sample outlier.

## The Wow

The conversation about powerplay batting in franchise T20 tends to begin and end with IPL names. But across three seasons of MLC, three players — two of them relatively unknown outside North American cricket — have been producing powerplay strike rates that would rank in IPL 2026's top 10.

Owen at 194.3, Allen at 188.0, Ravindra at 187.6. [Kohli](https://players.cricketstudio.ai/players/virat-kohli) — one of the most-watched T20 batters on earth — is at 174.8.

The IPL has 74 matches per season and global broadcast reach. MLC has 34 matches per season and a fraction of the audience. The scorelines are different. The strike rates are not.

## What It Doesn't Say

MLC and IPL feature different bowling attacks, pitch conditions, and match contexts. A direct head-to-head comparison is not available in this dataset. MLC's 3-season history (75 total matches) is a smaller sample than a single IPL season (74 matches in 2026 alone), which means outlier resilience is lower for MLC figures.

This story makes no claim that MLC batters are better than IPL batters. It makes a narrower claim: on the specific metric of powerplay strike rate, with minimum-ball floors applied, these three players are in the same range as IPL's elite — and that is a fact most cricket conversations are missing.

## Related Concepts

- [MLC Powerplay Batting Leader](../dossier/mlc-powerplay-batting-leader.md)
- [Powerplay Strike Rate — metric definition](../metrics/powerplay-strike-rate.md)
- [Virat Kohli](../scorebook/players/virat-kohli.md)
