How all the Australians fared at the Indian Premier League

Mumbai Indians return to the Indian Premier League playoffs for the first time in three years tonight and it's their Aussie investments that are starting to pay dividends.

Cameron Green has undoubtedly been the star with his maiden T20 century lifting the franchise over Royal Challengers Bangalore and into the top four, but fellow West Australians Tim David and Jason Behrendorff, and Riley Meredith have also been crucial to Mumbai's surge from wooden-spooners in 2022 to title-contenders a year later.

Having instantly become the most expensive Australian buy at the IPL auction last December, Green entered his first tournament with an enormous weight on his shoulders.

But he revealed there was no pressure from within the Mumbai setup even after a slow start to the campaign where his top score in the first four games was an unbeaten 17.

"As soon as I got over here, they said 'absolutely no pressure' from them, from all the coaching staff, from all the backroom people," Green said after his unbeaten 100 on Sunday.

"So I can just basically go out there and play and thankfully it's an awesome batting line up to bat with.

"When you go out there you never really go in with a plan to bat the whole innings because you got awesome guys behind you.

"All you're trying to do is show intent for as long as you can and then if you get out there's someone if not better coming in, so it's a pretty nice team to bat in."

Having only played 21 career T20 matches when he was snapped up by Mumbai for A$3.15m, Green's first IPL experience has been filled with "learnings", but the star allrounder's consistent 381-run and six-wicket season has been befitting of his price tag. 

His unbeaten 47-ball 100 against Sunrisers Hyderabad last Sunday was the standout performance among all Australians in IPL 2023, but prior to that there were consecutive half-centuries against Hyderabad and Punjab Kings.

"I'm quite inexperienced in T20 cricket, especially at the death. Having 'Polly' (Kieron Pollard) as the batting coach, he's played so much T20 cricket and there's so much knowledge he can pass on to all the younger guys in the squad, so I think I've taken a few things off him," Green said.

"That's the benefit of playing this IPL, you're around all the best coaches, you're around all the best players and the competition is the best in the world so you're always going to be learning.

"Any time you can get exposed to subcontinent conditions as an Australian, you're not really used to how low the ball skids and how much it spins so any experience you get over here is so valuable.

"The last three-and-a-half months I've had here has been obviously so valuable and hopefully holds me in good stead coming here again."

Left-armer Behrendorff hadn't played an IPL match since 2019 (he was part of CSK's squad in 2021 and RCB's in 2022) but grabbed his lifeline with Mumbai this year to become their most successful pace bowler during the regular season.

"It's great to be back part of the IPL, I've had some consistent cricket over the past couple of years as well which has (paid off)," he said.

David again proved why Mumbai splashed A$1.53m in last year's mega auction to secure one of the world's most destructive T20 batters in recent times.

While his time in the middle this IPL has been limited by Mumbai's star-studded batting depth with Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan all firing at the top of the order, David showed why he is so valuable with his tournament strike rate of 166.15 placing him in the top six fastest scorers of those to have hit more than 200 runs for the season.

He's also risen to the occasion when his side has needed him, no more so than when he smashed 45 not out from 14 balls with five sixes to secure a famous victory over Rajasthan Royals on April 30.

Meredith has also played his part when given an opportunity but was kept out of the side initially by Jofra Archer before he suffered a recurrence of an elbow stress fracture that ruled him out of the tournament and then by his compatriot Chris Jordan.

Marcus Stoinis has been leading the charge at Lucknow – Mumbai's opponents for Wednesday night's Eliminator at MA Chidambaram Stadium – topping the club's runs (368) and sixes tally (26).

His unbeaten 89 on a difficult batting surface in their last match against Mumbai highlighted how important he has been to their fortunes this season. Daniel Sams has also been part of the Super Giants squad but is yet to play a game this season.

Royal Challengers Bangalore stalwart Glenn Maxwell again epitomised his consistency in the shortest format with another stellar season, with two match-winning knocks against Rajasthan and half-centuries against Mumbai, Lucknow and Chennai Super Kings.

He's also picked up crucial wickets throughout the tournament, but ultimately it was Green heroics on Sunday that edged RCB out of playoffs contention.

It was a frustrating campaign for RCB's second Aussie recruit Josh Hazlewood, who didn't play until May 1 after hurting his Achilles during the SCG Test in January, and then missed the final few matches of the campaign with side soreness.

Another Australian who struggled with injury was Mitch Marsh, who also missed the latter stages of the tournament with a minor adductor strain.

But he proved a weapon with the ball when he did play with 12 wickets in just 20.1 overs to finish as the Delhi Capitals leading wicket-taker for the season.

The competition's all-time highest overseas run-scorer David Warner didn't disappoint in his 14th IPL season, finishing the regular season runs tally in seventh spot and notching six half-centuries.
Warner now has 6397 career IPL runs at 41.53 with only Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan above him in the all-time standings.

Nathan Ellis again showed why he is one of nation's best death bowlers, sending down the most overs of all Australians in the tournament and conceding 8.92 runs per over, while also picking up the best figures of his IPL career (4-30) against Rajasthan Royals.

His Punjab Kings teammate Matt Short showed glimpses of his destructive best during his maiden stint in the IPL after signing as a replacement for Jonny Bairstow, with the KFC BBL|12 player of the tournament registering scores of 36 and 34 in his six matches.

And 2022 IPL champion Matthew Wade hasn't featured yet for Gujarat Titans this season but his franchise remains in contention to go back-to-back and will face the winner of tonight's clash on Friday after losing to Chennai Super Kings last night.