IPL Mid-Season Trends: Slower Starts, Bowling Value, and Venue Patterns | Cricbuzz.com

Five of the top nine wicket wearers of the season are pacemakers for the top teams: Mumbai and Delhi.

With half of the league phase matches finished and dusted off, Cricbuzz looks at the various trends and patterns that have emerged from the 28 matches so far.

Hit first and win

In later IPL seasons, chasing teams often won early in the season and the trend is reversed in the second half when pitches wear out and the second bat gets tough.

However, this season has seen a whopping 75% success rate for the team that hit first, winning 21 of the 28 games so far. Halfway through each of the previous six editions, the chasing teams won more than they had lost midway through the league phase.

There have only been two editions of IPL when first-time hitting teams won more than 50% of the games in the entire season – 2010 (53.3%) and 2015 (54.2%) – and 2020 seems set to go. exceed the previous figures. The average of the first scores so far has been 182, which is significantly on the higher side, the previous highest for an entire season was 172 in 2018.

The teams have realized this and have changed their strategies accordingly. In the first 14 games, the captains who won the draw chose to field up to 12 times. In the next 14, 11 captains have chosen to set a goal.

Start slow and finish big

The entire Indian contingent and many foreign players were playing their first competitive game during this IPL after a long hiatus and, as expected, they started rudely. This has mostly been reflected in Powerplay scores as this is where starters mostly hit and have the luxury of playing a few balls to get a feel for conditions. The first overs run rate read 7.50, which is the lowest in an IPL season in the past seven years for this phase of innings. In the 56 innings so far, there have only been four Powerplay scores above 60 and none above 69.

Starting hitters have generally struggled to get going despite relatively minor help for fast new-ball players in these parts of the world. The ball barely moved beyond the first three overs and there was very little grass in the gates to ensure movement of the seam. Despite this, the hitter, the starters in particular, liked to take a look before starting. None of the starting hitters this season have scored at a hit rate higher than 142.

On the other hand, teams have preferred to hit big in death overs. Six of the eight sides score more than ten runs ahead in the kill phase, while KKR scores 9.97. The only team that has struggled this season so far in this phase is Sunrisers, which scores 9.29. Despite the Sunrisers’ poor numbers, this season’s death overs scoring rate was less than 11, which is by far the highest in any IPL season.

Of the 12 instances of most runs scored between 16 and 20 in IPL, four have come this season. The Rajasthan Royals scored 86 in the final five designated overs in their chase against the Kings XI in Sharjah, which set a new tournament record and was nearly eclipsed in less than 24 hours when Mumbai reached 89 to tie their game against RCB in Dubai

Sharjah for hitters, Abu Dhabi for pacemakers and Dubai for spinners

Of the more than 11,200 totals in the tournament so far, seven have come in Sharjah. Hitters have liked the flat field and short limits in place and nearly two-thirds of the runs here have entered the limits. Although it must be said that totals are now starting to drop slightly in Sharjah, the overall average in the first three games was 217, which has dropped to 168 in the last three games.

Scoring patterns at each location

The Pacers have enjoyed Abu Dhabi, taking 70 wickets at 28.93 and a wicket per 20.7 balls. This could also be attributed to two heavyweight teams that play the majority of their matches here: Mumbai and Kolkata. In Powerplay, pacemakers have taken 22 wickets to 33.27 in Abu Dhabi, which is significantly lower than in Dubai (41.95) and Sharjah (60.44). The large limits of the squares make it difficult to clear the ropes in Abu Dhabi so frequently, compared to the other two places, as indicated by the economy death rate in the three terrains (9.92 in Abu Dhabi, 11 , 30 in Dubai and 12.13 in Sharjah).

Pacers in every place

Dubai has been a middle ground in terms of race score and pacemaker assistance. But they have been of great help to the spinners, who have particularly enjoyed bowling in the middle of this place. The teams that played second have won ten of the 12 matches in Dubai, which is largely attributed to the way the spinners have operated in the second inning at this venue.

Spinners in Dubai

Pacemakers and leg twists dominate wicket charts, twist fingers aid in Powerplay

Of the top 15 wicket keepers of the season after 28 games, 11 are fast throwers and the remaining four are players. Five of the season’s top nine wicket bearers are scorers for the top teams, Mumbai and Delhi, underscoring the importance of bowling power in staying on the points table. Left arm closers have been impressive with the new ball taking 20 wickets at 30.90 and a hit rate of 24.9 on Powerplay compared to 31 wickets at 48.29 for right arm rapids.

Rhythm vs twist this season

Rashid Khan and Yuzvendra Chahal’s leg spin has dominated the middle overs, where they controlled the game by choosing terrain and making it difficult to score runs. Finger spinners, on the other hand, have been a great help in Powerplay with players like Washington Sundar, Axar Patel and R Ashwin doing stellar work within the first six overs.

Spinner statistics

* All statistics updated up to match 28 – RCB vs KKR, Sharjah