Week 1: unsuccessful chases, butter fingers and twentieth over skyscrapers

The first week of IPL 2020 is over and dusted off, with a few cliff hangers to start the tournament followed by some one-sided contests. Cricbuzz analyzes the trends and patterns that emerged in the first week of the 13th edition of the tournament.

Choose to play and lose

Unlike the regular IPL seasons that are held at the end of the Indian national season, the current tournament is held in the United Arab Emirates in the winter months. The normal thing in recent seasons has been for teams to pursue more goals in the first half of the summer and the trend is reversed in the second leg after the fields wear out.

In the ongoing IPL, the captains have chosen to chase in all seven matches and have won only once: CSK beat IM in the opening match, followed by six consecutive victories for the teams that hit first (including a win in Super Over). The reason attributed by the captains is the dew in the second half (there has not been a game day yet this season) which would help the ball reach the bat more easily, as Ambati Rayudu said after his winning shot in the only successful hit. chase of the season.

Since 2014, when the chase trend began to emerge on the T20 circuit, six games won by teams that hit first in the first week of IPL is the most this year. The teams that hit first held a 4-3 lead after the first seven games in 2015 and 2019, but the chasing teams maintained dominance in the first week in four of the other seasons in this period. Perhaps with spray in mind, teams hitting first have understood the importance of a few extra runs to account for it, resulting in the highest average of first-inning scores in recent IPL seasons.

Record after first seven games for teams that hit first

Spinners doing the job in the middle

Recent numbers from PSL and T20 Internationals involving Pakistan at all three locations in the UAE suggested that pacemakers would maintain dominance and spinners operating in a restrictive role, though they came with the caveat of Pakistan’s rich bowling resources. . So far, spinners have outperformed their counterparts in terms of average, strike, and economy rate in all three phases.

Pacers at IPL 2020

Spinners at IPL 2020

The spinners have thrown exactly 100 overs in the first week of which 83 were in the middle overs (7-15). It would be interesting to see if the captains use them more early on with the new ball in future matches. Leg spinners have mastered the procedures taking 22 plots at an economy rate of 7.60 compared to ten scalps for finger spinners at 7.66.

Fast bowlers with new ball under lights

All games thus far had a start at 6pm local time, and fast bowlers have enjoyed bowling with the new ball under the lights. In 36 overs in seven games at Powerplay in the second inning, the closers have chosen nine wickets at 25.11 with one wicket every four overs. KXIP opening bowlers Mohammed Shami and Sheldon Cottrell have been excellent with the new ball taking five wickets between them with the new ball in ten overs – KXIP only chose 12 wickets in Powerplay in all of last season. The Mumbai opening pair of Trent Boult and James Pattinson have also done well taking four wickets on the Powerplay in an economy below six.

Closers’ early wickets have often left chasing teams behind on the eight ball, pushing the required rates above ten over the middle of innings in five of the seven games so far.

Sharjah vs other places

The first seven IPL matches have seen up to 90 highs of which an IPL record of 33 came in the match between CSK and RR in Sharjah, the only match organized by the venue so far. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have seen a higher percentage of runs out of bounds and a much higher ratio of four to six compared to Sharjah, the latter being the smallest of the three venues.

Butter fingers

Most of the players are coming off a long break and have been rusty at times, especially on the pitch. The seven games have seen up to 17 receptions, 13 of which have come from the four games played in Dubai. RCB has again been at the top of the table for an unwanted record with up to six catches in two games, followed by DC who lost five. RCB also topped the missed opportunities list last season with 24 unsuccessful attempts and they duly finished as the wooden spoon carriers.

twentythover skyscrapers

In the second match of the tournament between DC and KXIP, the former went from a sub par total to a match in which he won one in six-ball space when Marcus Stoinis crushed Chris Jordan in 30 runs of the 20th – the end of an IPL match in the history of the competition. Two days later, courtesy of Jofra Archer, Lungi Ngidi equaled the record at the CSK-RR contest in Sharjah, putting the goal too far out of CSK’s reach. The 20th in first seven innings has so far seen 124 runs scored at a rate of 17.71, much higher than it has been in recent seasons.

Bowling captains these days often prefer to play with their best bowler at 19, but will this mark a change in trends?