Also: the best time for pacers to bowl, the spinners who stand out and which teams can afford to play flashy
Gaurav Sundararaman04-Apr-2022A ‘swimming pool’ of dewAs predicted in the tournament preview, dew has appeared to be a significant factor right away. Its intensity seems to vary across the four venues and teams are reluctant to bat first after winning the toss. The last time a similar trend emerged after first set of matches was in the 2018 IPL season: in the first 10 games four seasons ago, captains chose to chase each time and in nine instances the chasing team won. In 2022 the equivalent number is seven. Scores in excess of 200 have been chased down successfully twice in the season. The MCA stadium at Pune and the Wankhede stadium at Mumbai have seen dew impact far lesser than the games at Brabourne and DY Patil. As the pitches are used more often, we might see the trend reversing and more captains opting to bat first.ESPNcricinfo LtdQuicks devour the powerplayIn the first 11 games, fast bowlers have bowled exceptionally well in the powerplay, despite having just two outfielders. In this phase, pace bowlers have bowled 90% of the deliveries taking 36 wickets while spinners have bowled just 78 deliveries taking just two wickets. Bowlers like Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Prasidh Krishna have all bowled match-winning spells by leveraging the conditions: fresh green pitches, ample bounce and impressive movement both in the air and off the seam. In terms of best returns, Wankhede has been the most productive with fast bowlers accounting for 13 wickets in the powerplay; in terms of economy quicks have found the open-air ground at Pune the best, conceding 5.63 runs per over.The lengths in the powerplay have also thrown some interesting patterns. As per ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball data recorded, good length has been the most productive area with bowlers picking wickets once every 15 balls while conceding just 5.6 runs per over. Bowling short reaps rewards too – 14 wickets at 7.6 runs per over. If bowlers err in length by bowling full the batters have taken full advantage by scoring at 11.1 runs per over, keeping in mind the shorter straight boundaries and all venues. This trend could continue as the pitches are likely to favour pacers with the new ball.ESPNcricinfo Ltd Middle-overs: when do batters find the boundary?If they have been quiet in the powerplay, batters have used middle overs to conquer lost ground. Among all IPL seasons, IPL 2022 has seen the highest run-rate for batters in the middle overs (overs 7-16) scoring at 8.19 runs per over. The previous highest was 8.12 in IPL 2018. Teams are scoring a boundary every 6.4 deliveries even with a maximum of five fielders outside the circle. Rajasthan Royals have been the most prolific, scoring at 10.05 runs per over in this phase followed by Lucknow Super Giants (9.25) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (9.1).It is a change from the old formula where most teams were happy consolidating in the middle overs before going berserk in the final four. In contrast, so far this season, most teams have been bold at asking batters to have a go from ball one despite the loss of wickets. This way of thinking is often relative to how deep a team bats. Teams that have not been bold, take for example defending champions Chennai Super Kings, have suffered. One reason they are languishing at the bottom of the table is there run rate of just 7.16 runs per over in this phase.Getty ImagesWristspin = FrugalThey might not be among the highest wicket-takers yet, but spinners have kept the batters quiet, conceding 7.53 runs per over and picking up a wicket once every 23 balls. Wristspinners have taken 28 wickets at 6.61 runs per over, while fingerspinners have been a bit expensive (8.29 per over) with seven wickets.Barring R Ashwin and Sunil Narine, most other fingerspinners have struggled. In contrast wristspinners like Wanindu Hasaranga, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Rahul Chahar, Murugan Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi have all conceded less than 7.5 runs per over with wickets to show too.The high-risk, high-reward mantraTeams are finding different ways to win games in IPL 2022. In the first week, we have seen some fearless cricket by the Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings. Some teams have recruited deep batting line ups to ensure that they play a brand of cricket where wickets are not given much priority.Irrespective of the situation, the management has given batters the license to play aggressively and maximise on boundaries. With dew around, teams batting first need to look for above-par scores and hence a high risk high-reward approach seems a refreshing but risky strategy. We saw this backfire on one occasion for Punjab Kings (against KKR) and could very well backfire for other franchises like the Royals who don’t have the batting depth. However with each passing season teams are trying different approaches to be one step ahead of the opposition. It will be curious to see if these teams continue to be intent machines even if they lose games. Putting the ‘I’ in the IPLThe other fascinating trend emerging early on is that teams are willing to play with less than four overseas players. It is not only due to availability or injury, but also tactical on occasion.The ten-team league has also provided opportunity to a lot of new domestic talent who are grabbing their chances. Some names like Ayush Badoni, Tilak Varma, Vaibhav Arora, Jitesh Sharma, Lalit Yadav and Abhinav Manohar have all started very well. Early days, but if more domestic talent grab their chances, it would put pressure on overseas talent to perform consistently to find game time.
