It is that time of the year again, where every cricket fanatic around the world gets glued to their electronic devices and multiple youngsters get a chance to make an impact in the world of cricket. We are kick-starting with the 15th edition of the Indian Premier League with two new teams making their way into the tournament. It's gonna be a jam-packed tournament with a lot of fresh faces backed with experienced players in the team setup.
The tournament kickstarts with a banger where the Chennai Super Kings face off against Kolkata Knight Riders, a repeat of the last IPL final. So before we get geared up, it is always interesting to know some facts and analysis of a cricket match and improve our knowledge of the game.
Let us first analyze some of the interesting battles between the batters and the bowlers:-
Matchups
Andre Russell vs DJ Bravo
The battle between Russell and Bravo has always been an interesting but predominantly one-sided affair with the former dominating the latter. As we can see in the above chart, Russell has a strike rate of a whopping 232 and 400 in the middle and death overs respectively and he scores a boundary at less than 3 balls in the middle overs. It will be interesting to see how Bravo tackles Russell once they come face to face on March 26.
Aaron Finch vs Deepak Chahar
The experienced Aaron Finch was announced as the replacement for Alex hales and he is touted to occupy the opening slot along with Venkatesh Iyer. Finch has always struggled against swing in the powerplay, especially the ones that swing into the batter.
Here we can see that Deepak Chahar has had the better of Finch twice in 17 balls and his swing bowling early on made Finch take a more defensive approach in the powerplay. Finch will be up for a challenge against the likes of Adam Milne and Rajvardhan Hangargekar who are known not only for their pace but their ability to swing the ball early in the powerplay.
Ambati Rayudu vs Sunil Narine
Ambati Rayudu has been the backbone of CSK in the top and middle-order ever since their comeback in 2018 scoring 1499 runs and striking at 130. His Duel with Sunil Narine is one to watch out for. He has been very sedate against Narine in the powerplay, striking at just 37.5 with a dot ball every 1.45 balls.
Though he has remained not out in the powerplay, he has got out thrice to Narine in the middle overs and struck at just above 107 with a high ball per boundary value of 8. Sunil Narine might have lost the touch he possessed earlier but he is still a tricky bowler to face.
MS Dhoni vs Sunil Narine, Varun Chakravarthy
MS Dhoni might have lost the touch that he had possessed a few years back but his struggles against spin have been quite evident throughout his IPL career in comparison to his performances against pacers. He has been dismissed 17 times against leg spinners and struck at a meager 108 and a high dot percentage of 42 (highest among all types of bowlers).
His struggle against Narine in IPL has been constant throughout seasons and he scored his first boundary against Narine last year in IPL. His record against Narine in the death is below par striking at just below 60 without any boundaries. He has also faced CV Varun thrice in his career and has been dismissed all three times with a googly.
Team-wise Performance
Batting Performance
Under this chart, let us analyze the batting performance of both teams across all three phases of play since 2018.
First, let's analyze the performances of CSK. In the powerplay, CSK have predominantly gone for sedate starts striking at close to 115 with a boundary in every over (Balls per boundary of 5.63). They have struck at a considerably higher strike rate of 121 in the middle overs at around 7.25 runs per over and a considerably low dot percentage due to an increase in strike rotation tendency.
But they had complete shifted the gears in the death overs by striking at a colossal 185 at 11.1 runs per over and a very high runs per dismissal value of 33 another interesting fact to note is that they have got dismissed the least number of times in the death overs among all the teams in the past 4 years (58 times).
Kolkata, on the other hand, have struck at a reasonably higher strike rate of 124.4, at marginally higher runs per over and at lower balls per boundary.
Though they struck at a higher rate than CSK in the middle overs, their runs per dismissal rate were also much lower in comparison to CSK’s and they had lost the most number of wickets in the middle overs among any team since 2018 (189 dismissals).
Though their run rate in the death overs seems to be a pleasing number, they seem to have a considerably high dot percentage and third-lowest runs per overvalue in this phase among teams since 2018 (9.41).
Bowling Performance
Under this chart, let us analyze the batting performance of both teams across all three phases of play since 2018.
Analyzing CSK’s performance- So here we can see that CSK have generally been able to get a wicket at an average in the powerplay and they have also been able to maintain a very good dot percentage value(highest among all teams) and economy rate. They have maintained an equally good record in the middle overs and have considered a boundary only every 8 balls.
But when it comes to the death overs, they have leaked a lot of runs with a very high economy rate (highest among all the teams) and also took over 15 balls to fetch a wicket (highest among all the teams). Chennai would be eager to rectify their death bowling with the combo of Jordan, Bravo and Milne.
Analyzing KKR’s performance - KKR had a similar trend in comparison to CSK in the powerplay but the latter maintained a better economy rate and higher balls per boundary. KKR had a much better wicket-taking ability in the middle overs with a wicket every 20 balls which is the lowest among all the teams since 2018.
They also have a significantly better record in the death overs in comparison to CSK with a wicket every 11 balls, a better economy rate of 9.78 and a higher dot percentage of 37.82(highest among all the teams). KKR don't have an all-out death bowler but with the experienced combo of Russell, Southee and Shivam Mavi, we will expect a jam-packed performance from them.
Bowling type stats at Wankhede
The following piechart gives a basic overview of the percentage of wickets taken by each bowling type in Wankhede.
The piechart clearly shows that close to 50 per cent of the wickets in Wankhede have been taken by right-arm fast and fast-medium pacers. Though spinners have got some assistance out of the surface with about 20 per cent of the wickets taken by off-spinners, the pitch has mostly been dominant for pace bowlers, especially in the powerplay and ever since 2018, the contribution by off-spinners have come down to 13.2 per cent.
An interesting point to note here is that, although Wankhede has always favoured pacers in the powerplay to swing the ball early up and though we expect a similar trend of dominance from pacers in the other phases, close to 45 per cent of the wickets in the middle overs in Wankhede has been taken by spinners and 32 per cent of them are from off-spinners.
Interesting Facts
Ambati Rayudu has a strike rate of over 125 against most of the types of bowlers except leg spinners. He has scored 214 runs in 218 balls and has been dismissed a whopping 8 times against them in the middle overs since 2018.
Shreyas Iyer and Nitish Rana too have had a fair share of trouble against the wrist spinners since 2018. The former has been dismissed 10 times in the middle overs by leg spinners and struck at a mere 107.2 while the latter has also been dismissed 10 times but struck at a better strike rate of 119
Nitish Rana also had a fair share of problems against right-arm fast bowlers in the powerplay. He has a meager strike rate of 71 in the powerplay and has been dismissed 4 times in the 63 balls he faced against them in this phase.
CSK sensation, Ruturaj Gaikwad has proven to be a consistent performer and has been applauded for the way he paces his innings but he too has his fair share of problems against left-arm pacers in the powerplay. He has a below-par strike rate of 79 and he has been also dismissed 5 times in 8 innings against the pace attack.
These analytically driven stats give us a clear idea of where the teams stand and also gives us an overall SWOT analysis. It also gives a good viewpoint for the fans to understand the differences involved before they dive deep into the live game.