Indian T20 League: Summary and comparison across 5 seasons

After two months of non-stop T20 action, the Indian League finally takes a break. Here, our analyst talks about key comparisons through all the five seasons of the tournament.

First, the final summary table. The brief comments are given later.

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	ALL YEARS
	India	S.A	India	India	India	India
Matches	59	59	60	73	74	325
Big wins	27	20	31	38	29	145
Big wins %	45.8	33.9	51.7	52.1	39.2	44.6
First Batting wins	22	27	32	32	34	147
First Batting wins %	37.3	45.8	53.3	43.8	45.9	45.2
Avge 1st inns score	158	145	165	152	158	156
Avg win run margins	31.6	27.9	30.5	34	28.2	30.4
Second Batting wins	37	32	28	40	40	177
Second Batting wins %	62.7	54.2	46.7	54.8	54.1	54.5
Avge Wkts left	6.2	6	6.8	6.9	6	6.4
Avge Balls left	18.2	15.2	13.7	15.2	9.8	14.4
Last ball wins	5	4	0	3	7	19
Last ball wins %	13.5	12.5	0	7.5	17.5	10.7
Last over wins	13	14	11	11	19	68
Last over wins %	35.1	43.8	39.3	27.5	47.5	38.4
Runs scored	17937	16320	18873	21154	22453	96737
Scoring Rate	8.31	7.48	8.13	7.73	7.83	7.89
Hundreds	6	2	4	6	6	24
Matches/Hundreds	9.8	29.5	15	12.2	12.3	13.5
Wkts	689	699	721	813	857	3779
Wkts per match	11.7	11.8	12	11.1	11.6	11.6
Runs/Wicket	26	23.3	26.2	26	26.2	25.6
Balls/Wicket	18.8	18.7	19.3	20.2	20.1	19.5
Four-wkt hauls	11	12	6	13	18	60
Matches/4wkt-hauls	5.4	4.9	10	5.6	4.1	5.4
Bow-Wkts per match	10.2	10.6	10.5	10.1	10.4	10.4
Run outs	85	76	93	74	85	413
Run outs/match	1.44	1.29	1.55	1.01	1.15	1.27
Extras	1128	975	1129	1226	1131	5589
Extras/match	19.1	16.5	18.8	16.8	15.3	17.2
No Balls	82	78	73	86	63	382
No balls/match	1.39	1.32	1.22	1.18	0.85	1.18
Wides	596	522	640	644	609	3011
Wides/match	10.1	8.8	10.7	8.8	8.2	9.3
Fours	1702	1316	1709	1913	1911	8551
Fours/match	28.8	22.3	28.5	26.2	25.8	26.3
Sixes	622	506	586	639	731	3084
Sixes/match	10.5	8.6	9.8	8.8	9.9	9.5
Runs in boundaries	10540	8300	10352	11486	12030	52708
Boundary share %	58.8	50.9	54.9	54.3	53.6	54.5

 

Around the half-way stage of the 2012 Indian T20 League, I had done an analysis of the current season until then. This is a similar analysis with extended scope. I have added new measures for analysis and have also computed the values for all five editions for comparisons.

First, let me look at areas where Season 5 was in consonance with the total picture. The important points are summarized below.

- More matches are won chasing than defending. There is a near-10% differential across all years which was maintained in 2012.

- Many key measures such as average first innings score, scoring rate, batting and bowling averages, bowling strike rate, frequency of fours and sixes, share of boundaries etc., have been similar this year and across all seasons. There have been only minor acceptable variations.

Now, let us look for the measures in which this year’s competition showed significant variations. All comparisons are only between figures of the 2012 season and All Years.

1. The average win-margin in runs has been 28.2 against 30.4, a clear drop of 2 runs, indicating close matches. This is further strengthened when we look at the chasing wins. The average wicket margin is 6.0 as against 6.8. But more obviously, the average balls left is only 9.8, as compared to 14.4 across years. This is significant.

2. This is emphasized by my next measure: the number of last-ball wins. There have been 7 such wins, leading to a frequency of 17.5% as compared to 10.7% across years. Similarly, the frequency of last-over wins stands at 47.5% as against 38.4%. One possible reason might be that the current captains tend to bowl their best bowlers (Malinga, Morkel, Steyn, and Narine) in the 19th over rather than 20th. It is a moot point whether they have lost matches because of this practice. 

3. The percentage of big wins, defined “by greater than 30 runs” or “with over 30 balls to spare” or “with over 6 balls and over 5 wickets to spare”, has dropped significantly by over 5%, indicating a more balanced contest between bat and ball.

4. There is very slight drop in the frequency of hundreds. Conversely, there is a huge drop in the frequency of 4-wicket hauls, from 5.4 to 4.1. This is a welcome trend towards the bowlers.

5. There is a distinct drop in the extras conceded per match from 17.2 to 15.3. The no-balls per match have had a huge drop, from 1.18 to 0.85. For the first time, it has gone below one per match. The free-hit rule seems to be working. The number of wides has also shown a similar drop from 9.2 to 8.2.

6. The bowler wickets per match have remained steady while there is a slight drop in the number of run-outs per match.

7. The fours hit per match has dropped slightly but is compensated by a slight increase in the number of sixes hit per match. The overall boundary percentage figures are comparable.