This IPL, start not defining final scores
KOLKATA: First week of this IPL, Sunrisers Hyderabad were asked to chase 210 by Rajasthan Royals. That’s a required run rate of 10.5 per over. By the end of the powerplay though, they were 14/3—lowest ever in IPL. By 10.2 overs, Sunrisers were 37/5 but they still finished on 149/7. The chance of defeat while chasing 200 plus is always high in a T20. The story here is how SRH managed to score 135 runs in 14 overs—at almost 10 runs per over—after fluffing the first six overs that are designed to give batters an advantage as only two fielders are allowed beyond the 30-yard circle.
In fact, teams have often gone on to win despite unflattering powerplay scores this season, disputing any correlation between a team’s initial strike rate and their final score. After Sunday’s double header, SRH had the lowest powerplay run rate of 6.8. Lucknow had a midlevel 7.23. But one of the biggest reasons Lucknow were in the top two till Sunday was because they were averaging 10.52 in the slog overs (16-20).
This is where T20 has challenged conventional white-ball cricket wisdom going back to the 1992 World Cup when Mark Greatbatch executed the concept of pinch-hitting for New Zealand. Or later when Sri Lanka openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana ran away with one-dayers in the first 10 overs. Starts though are not deciding final scores anymore.
T20 is an ever-evolving format. The current strategy emboldens teams to consider 10 wickets as expendable, as long as fours and sixes can compensate for low-yielding opening overs.
Not every team has committed to this approach. Some prefer a middle ground where an anchor, ideally the opener, trades high strike rates for stability in case of shaky starts. But for every anchor, there has almost always been an ideal lower-order foil who can change the game in the last five overs. Like Liam Livingstone (strike rate 177.98) for Shikhar Dhawan (122.74) at PBKS. Or Dinesh Karthik (192.56) for Faf du Plessis (132.55) at RCB.
It also explains why there have been five contrasting centuries this IPL. RR opener Jos Buttler may have upended logic with his consistent aggression but LSG captain KL Rahul has tempered his approach, partly because openers tend to maximise their scoring opportunity by playing through the 20 overs; and partly because consistency is still valued over strike rates.
With each season, enforcers like Livingstone, Nicholas Pooran, David Miller, Rovman Powell and Andre Russell are changing that thought process.
Thus in a format where every ball presents a wide scoring range, the need to preserve wickets or steady an innings still isn’t taboo as long as a team has the right men for the right phase. Nowhere is it better highlighted than in RR who back Riyan Parag to bat in the death irrespective of a reasonably good total after 15 overs. That’s why R Ashwin famously decided to retire against Lucknow—to allow Parag the most suitable point of entry in that innings. It’s a move Ashwin said cricket is likely to witness more, not knee-jerk but the most suitable plan to exploit the slog overs so that the power play, or even the middle-overs, are taken out of the equation.