The 15th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) concluded with the debutants, Gujarat Titans winning the title in their first season itself. They defeated Rajasthan Royals in the final by seven wickets chasing down a meagre target of 131 runs with 11 balls and seven wickets in hand. GT skipper Hardik Pandya was named the “Player of the Match” for his all-round show in the game. The all-rounder returned with figures of 3/17 with the ball and then scored a crucial 34 in the chase after coming out to bat at 23/2.

As for the overall team performance, Gujarat Titans won the most matches in the league stage. They emerged victorious in 10 out of 14 games and ended the league stage at the top of the points table. The two most successful IPL teams in history, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings lost 10 matches to end at 10th and 9th positions respectively.

Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler hit the most sixes in the tournament. He sent the ball over the ropes a whopping 45 times while Liam Livingstone stood second in this aspect with 34 sixes to his name. Livingstone also smacked the longest six (117 meters) of the tournament. Andre Russell (32), KL Rahul (30), and Sanju Samson (26) followed them on this list.

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Jos Buttler topped the charts in terms of hitting fours as well smacking 83 of those with Delhi Capitals opener David Warner following with 52 strokes to the boundary. Faf du Plessis, Shubman Gill, and Quinton de Kock are the other three batters in the top five in this aspect. It was no surprise that Buttler won the “Orange Cap” as well for scoring 863 runs while Yuzvendra Chahal won the “Purple Cap” for picking 27 wickets this season.

Buttler also scored four centuries, the most, in IPL 2022 with the best score of 116. The other centurions of the season were KL Rahul, De Kock, and Rajat Patidar. Wanindu Hasaranga, Kagiso Rabada, Umran Malik, and Kuldeep Yadav were the other competitors for Chahal in the race for most wickets.

Kagiso Rabada made a comeback to Test cricket after spending nearly a year even without playing a first-class match. Rabada, who missed the last game of the home Test series against England at the start of 2020, didn’t get to play another Test until South Africa’s tour of Pakistan. He did feature in a couple of ODI and T20I matches but the COVID-19 lockdown didn’t let him feature in lockdown. Rabada was kept out of the home Test series against Sri Lanka as well due to injury risk.

Rabada did not take a long time to make a difference in Karachi where he struck twice on the evening of the first day’s play by dismissing openers of the home team. Rabada wasn’t lucky enough to strike on the 2nd day but bagged the wicket of Hasan Ali on the 3rd day morning. This turned out to be his 200th wicket in Test cricket by which he became the 3rd fastest to reach the milestone playing for South Africa. Rabada needed 44 matches for the milestone but Dale Steyn and Allan Donald got there in 39 and 42 Tests only.

Kagiso Rabada was 25 years and 248 days old on Thursday which makes him the 4th fastest player to complete 200 wickets in Test cricket. The Asian pacers Waqar Younis and Kapil Dev take the top two spots as they were 24y 26d and 24y 68d old respectively. Harbhajan Singh finds the 3rd spot in this list as he was 25 years and 248 days old at the time of his 200th Test wicket. Rabada would have finished ahead of Harbhajan if not for the year-long gap.

During the Sri Lankan tour in 2018, the speedster broke Harbhajan’s record to become the youngest player to complete 150 wickets in Test cricket. Kagiso Rabada is now the youngest player from South Africa to complete 200 wickets in Test cricket. He held a similar record when he got to 100 Test wickets during a home Test series in 2017. Rabada is also the 2nd quickest South African in terms of days from debut as only Shaun Pollock (5 years and 6 weeks) got to 200 Test wickets earlier.

(Stats as on January 28, 2021)

48.63, 45.08, 51, 49.12 and 49.97 – These were the bowling averages by Indian pace bowlers in the tours to England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand between 2011 and 2015 World Cups. Cometh 2018, the averages came down at least by 20 runs to 22.48, 28.6, 23.54 and 30.22. With the pacers making the turnaround, the Indian bowling has got better in the past 4-5 years. As a result, India has averaged under 30 with the ball in each of the last 12 Test series.

Virat Kohli, who took up the Test captaincy at the start of 2015, injected the liking for the pacers which resulted in pacers enjoying success even in Indian conditions. The last two Tests hosted by the Eden Gardens had not witnessed a wicket picked by an Indian spinner shows how much importance India has been giving for the pacers. India has gotten rid of extreme turning tracks in the last 2-3 years at home and instead focused on succeeding in sporting pitches.

This translated into India being able to bowl the opposition out very often and have a chance of winning more matches. The opponents have been bowled out twice in 40 Test matches under Kohli’s captaincy which is equivalent to 72.73 % of the 55 Tests in which the star batsman has led India. It is the highest percentage for any captain who has led in 20 or more Tests. It is marginally ahead of Steve Waugh as the Australian team bowled the opponents twice in 41 Tests out of 57 where he was in the service.

Except for MS Dhoni (51.67), no other Indian captain before Kohli had seen his bowlers bowling out the opposition twice in more than half of the matches while being in the service. At present, the Indian bowlers have been able to claim 17.33 wickets at an average in every Test match where Virat was captain. Among the captains with 20+ Tests overall, only Ricky Ponting’s Australian team (17.68) has got better figures than the Indian bowlers under Virat.

Alongside Virat Kohli’s interests in the pacers, it was the presence of Bharat Arun as bowling coach helped the Indian bowling big time. Arun had short stints with the Indian team previously but became a permanent feature since 2017. Bharat’s inclusion to the support staff didn’t go well due to his not so great record when it comes to International cricket. The former Indian pacer was fresh from the 2016-17 domestic season where he was the head coach of Hyderabad.

In his presence, the Hyderabad team witnessed a spike in results after many years, especially in the Ranji Trophy. Bharat formed a formidable pace trio featuring Mohammed Siraj (41), Chama Milind (35) and M Ravi Kiran (34) where they collectively claimed 110 wickets in just nine matches. A year later, Arun was managing the trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma who collectively bagged 109 wickets across 8 Tests played in 2018.

Before the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the pace bowlers claimed as many as 471 wickets across 55 Tests under Virat Kohli. Those wickets came at a strike rate of 50.8 which is the 3rd best under any captain. The pacers have maintained pretty good numbers even while playing less than half of those 55 matches outside Asia. The bowling attack is now good enough to deal the opposition even in the absence of Kohli for the final three Tests but his the team will surely miss his batting.

(Stats as on December 16, 2020)

The 2020 Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed many impactful performers through the tournament who helped their team earn some success while few tried to do so. CricTracker brought a special algorithm to evaluate the impact of players through the long tournament in every match. In this article, as per the CricTracker’s Match Impact Ratings, we get to know who were the top players in producing impactful performances in IPL 2020 and also the players who fell behind.

Jofra Archer stood as the IPL 2020’s MVP despite his team Rajasthan Royals finishing at the bottom of the table. Unsurprisingly, the England all-rounder was the most impactful player in our model as he earned an overall match impact of +140.42. Archer was excellent in his new-ball spells and as a result, he earned a bowling impact of +94.86 and also earned a batting impact of +45.57 thanks to his quick-fire knocks down the order in the initial half of the tournament.

Archer earned a match impact of +10.03 every game which is easily the best for any player during IPL 2020. AB de Villiers is next on the list with +8.85 as the wicketkeeper-batsman stood as the main face of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s batting through the tournament. While the RCB batsmen were restricted to strike rate of 120-130, the Superman from South Africa was striking comfortably at 150+. It was the reason why De Villiers was the player of the match for RCB in three of the seven matches they won.

De Villiers earned the second-highest match impact rating in the tournament of +132.73 which is also the highest batting impact for any player in IPL 2020. Nicholas Pooran comes close second in average batting impact per game with +7.94. The Kings XI Punjab batsman was known for his impactful performances just like ABD for RCB as the West Indian earned a batting impact of +111.14. Next on this list is Eoin Morgan with +6.29 per game as the England skipper earned a batting impact of +88.05 across 14 games.

However, the 3rd highest batting impact was recorded by Kieron Pollard with +98.39 but with the ball, his impact was negative as he was taken for runs in many matches. Talking about the best with the ball, Rashid Khan dominates most of the lists as he earned a match impact of +130.95 out of which the bowling impact was +121.3. Jasprit Bumrah is the only other bowler with a bowling impact of more than 100 as the Mumbai Indians’ spearhead finished the tournament with an impact of +112.12.

The purple cap holder Kagiso Rabada earned a bowling impact of +73.18 which was the 7th highest in IPL 2020. On most occasions, Rabada got wickets once the result of the match was a mere formality. The Orange Cap holder KL Rahul, surprisingly turned out to produce the least impact of all the players in the tournament. Rahul, who scored 670 runs, earned an impact of -35.24 through the tournament as he occupied the crease for long period in most of the matches without enough number of runs under his belt.

The 2020 IPL was an uncertain tournament with respect to impact for KL Rahul as his unbeaten 132 against RCB earned the highest match impact and batting impact in any of the 60 matches. He finished the game with an impact of +46.54 but got -27.51 in the very next match against Rajasthan Royals which is the lowest as he scored under 130 strike rate in a game where 450 runs were aggregated. Varun Chakravarthy and Tushar Deshpande earned the highest and lowest impact ratings with the ball during a match in IPL 2020.

Virat Kohli’s IPL career better be remembered for the 2016 season. The 2020 season was a mirror image of his effort four years ago. The Kohli of 2016 showed his hunger in batting, dominance over the bowlers and never seen before consistency in the T20 format which nearly got RCB their maiden title. Four years down the lane, Virat batted comfortably as he did in 2016 but pretty defensive in approach with concern over team’s batting line-up and stood as an example for how not to bat in the T20 format.

The strike rate of 152.03, 83 fours and 38 sixes defined Kohli’s glorious 2016 season but cometh 2020, a strike rate of 121.35 and a grand total of 34 boundaries in 384 balls faced. Virat Kohli ended the 2020 season with 466 runs out of which only 33.91% came through boundaries. In fact, just 8.85% balls faced by Kohli through the tournament reached the fence. These are half of what Virat managed to do so in 2016 where he had a boundary runs % of 57 while 18.9% of balls he batted got to the boundary.

One could argue the RCB’s middle and lower-order as the reason behind Kohli’s ultra-defensive batting in the tournament. Though the statement holds a bit of truth, not all teams in this format have been graced of having solid batsmen through the batting line-up. Such teams did not look beyond boundaries like Virat Kohli and RCB did through the IPL 2020. It can also be said that the Royal Challengers Bangalore couldn’t effectively use the presence of Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers in their batting line-up.

The management tried to delay De Villiers’ arrival in the match against Kings XI Punjab in Sharjah and wanted to allow the likes of Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube take on the wrist spinners. However, Kohli’s negligence in handling the off-spinner Glenn Maxwell ensured the RCB tactics didn’t work well. The wide criticism, especially from the former Indian cricketers, saw the RCB management take a back seat in replicating such tactics which indirectly contributed to the franchise’s struggles in the second half of the tournament.

The tournament saw Virat Kohli become the first player in Men’s T20 cricket to score 400+ runs in a tournament with a boundary runs % less than 40 and also boundary shots % less than 10. The difference between Kohli and the second in the two lists shows how indifferent the RCB captain fared through the tournament leaving out the dynamics of the T20 format. It seemed as if he tried to show his fitness levels and had a glorified practice session by tucking the ball around for singles and doubles.

Through the tournament, one knock of Virat Kohli which stood out was his unbeaten 90 against Chennai Super Kings which was a perfect example of his successful T20 batting template. A slow start was followed by a strong finish in the death overs with a mixture of boundaries and running between the wickets. The knock was so good that it earned an impact of +34.33 and stands among the top five most impactful performances.

However, the same sort of approach did not work for Virat Kohli from there on as he struck at only 115 across nine innings. There seemed to be no consciousness in improving the slow starts even while the team kept losing matches towards the end of the league phase. In majority matches during the tournament, Kohli was on the slower side and it resulted in him ending the tournament with a negative batting impact -15.54. This happened despite Kohli being the team’s 2nd highest run-getter and one of the top ten run-scorers across the eight sides.

670 runs, 55.83 average, six fifty-plus scores including a record 132*. These were the numbers of KL Rahul in the IPL 2020 for Kings XI Punjab while serving as captain and wicketkeeper of the team. These figures might look grand but when it comes to the impact created to the team’s success, Rahul might fall quite behind. The reason behind it being his approach through the tournament as his strike rate reads only 129.34 despite facing more than 500 balls across the league phase itself.

Rahul’s strike rate in IPL 2020 is the 2nd lowest among the players who scored at least 600+ runs in a Men’s T20 tournament. The previous lowest was of Mike Hussey who had a strike rate of 129.5 during the 2013 IPL where he amassed 733 runs across 17 matches. During that season, the average strike rate with which his team Chennai Super Kings scored was around 130 but in Rahul’s case, it was over 135, the second-highest for any team in IPL 2020.

A lot of defeats through the season could be said due to causal and defensive approach of KL Rahul. During their 5-match losing spree in the first half, Rahul even claimed that strike rate is an overrated metric indicating his thought process behind a flawed approach. This seemed as if he wanted to stay as an anchor in the KXIP team which was not the best of ideas at least for someone like him with a wide array of shots in the armour.

KL Rahul took a step back while bigger damage was done by the likes of Mayank Agarwal, Nicholas Pooran and Chris Gayle in the second half. He came into the Kings XI as a dasher but began to show a different playing style since the previous edition. In 2018, Rahul smashed 659 runs at a whopping strike rate of 158.41 which came down to 135.58 in 2019 where he scored 593 runs. The 2020 IPL saw the strike rate declining but the runs tally going up.

Despite KL Rahul scoring around 600 runs, in all the three editions, KXIP still won only six games every year. This raises doubts over the correctness in Rahul’s approach despite being their prolific run-getter. Unfortunately, despite being the Orange Cap holder in IPL 2020, KL Rahul earned an impact of -35.24 through the tournament which is easily the lowest for any player. One of the reasons being him playing 30-40 balls but the returns weren’t enough to make a positive effect for the team’s cause.

His record unbeaten 132 against the Royal Challengers Bangalore was quite a knock as it helped him earn an impact of +46.54 which is the highest for any player during a match in IPL 2020. During the very next game against Rajasthan Royals, Rahul got an impact of -27.51 which is the worst for any player in the tournament in a match. Rahul batted 54 balls but only scored 69 runs while the rest of 11 overs got KXIP as many as 154 runs and their total of 223/2 wasn’t enough at the Sharjah.

Sunrisers Hyderabad, the winners of the Eliminator against RCB will be up against the Delhi Capitals, the losing side of the first Qualifier on Sunday. While the SRH team are relying on the momentum by winning four of their last five games, the Delhi franchise is hoping to get some stability at least in the batting. They suffered four defeats in their past five matches and have not got any decent starts for the opening pairs.

Change in David Warner’s powerplay approach:

David Warner began the season with performances very unlike of him as the Australian struggled to get going in the powerplay. Across the first ten matches of SRH in this IPL, Warner got to open in nine of them where he aggregated only 135 runs at a strike rate little over 105.25. But since the game against Kings XI Punjab, the turnaround of Sunrisers seemed to have begun in form of their skipper Warner.

Despite losing a thriller to KXIP, the start provided by Warner in that game was a highlight and start of good things for Sunrisers. He blasted a fifty inside the powerplay in the following game against Delhi Capitals. Across the last five matches, Warner amassed 136 runs during the powerplay overs at a strike rate of 160; only one run more than what he managed in the first ten games.

Ashwin – The big match player:

Ravichandran Ashwin hasn’t got a chance to feature in an IPL playoff over the last four seasons but made most of the chance when he took on Mumbai Indians. The off-spinner got the big wickets of Rohit Sharma, Quinton de Kock and Kieron Pollard but in vain. It was the 3rd time Ashwin picked three or more wickets in an IPL knockout/playoff match but only four times during the league phase. The pitch slowing down towards the end of the season seems to be aided in Ashwin’s wicket-taking ability though the economy rate remains the same.

Can Delhi able to survive Rashid threat?

Delhi Daredevils was easily the toughest opponent for Rashid Khan in the IPL during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. However, the leg-spinner managed to turn the tables with some tight bowling which ended up fetching wickets. Between 2017 and 2018, Rashid picked only two wickets in four matches against the Delhi franchise but claimed as many as four scalps across the three games played in 2019. During the ongoing season, Rashid has bagged 3-wicket hauls in both the meetings against Delhi Capitals and expects to continue his supreme record of late against them.

(Stats as on November 7, 2020)

Sunrisers Hyderabad will be up against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday as they aim to inch closer to reach yet another IPL final. Both the teams have got some of the top class International players on whom they are relying to win. David Warner’s recent form has strengthened the Sunrisers who were ordinary with the bat until the last week. The Bangalore franchise will be looking to improve their performance having won only two matches in the second half of the league phase.

Can SRH stop De Villiers yet again?

AB de Villiers batting at the death for too long is probably the only thing that could stop the Sunrisers Hyderabad getting into the 2nd qualifier. De Villiers has got some impressive numbers at the death in the last 3-4 IPL seasons. Though the sample size is small, his record against spin during this period isn’t that convincing. ABD had his share of struggles while facing spinners in IPL 2020 and bowling them at the death against the South African could be a ploy.

With two spinners in form of Rashid Khan and Shahbaz Nadeem in their line-up, the Sunrisers could well save an over or two for the death against De Villiers if he stays for longer at the crease. In general, the likes of Sandeep Sharma and Jason Holder account for 2-3 overs during the death. Since the start of 2017, De Villiers has smashed Sandeep for 30 runs in just ten balls at the death and his history against Holder is a well-known one.

Will Kohli able to change his intent against spin?

Virat Kohli has been quite defensive while facing spin bowlers in IPL 2020 as he averages 110 but at a strike rate of only 108.91. Virat managed to hit just 13 boundaries in over 200 balls against spin this season. Though Kohli averages only 30 against pacers in IPL 2020, he has managed to strike at 135.59 but his percentage of boundary balls is only 11.86. With at least 5-6 overs of spin is likely to be bowled by SRH between 7th and 15th over, it will be a big challenge for the RCB skipper to find boundaries which he has failed to do regularly this season.

Rashid’s dominance during the middle:

Rashid Khan’s bowling numbers in the IPL just keep getting better every passing season. The leg-spinner, in IPL 2020, has become a lethal bowling option for the Sunrisers Hyderabad during the middle overs. During the league phase, Rashid bowled as many as 50 overs between 7th and 15th overs. He bagged a total of 18 wickets during this phase; the most he picked during the middle overs in any edition of the IPL. Rashid’s economy of 5.14 during the middle overs in 2020 is also the best in any IPL season.

(Stats as on November 6, 2020)

Mumbai Indians produced a near-perfect performance during the league phase except for the final game against the Sunrisers Hyderabad where they suffered a 10-wicket defeat. However, the loss might not affect MI’s confidence during the playoffs as they went into the game without top two leading wicket-takers. They will be facing Delhi Capitals during the first Qualifier in Dubai on Thursday. Mumbai had defeated Delhi at the same venue during the previous week only.

Where should Bumrah bowl?

Jasprit Bumrah has excelled with the ball in almost all the phases in the IPL 2020. The presence of Trent Boult and one of James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile didn’t let Bumrah have many powerplay overs. But whenever he was given the ball, he struck gold for Mumbai Indians by picking five wickets in only 14 overs. In the middle overs, Jasprit claimed six wickets across 15 overs while going at an economy rate of 5.67 only.

Mumbai Indians could once again delay the entry of Jasprit Bumrah as the Delhi Capitals’ top-order batters have often got away while facing the MI pacer. His 3-wicket haul earlier on Saturday caused a collapse to the Delhi at the same venue where the two teams will clash in the first qualifier. If there is a bit of help with the new ball, Trent Boult could well contain the Delhi’s top three like he did in the league phase.

Can Pollard continue his batting form?

Kieron Pollard is having a great year in the T20 format in 2020 as he led the Trinbago Knight Riders to CPL title and has delivered for the Mumbai Indians whenever they were in trouble. In IPL 2020, Pollard has been striking at 221.8 during the death overs which is only the 2nd season where he has struck at 200+ strike rate in the death overs after his debut IPL season (227.8 in 2010). In between the two seasons, Pollard had 150+ strike rate at death in six editions and MI went on to win the title in five of them.

Can Iyer rescue Delhi?

The batting form of Delhi Capitals in the last two weeks hasn’t been an inspiring one which contributed to their 4-match losing streak before defeating RCB. While Shikhar Dhawan has stepped up often in Delhi’s wins, their skipper Shreyas Iyer hasn’t been at his best barring a couple of knocks early on in the tournament. His numbers against left-arm spin and leg-spinners are pretty poor in IPL 2020 and against MI, he will be up against Rahul Chahar and Krunal Pandya. Hence, the qualifier is going to be a big challenge for the Delhi Capitals and their captain.

(Stats as on November 4, 2020)

The Victorian opening pair of Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris rewrote Sheffield Shield’s record books with their record-breaking partnership over the weekend. In the match against South Australia in Geelong, the duo put on 486 for the first wicket after the opposition bowled out for only 200 in the first inning.

On the second day of the game, the Victorian pair added 380 runs without being dismissed before creating records on the 3rd day morning. Harris fell at his individual score of 239 while Pucovski, opening for the first time in FC cricket, finished with an unbeaten 255 as Victoria declared their innings at 564/3.

Here are the major stats and records created by Victoria’s opening pair against South Australia:

1 – Will Pucovski (255*) and Marcus Harris (239) became the first opening pair in the history of Sheffield Shield to score double centuries. The Victoria’s opening pair of Edgar Mayne and Bill Ponsford scored 209 and 248 respectively in the 1923-24 season against Queensland but it was a first-class game played outside of Sheffield Shield.

2 – Will Pucovski is now only the 3rd player in Sheffield Shield to score multiple double centuries before turning 23. He scored 243 against Western Australia during the 2018-19 season while batting at No.3 position. Sir Donald Bradman (4) and Greg Blewett (2) are the other players with multiple double tons in Sheffield Shield before turning 23.

14 – Pucovski also became the 14th player in first-class cricket to sleep on 199* as he was unbeaten on 199 at stumps on day two. All those 14 players including Pucovski went on to score their 200th run on the following day. The last of the previous 13 players to sleep on 199* in FC cricket was Shubman Gill during the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy.

486 – The opening stand of 486 between Will Pucovski and Marcus Harris is now the highest for any wicket in the history of Sheffield Shield. The pair broke the record held by Waugh twins (Mark and Steve) with their unbeaten 464-run stand for New South Wales in 1990. The Waugh brothers recorded the 464-run partnership for the 5th wicket against Western Australia.

486 – The 486-run stand by Pucovski-Harris pair is also the 6th highest opening stand in the history of first-class cricket and the 2nd highest FC partnership on Australian soil for the first wicket. The pair of Ryan Carters and Aaron Finch added 503 for Cricket Australia XI in 2015 against the tour New Zealanders.