What went wrong for teams this season

It was all downhill for Rajasthan Royals after five consecutive victories, equalling the best ever start by any team in the IPL. One of the primary reasons for Royals' dismal showing was their bowling during the last five overs of the innings. Their economy rate of 11.6 during those overs was the worst for any team. Each of their key bowlers - James Faulkner, Tim Southee and Shane Watson - went for more than 12 runs per over towards the end of innings. All of Royals' bowlers combined took only 22 wickets during the death overs; Dwayne Bravo has taken 21 wickets in the last five.

Having finished bottom of the table in the 2013 and 2014 IPLs, Delhi Daredevils just avoided the embarrassment this year by finishing second from bottom. Daredevils have overhauled their squad a couple of times in the recent past but to no avail. Daredevils have used 64 players since the 2011 IPL, the most by any team. Chennai Super Kings used only 38 players in this period. During the 2015 IPL, Daredevils used 20 players, the most by any team.

Runners up in the 2014 IPL, Kings XI Punjab assured themselves of the wooden spoon a couple of games before the league stage had even ended. Poor starts were a major reason. They lost 32 wickets in the Powerplay, which was 10 more than any other team at the end of the league stage. Their batsmen averaged 19.5 in the first six overs, while every other team averaged at least 26.7. This was further reinforced by the fact that Kings XI lost three wickets for less than 50 runs in seven of their 14 matches.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the only Sunrisers Hyderabad bowler in the list of top ten wicket-takers this IPL. Also, no Sunrisers bowler took a single four-wicket haul; bowlers from every other team took at least one. Sunrisers' bowlers sent down only one maiden over during this IPL, which was the fewest for any team. Praveen Kumar, Dale Steyn, Karn Sharma and Trent Boult would have been considered among Sunrisers key bowlers at the start of the season, but none of them took more than 10 wickets.

Three Kolkata Knight Riders batsmen - Gautam Gambhir, Andre Russell and Yusuf Pathan - made 300-plus runs this IPL, but none of them made it to 400 runs. Six of the other seven teams (except Kings XI) had at least one batsman making 400-plus runs. As a batting unit, Knight Riders averaged 24.85, the second-lowest after Kings XI (18.33). They only posted eight 50-plus scores, also the second-fewest after Kings XI (5). Further, Knight Riders batsmen only hit 64 sixes this IPL, the fewest for any team.