An IPL for the openers

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In nine of 12 IPL matches so far, the Man of the Match has been an opening batsman. In another match, AB de Villiers, almost an opener after Chris Gayle fell early, won the award. Andre Russell and Amit Mishra round off the list, rewarded for their bowling. Eight of the nine top run-getters at this stage are openers. De Villiers is the exception, but he has had to bat from the first and second overs anyway. Opening batsmen dominating the run charts may be expected, but there has been a clear shift this IPL season. The match-defining contributions are coming from the top of the order, and not through late assaults.

This could be because, since the World T20, teams have held their best bowlers back until after the Powerplay. Rollicking starts have been ending in middling totals, and maintaining a run rate of ten an over in the final eight overs - usually par in T20 cricket when batting first - has not been easy. In the first six overs though, the ball is new, a batsman has time to get set, the field is up, and on fast Indian outfields even mis-hits race away.

It seems the openers have reacted well to this change in trend. After 12 IPL matches, they have scored 1705 runs at an average of 41.58. Those figures are comfortably higher than the previous record - 1520 runs and 34.54 - at a similar point in an IPL season. And since 2008, only once has their strike rate been better than the current 135.64.

As a measure of how difficult it has been to bat after the Powerplay, batsmen who have come in between the seventh and 12th overs have scored only 565 runs between them at a strike rate of 119.95. That the aggregate for such batsmen has been so little - previous lowest was 643 - is possibly because the openers are batting longer, but the strike rate - third-lowest in nine seasons - points to the general slowdowns once the field restrictions are lifted.

The best place to bat in T20 cricket is at the top, and if you are chasing, you know exactly what your target is and can pace yourself accordingly. But the real genius is in pacing yourself while batting first. An opener needs to suss the pitch and conditions early, set a match-winning total while making sure not to overreach, which could lead to the loss of too many wickets and a stalling of momentum.

Faf du Plessis, No. 4 on the run-getters list, has scored both his fifties in losing causes. The second of those came at a strike rate of 126, with no real threat of falling wickets, and played a part in the Rising Pune Supergiants not getting to a par score. Gautam Gambhir, the highest run-getter after 12 matches, chased a target of 143 with aplomb against Sunrisers Hyderabad, but when Knight Riders failed to defend 187 against Mumbai Indians, his half-century at a strike rate of 123 stood out.

In a tournament that could end up being dominated by the opening batsmen, they need to find a way to get better when batting first, when there is no target in sight and when they have to judge the conditions and set the pace.

Stats inputs from Shiva Jayaraman