Legspin the flavour of the season

39 Wickets taken by legspinners this season, the most they have taken after 20 matches across all IPLs. It is also more than the tally for all other types of spinners put together: offspin, left-arm orthodox, and left-arm wristspin have combined to take 37 wickets. While legspinners have been slightly more expensive than other bowler types, they have better averages and strike rates. Legspinners have also bowled more overs than any other spinner type; they have sent down more than twice as many deliveries as offspinners.

10.45 The bowling average for legspinners in the Powerplays - they have taken 11 wickets in the first six overs, bowling 18 overs at an economy rate of 6.39 runs per over, and less than 10 balls per wicket. The other spinners have together taken five wickets in Powerplays, at average of 53.2, an economy rate of 7.6, and a strike rate of 42 balls per wicket. Among legspinners, Rashid Khan leads with four Powerplay wickets in five overs, while Samuel Badree has three - during the course of a hat-trick against Mumbai Indians - in four overs, and Imran Tahir and Piyush Chawla two each in three overs.

9 The sum of all Powerplay wickets that legspinners had taken after 19 games in the previous nine IPL seasons. They have exceeded that tally in just this one season.

1 Only one IPL game out of the first 19 hasn't seen a single over of legspin - between Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Lions in Mumbai.

0 Wickets for offspinners in the Powerplays this season, the first time they have been wicketless in Powerplays after 19 games. In fact, their wickets tally in Powerplays has gradually been reducing since 2013 - they had four after 19 games in 2012, 2013 and 2014, two in 2015, and one in 2016. Harbhajan Singh has flown the flag for offspinners with some splendid bowling in the first six, going for just 20 across five overs, but he hasn't picked up a wicket yet, while Sunil Narine has gone for 47 in seven wicketless overs.

8.50 The economy rate for seamers in the Powerplays this season - they have taken 34 wickets at 43.79. Thanks to the legspinners, the overall numbers for spinners is much better in the first six overs - 16 wickets at an average of 23.75, and an economy rate of 7.16.

9.84 The average run rate in the third over, for teams batting first in the IPL. Teams have scored 187 runs off 114 balls in the third over, and lost only one wicket. Only three overs have fetched teams a higher run rate this season than the third - the 20th, the 19th, and the 17th. Last year, the third over produced a run rate of 6.55 for teams batting first, the lowest among all seasons; 16 wickets fell in the third over. Only two overs - the first and the second - had lower run rates than the third in 2016; from a rank of 18th in terms of run rates last season, the third over has jumped up to No. 3 this year. The eighth over has produced the lowest run rate this season - 8.52.

7 Instances of bowlers conceding more than 10 runs in the third over, in the first innings of IPL games this season. The bowlers who have suffered are Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav (17 runs each), Ashok Dinda (16), Jasprit Bumrah (15), Bipul Sharma (12) and Mohit Sharma (11). In three of the top four cases - Milne, Southee and Dinda - the bowlers bowled economical first overs, but couldn't repeat the act in their next over.

8.36 The Powerplay run rate this season, the best among all IPL seasons; teams batting first have averaged 7.89, and teams chasing 8.83. Among the last five seasons, the next-highest, at a similar stage of previous tournaments, was 7.94 in 2016 (after 20 games). In fact, over the last five years, teams have been steadily increasing their scoring rates in the first six - from 6.75 in 2013 to 6.77 2014, to 7.14 in 2015, and 7.94 last year (after 19/20 games of the season). Teams have gone much harder this year during the Powerplay overs, and then taken a bit of a breather between overs seven and 12.

11.2 Overs seems to be the actual halfway mark of the innings for the team batting first this IPL; they have, on average, doubled their score from this stage. The average score after 11.2 for the teams batting first is 85, and they have managed another 85 in the last 8.4 overs. It isn't much different from last year's numbers, when teams scored 83 in the first 11.2 overs, and 81 in the last 8.4.

With inputs from Shiva Jayaraman.