IPL 2023: A relentless run-fest with no signs of slowdown

The average run rate this season has been 8.95; the previous highest was 8.64 in IPL 2018. If we talk just about the first innings, the scoring rate has breached the nine runs per over mark for the first time in IPL history (9.07). The chase run rate of 8.83 is the highest too.

As many as six teams have scored at more than nine runs per over so far this season. Chennai Super Kings have gone at 9.43, Mumbai Indians at 9.41, while Royal Challengers Bangalore have scored at 9.09. In all the 15 IPL seasons before this, a team had exceeded the nine an over mark only six times.

The phase-wise numbers too point in the same direction. In the first innings, the powerplay run rate this year has been at an all-time high of 8.86; the previous best was 8.28 in 2018. Similarly, in the middle and death overs, the numbers so far in 2023 are better than those of the previous seasons.

The current edition of the IPL has already witnessed 12 more 200-plus totals than the previous best, and there are 20 matches still to go. There were 18 instances of 200 scores breached last year, which is well below the 30 recorded so far in 2023.

Five teams - Kolkata Knight Riders, CSK, Mumbai, Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals - have already breached the 200-mark four times each. Before IPL 2023, there were only five instances, in the entire IPL history, of a team scoring four 200-plus totals in a season: Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2014, RCB in 2016, CSK in 2018, KKR in 2019 and CSK again in 2022. With 20 games still to be played, 2023 could be the first time a team posts five or more 200-plus totals in a season.

In the inaugural edition of the IPL in 2008, batters hit a six every 21 balls. That has now improved to one every 15.5 balls in 2023, again the best among all IPL seasons. In 2018, there was a six hit every 15.9 balls, which was marginally better than the 2022 rate of 16.2.

Among the 53 batters who have faced at least 100 balls this season, 31 have achieved a frequency of fewer than 15 balls per six. Glenn Maxwell leads that list with 27 sixes in 177 balls, which comes up to a six every 6.6 deliveries. Shivam Dube (7.7), Andre Russell (8.4), Heinrich Klaasen (8.9), Jitesh Sharma and Tim David (9.0 each) round off the top six. At the bottom of this list are David Warner - two sixes in 274 deliveries (137 balls per six) and Manish Pandey (one in 114 balls).

Twenty-one batters have faced 100-plus deliveries at a strike rate of 150 or more so far this season, which is easily the highest. Last year the number was 14. The presence of ten teams instead of eight means more opportunities for batters, but even so, the numbers this year are staggering. Before 2022, not one season had more than ten batters achieving this feat. Overall, there have only been 127 such instances in the IPL, which means this season alone has accounted for almost 17% of the total number.

Maxwell is on top of this list with a strike rate of 186.44, but what's surprising is the presence of Ajinkya Rahane in fourth place (181.48).

There was an apprehension that the run rates would drop towards the second half of the tournament as the pitches got weary, but so far, at least, there have been no signs of any slowing down. In the last 26 games, the run rate has climbed to 9.04, compared to 8.87 in the first 28 matches. And a 200 total has been breached 18 times. The number in the first 28 games was 12.

Out of the 11 venues used so far, nine have seen run rates in excess of 8.6. The Ekana Stadium in Lucknow has been the outlier with a run rate of 7.1, more than one run lower than the next lowest. Among venues that have hosted at least three games, Delhi and Lucknow are the only ones that haven't yet witnessed a 200-plus total.

The scoring rates might yet drop in the last leg of the tournament, but IPL 2023 has been an almost relentless run-fest. And there seems to be no sign of a slowdown.