Southpaws dominating down south?

i have found over the years that the most studied explanations of events come from enthusiastic bloggers-the kind i hope frequent this site and make occasional forays towards this blog. so here is one for you-why are five of the top six positions in the list of leading run-scorers at the ipl occupied by left handers? (see the list at https://www.castrolcricket.com/IPL-2009/players) the traditional explanation is that because most batsmen are right handers, bowlers get used to bowling to them and never really get used to bowling at someone who stands the other way. it is not an explanation that should hold at this level and i am tempted to think, not being possessed of the acumen of a malcolm gladwell, that this is just one of those things that happens from time to time.

but then it seems to happen with bowlers as well. 6 of the top 10 wicket takers are left handers. interestingly though as you go down that list, the right handers start to come in (strength of numbers maybe?) and in the top 20 wicket takers there are only 8 left handers.

it would be interesting to compare these trends with other activities but then no one knows how many surgeons or soldiers or tailors or chefs are left handed. so let's stay with sport. funnily very few left handers in golf (in spite of weir and mickelson) and a few in tennis with nadal leading the way; which suggests to me that the best comparison is probably with cricket's long estranged cousin, baseball. so any of you who follow major league baseball, is there a similar trend with left handed pitchers for example? do they swing the ball into the body of the right handed batters (a word that seems fine in baseball but so terribly crude in cricket for some reason!) and by similar reasoning, do left handed batters cope better against them?

just some thoughts as i look out of my window in port elizabeth! back soon with some cricketing thoughts on bowlers taking wickets and being stingy with runs!