Spin tricks, and first-ball shocks

Cricinfo picks out some of the important stats from the 37-day, 59-match tournament. Click here for Ananth Narayanan's analysis of the tournament in It Figures, the stats blog.

Three cheers for the bowlers
The one aspect which stood out in IPL 2009 was the greater say that bowlers had in the competition. With the conditions offering something for spinners and fast bowlers, the batsmen didn't quite enjoy the freedom they did in 2008. Overall, the total runs scored reduced by 1611, while eight more wickets fell. The average runs per wicket fell from 26 to 23.41, while the average runs per over fell to less than 7.50. The average 20-over score in 2008 had been 166; here it fell to 150.

The tough middle overs
Breaking it up further, the middle overs were the biggest difference between the two IPLs. Whereas teams enjoyed a fair amount of freedom with the bat during the middle overs (seventh to 14th overs) last year, this time the run rate came down significantly, from 7.87 to 6.72. In fact, in 2008 teams actually accelerated during the phase (in the first six the average run rate of 7.70), but this time the middle overs were a time to hold back and consolidate.

The spin thing
South Africa isn't known to be conducive to spin, but in IPL 2009 the slow bowlers had plenty of success, and much more so than in the first edition in India. Last year, spinners were marginally more expensive than fast bowlers; they'd taken fewer wickets, at a higher cost. All that changed this time - spinners were far more economical, conceding almost one run less per over, and they conceded fewer runs per wicket as well. In fact, the five bowlers who bowled more than 25 overs and went at less than a run a ball were all spinners - Muttiah Muralitharan, Harbhajan Singh, Anil Kumble, Murali Kartik and Suresh Raina.

How the teams fared with bat and ball
The next three tables break up teams' performances with bat and ball into three stages - the first six, the middle eight, and the last six overs.

With the sort of openers they had, it's hardly surprising that Deccan Chargers and Chennai Super Kings were exceptional with the bat in the first six overs, and usually built a big advantage over opposition teams during this period. Both these teams averaged around eight-and-a-half runs per over, at an excellent average as well, which means they had plenty of wickets in hand after the Powerplay. Bangalore, on the other hand, struggled in the first six, which again isn't a surprise since their opening pair put up the worst numbers out of the eight teams.

As a bowling team, though, Kolkata Knight Riders were the poorest of the lot - they took only 13 wickets in the first six overs in the entire tournament, and on seven occasions teams finished the Powerplay against them without losing a wicket. The new-bowling is surely one thing - among many, admittedly - they'll have to fix before next year.

Chennai were pretty good during the middle overs as well, scoring more than 30 runs per wicket at more than seven per over.

Mumbai and Delhi were the best teams during the last six overs - they scored at more than nine runs per over and restricted their opponents to around eight, thanks to bowlers like Lasith Malinga and Ashish Nehra. Kolkata have done well with the bat too, averaging a superb 9.81 in the last six. Sadly for them, though, they've done so poorly in the earlier overs that they've left themselves with far too much to do in the last six.

The opening act
Deccan lost their first wicket without a run on the board and yet went on to win the final, but overall, the winning team's opening partnership did much better than the team that lost, scoring almost twice the number of runs per partnership. Of the 21 fifty-plus opening stands in the IPL, 14 were scored in winning causes.

The curse of the first ball
In IPL 2008, only once did a wicket fall off the first legitimate ball of the innings - Sohail Tanvir trapped Parthiv Patel in front in Jaipur. This year, though, there were 11 first-ball dismissals, with Mumbai, Punjab, Bangalore and Chennai suffering that fate twice.

And in 57 games, there were 38 wickets that fell in the first over, twice as many as last year. Bangalore suffered most often, losing a wicket in the first over eight times - that's half the matches they played - while Delhi inflicted that misery on their opponents most often, with eight first-over wickets.

Effect of the tactical timeout
Midway through the tournament, it seemed an unusually high number of wickets had fallen in the 11th over of this year's IPL. Perhaps batting teams were losing their concentration due to the tactical timeout? As it turns out, they adapted to the break pretty well through the second half of the tournament, for overall, the 11th over yielded only 30 wickets, which isn't much different from the wickets in the overs around it: there were more wickets that fell in the 10th, while the 12th over yielded 26.

More numbers from IPL 2009

99 - The number of sixes hit by Deccan Chargers, the highest in the tournament. Rajasthan hit the least number - 45. Gilchrist led the individual tally with 29.
14 - The number of sixes conceded by Shane Warne and Praveen Kumar, the most by a bowler. Twenty-eight percent of the sixes conceded by Rajasthan were off Warne's bowling (14 out of 50).
169 - The number of dot balls by RP Singh, the most by a bowler in the tournament. Murali was next with 144.
19 - Number of no-balls bowled by Delhi, the most by a team. Mumbai and Bangalore bowled only four, the least. RP Singh bowled seven, the highest by a bowler, while Munaf Patel and Amit Mishra sent down six.
68 - Number of wides by Delhi, also the highest. Mumbai bowled 66 while Chennai were the best with only 25. Lasith Malinga bowled 26, the most by a bowler, while Dirk Nannes was next with 23.
30 - Number of matches won by the team chasing. The team batting first won 26. (One match was tied, and two washed out.) 33 - Number of matches won by the team which won the toss. The team losing the toss won 23.
22 - The number of times a batsman from Punjab was run out, the highest for a team. Delhi suffered this fate only six times, but inflicted 22 run-outs on the opposition, the most by a fielding team.
13 - The number of wickets Malinga took in the last six overs, the most by any bowler. His economy rate of 5.80 is also the best among bowlers who bowled at least 50 balls during the slog overs.
162.87 - The strike rate for Dwayne Smith, the highest for a batsman who scored at least 100 runs. Ganguly's strike rate of 91.17 is the lowest.