The best venues for pace and spin

Over the last few days, there’s been plenty of stats going around on teams and players, but not much on the venues, so here’s one that looks at the ten grounds that have been used in IPL 2010 so far. This one deals with the performances of fast bowlers and spinners.

Overall, the averages are almost the same, but spinners have done much better in terms of economy rate, conceding a run less per over than the fast bowlers. And among the venues, the numbers spring a few surprises.

I was quite shocked to see fast bowlers’ average in Bangalore – the Chinnaswamy pitch has had plenty of bounce for the pacers, but they’ve conceded 45 runs per wicket here, at a run rate of almost eight-and-a-half. Dale Steyn, Bangalore’s spearhead, has looked dangerous here, but has only taken two wickets at an average of 60.50. Praveen Kumar (average 25.40) and Vinay Kumar (22.60) have done better, but a few others have spoilt the numbers for fast bowlers – Sreesanth has conceded 42 in 18 balls, Yusuf Abdulla 36 in 17, Morne Morkel 34 in 18 and Irfan Pathan 33 in 18. On the other hand, Anil Kumble’s four wickets here have come at an average of 23.50 and an economy rate of 5.93.

On the other and, Mohali and the Brabourne have been kinder to fast bowlers in terms of wickets, though the economy rate remains higher.

Pace and spin at each venue

Venue	Pace - wkts	Average	Econ rate	Spin - wkts	Average	Econ rate
Bangalore	21	45.00	8.47	11	24.45	7.11
Cuttack	9	38.88	8.97	11	23.54	7.84
Chennai	21	39.76	9.48	16	32.25	7.60
Nagpur	13	17.53	7.95	5	12.20	6.77
Delhi	35	28.51	8.75	26	24.65	8.07
Kolkata	24	34.54	8.45	12	34.16	7.45
DY Patil, Mumbai	21	18.66	7.73	7	19.28	7.10
Brabourne, Mumbai	45	31.37	8.63	16	32.81	7.83
Mohali	32	28.46	8.34	10	37.10	7.57
Ahmedabad	25	28.92	8.21	10	46.40	7.38
All venues	246	30.98	8.56	124	29.44	7.60

Updated till matches which finished on April 5.