Super Kings dominate the numbers

IPL 2013 started slowly in terms of run-scoring, but by the end it picked up sufficiently so that the overall numbers are pretty similar to what was achieved in the last few years. The run-rate picked up and ended at 7.67, only about two percent lower than last season's rate, while the number of 50-plus scores was only one short of last season's aggregate. The sixes count went down from 731 to 674 - a fall of 57 - but there were 140 more fours this time than last year. There were only four 200-plus scores this time, though, the least in an IPL season in India. This was also a season of minimal weather interruptions: only one match was played with a reduced number of overs, while none was washed out, unlike what had happened in the last two seasons.

It was noticeable that teams didn't bank so heavily on the Powerplay overs this time, choosing instead to wait for the last few overs to make their move. That's reflected in the run rates as well: for the first time in six IPL seasons, the average Powerplay run rate dropped to less than seven runs per over - it was 6.93, compared to 7.22 last year. The scoring rate in the middle overs wasn't too high either, but in the last five the rate increased to 9.57, which is the rate achieved in 2010, when the overall tournament run rate was 8.12. For teams batting first, the scoring rate in the last five was 10.16, well clear of last year's 9.68 and 2011's 9.36.

The bowling was a mixed bag in 2013, and while there were some stand-out fast-bowling performances by Dale Steyn, Mitchell Johnson, James Faulkner and Lasith Malinga, among several others, overall spinners did better: they were more economical while averaging around the same. However, they bowled fewer overs than they had in the previous two seasons: compared to 1039.2 overs in 2011 and 1019.4 overs in 2012, spinners bowled only 856 overs in 2013.

The main difference in the contribution from spinners was in the Powerplay overs. In the 2011 IPL, following on the success of spin with the new ball in the World Cup, they 1199 deliveries during the Powerplays, and next year it went up to 1266; this time, though, it came down to 902 balls.

Overall stats in each IPL season

Season	Matches	Runs per wkt	Runs per over	100s/ 50s	4s/ 6s	200+ scores
2008	58	26.03	8.30	6/ 83	1702/ 622	11
2009	57	23.41	7.48	2/ 68	1316/ 506	1
2010	60	26.20	8.12	4/ 88	1709/ 585	9
2011	73	26.01	7.72	6/ 89	1913/ 639	5
2012	75	26.19	7.82	6/ 96	1911/ 731	5
2013	76	24.79	7.67	4/ 97	2051/ 674	4

Spread of runs and wickets in each IPL season

	Powerplay overs		6.1 to 15		Last 5 overs
Season	Average	Run rate	Average	Run rate	Average	Run rate
2008	30.44	7.70	30.55	7.98	18.09	9.94
2009	26.37	7.22	26.94	6.85	17.67	9.13
2010	32.28	7.89	28.27	7.56	19.71	9.58
2011	29.82	7.20	30.86	7.44	18.28	9.10
2012	32.71	7.22	30.39	7.39	18.44	9.52
2013	29.40	6.93	28.82	7.23	18.15	9.57

Pace and spin stats in each IPL season

	Pace			Spin
Season	Wickets	Average	Econ rate	Wickets	Average	Econ rate
2008	467	28.42	8.05	134	30.38	8.18
2009	388	26.25	7.65	226	24.77	6.77
2010	405	29.64	8.32	210	28.80	7.34
2011	470	28.12	7.80	268	27.60	7.11
2012	531	27.19	7.81	241	31.35	7.41
2013	604	26.78	7.78	225	26.17	6.88

When a tournament has such a long league stage with each team playing 16 games, it isn't necessary that the title winners are actually the side with the most wins over the entire tournament. However, this year Mumbai Indians, the champions, had a better win-loss ratio over the entire tournament than any other side. Coming into the final, they had a poorer win-loss ratio - 12 wins, 6 defeats - than their opponents in the final, Chennai Super Kings, who had a 12-5 record. However, the result in the final meant Mumbai Indians finished with a 13-6 record, while Super kings dropped to 12-6. Super Kings, though, had the better numbers than Mumbai Indians in each of the four key stats - batting average, run rate, bowling average and economy rate.

Rajasthan Royals, who finished third, also had the third-best win-loss ratio, while Sunrisers Hyderabad, the fourth team to make the play-offs, were the only side among the top six with a poorer run-rate than economy rate.

Super Kings had a solid top-order star in Michael Hussey throughout the tournament, and he was a huge factor in the team getting off to fine starts in most of their matches. Hussey's consistency was outstanding: in only four out of 17 innings did he score less than 20, though one of them was unfortunately in the final. Hussey scored six fifties in the tournament, and all of them were in wins. In the 12 matches that Super Kings won, Hussey averaged 71.55 at a strike rate of 137; in the five games he played in which Super Kings lost, he averaged just 17.80, at a strike rate of 93.

Hussey was the leading run-scorer in the Powerplay overs, while his scoring rate was a steady seven per over. Among the others in this list are Chris Gayle, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, and both the regular openers from Pune Warriors, Aaron Finch and Robin Uthappa. Dravid had a high average, but he also played out plenty of dots during the Powerplay overs.

Among the bowlers, Mitchell Johnson and Mohit Sharma were the stand-out names in the Powerplay overs. Both took 15 or more wickets at excellent economy rates. James Faulkner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Praveen Kumar all had superb economy rates as well.

Top run-scorers in the Powerplay overs

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	Strike rate	4s/ 6s	Dot-ball %
Michael Hussey	17	307	76.75	7.03	44/ 4	48.09
Robin Uthappa	16	279	34.87	6.94	30/ 6	43.98
Chris Gayle	16	273	45.50	8.02	28/ 17	51.96
Gautam Gambhir	15	267	38.14	7.77	39/ 3	43.20
Aaron Finch	14	238	34.00	7.80	36/ 6	50.82
Rahul Dravid	15	232	77.33	6.24	44/ 1	61.43

Leading wicket-takers in the Powerplay overs

Bowler	Balls bowled	Wickets	Average	Econ rate	Dot-ball %
Mitchell Johnson	234	16	14.75	6.05	58.97
Mohit Sharma	216	15	15.26	6.36	57.87
Ishant Sharma	228	9	30.44	7.21	53.51
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	204	8	23.00	5.41	65.20
James Faulkner	150	7	20.42	5.72	58.00
Praveen Kumar	222	7	28.71	5.43	59.01

Hussey was a prominent name in the middle overs too, scoring the second-highest number of runs, and he was often joined during this period by Suresh Raina, who has excellent stats too. These two have the lowest dot-ball percentage among the eight batsmen in the list below, and more often than not ensured that Super Kings had a fine launching pad for the final overs. Virat Kohli and Chris Gayle did a similar job for Royal Challengers, scoring plenty of runs and scoring them quickly. Mumbai Indians have a couple of names in the list too, but Dinesh Karthik got out plenty of times in the middle overs, and Rohit Sharma's scoring rate during this period was relatively low. David Miller had outstanding stats too for Kings XI Punjab.

Harbhajan Singh was by far the leading wicket-taker during this period, with 19 at an economy rate of 6.01, while Amit Mishra had a fantastic economy rate of 5.53. The top two wicket-takers in the middle overs were both spinners from Mumbai Indians - Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha - and their combination was one of the huge strengths of the team throughout the tournament.

Not surprisingly, this period of the game was dominated by spin, with Siddharth Trivedi the only medium-pacer in the list.

Top run-scorers in the middle overs (6.1 to 15 overs)

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	Run rate	4s/ 6s	Dot-ball %
Virat Kohli	15	331	55.16	7.66	27/ 10	31.66
Michael Hussey	13	328	54.66	7.74	27/ 8	25.98
Chris Gayle	10	311	62.20	9.87	21/ 23	35.45
Dinesh Karthik	17	289	22.23	7.44	31/ 4	32.62
Suresh Raina	12	277	39.57	8.02	19/ 9	24.64
Rohit Sharma	18	275	39.38	6.57	17/ 8	31.08
Shane Watson	13	275	34.37	8.63	24/ 13	33.51
David Miller	10	233	116.50	8.68	15/ 11	27.95

Leading wicket-takers in the middle overs (6.1 to 15 overs)

Bowler	Balls	Wickets	Average	Econ rate	Dot-ball %
Harbhajan Singh	306	19	16.15	6.01	38.24
Pragyan Ojha	240	14	19.71	6.90	38.75
R Ashwin	276	12	25.91	6.76	33.33
Amit Mishra	282	12	21.66	5.53	40.78
Siddharth Trivedi	324	11	32.45	6.61	38.58
Ravindra Jadeja	192	10	23.10	7.21	34.38
Karan Sharma	174	10	18.10	6.24	43.10

MS Dhoni was undoubtedly the batting king of the final overs, scoring 286 runs at more than 12 per over, but also take a look at Raina's numbers below: in five innings when he batted in the last five overs, he scored 193 runs from 86 balls without being dismissed even once, giving him a scoring rate of 13.46 runs per over. His dot-ball percentage during this period was an incredibly low 7%. Most of the top batsmen had scoring rates of more than ten per over during this period, but the best of the lot was AB de Villiers' rate of 14.30 runs per over: he scored 186 runs from 78 balls.

The highest wicket-taker during the last five was Dwayne Bravo, whose slower balls and clever variations fetched him 24 wickets at a rate of 7.78 per over. In terms of economy rates, though, the two best bowlers were Dale Steyn and Sunil Narine - both conceded less than seven runs per over, and took a fair number of wickets too.

Top run-scorers in the last 5 overs

Batsman	Innings	Runs	Average	Run rate	4s/ 6s	Dot-ball %
MS Dhoni	11	286	47.66	12.17	19/ 19	22.70
Keiron Pollard	15	250	35.71	10.06	14/ 20	34.23
Rohit Sharma	11	234	39.00	12.31	14/ 20	26.32
Suresh Raina	5	193	-	13.46	20/ 8	6.98
Brad Hodge	13	187	31.16	9.27	17/ 6	23.97
AB de Villiers	9	186	37.20	14.30	16/ 13	19.23
David Miller	10	179	35.80	12.63	12/ 13	18.82

Leading wicket-takers in the last 5 overs

Bowler	Balls	Wickets	Average	Econ rate	Dot-ball %
Dwayne Bravo	219	24	11.83	7.78	38.81
James Faulkner	151	16	12.75	8.10	34.44
Dale Steyn	137	15	10.46	6.87	44.53
Sunil Narine	150	13	12.61	6.56	42.00
Vinay Kumar	133	12	17.33	9.38	29.32
Umesh Yadav	144	12	20.58	10.29	27.78