IPL 2025 vs IPL 2024: Scoring rates dip as finishers lose their fizz

In a see-saw battle between bat and ball this season, ball has gained the ascendancy in the last few matches as the overall run rate in 2025 has dipped below the highs of 2024. The fall is marginal - only about 1.5% - but that itself is significant given that after 29 games this was ahead by about 4%, 9.66 to 9.27.

This swing of about 5% has happened because of two reasons: a sharp decline in run rates in the last 11 games, and the huge increase in the corresponding games' scoring rate in 2024. After 29 games, four teams this season had run rates of over 10 - Punjab Kings (PBKS) Lucknow Super Giants (LSG), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Gujarat Titans (GT). After 40, GT are the only ones still standing there, while the others have dropped below 10.

After 29 games, the current season had nine more 200-plus totals (19 to ten), and 38 more sixes. After 40 matches, the count of 200-plus totals is level on 21, while 2024 is ahead on the sixes count by 34.

That's because an astounding 225 sixes, and 11 totals of 200 or more, were scored in these 11 matches last season.

It could be because the old ball is swinging more this season (saliva or whatever the reason might be), or because some of the big hitters aren't in prime form, but stats show that there has been a definite decrease in the death-overs scoring rate this year compared to 2024. The rate has dropped by almost 6%, while 45 fewer sixes have been struck this year in that phase (164 compared to 209). The powerplay run rates are still marginally in favour of 2025 (9.47 to 9.34), while there's little to choose in terms of middle-overs run rates (8.82 to 8.85).

After 40 matches in 2024, there were six batters who had scored 100 or more runs in the death overs: Dinesh Karthik (151 runs at 235.93), Nicholas Pooran (129 at 179.16), Rahul Tewatia (122 at 187.69), Tim David (110 at 196.42), Tristan Stubbs (110 at 297.29) and Heinrich Klaasen (107 at 254.76). This season, only one batter meets those qualifications: MS Dhoni, who has 110 runs at 186.44, though most of those runs have come when the game has already been lost by Chennai Super Kings (CSK).

Compared to the same stage in 2024, the run rates have dropped at most venues, with the most significant dips being in Bengaluru and Delhi. In six innings in Bengaluru, the highest total is 170; last year after 40 games, Bengaluru had hosted four games and had two 250-plus totals, both in that monumental run-fest against SRH. Delhi has a healthy run rate of 9.79 this season, but last year at this stage it was a staggering 11.48, with the lowest total in four innings being 199.

The venue which has improved significantly this season is Ahmedabad, from just 8.53 last year to 10.17. Five of the twenty-one 200-plus totals have come at this ground, in just four games.