The curtains came down on the 2020 season of the Indian Premier League on Tuesday night when the Mumbai Indians defeated Delhi Capitals by 5 wickets in Dubai.
After winning the toss and opting to bat, the Delhi Capitals were powered to 156-7 by their captain Shreyas Iyer’s 65* and a season-high 56 from Rishabh Pant. In reply, the Mumbai Indians chased down the target with captain Rohit Sharma piloting the chase with a 51-ball 68.
While only Rohit walked away with silverware, he and Shreyas Iyer both entered the record books for their captains’ knocks.
IPL 2020: Very, Very Competitive
One wouldn't be too far off the mark in saying IPL 2020 was very, very competitive. More so considering the circumstances the tournament was played in and the fact that most of the players hadn’t played any competitive cricket in the days leading to the tournament.
Three teams finished the regular league season on the same number of points - 14, and KKR unfortunately had to miss the playoffs because of a poor net run rate.
Overall, 3 wins separated the table-toppers (Mumbai Indians with 9 wins) and the wooden spoon holders Rajasthan Royals (6 wins).
Further, that the IPL season was competitive can be established from the fact that nearly a third of the matches were decided by small margins.
4 matches ended in a Tie and had to be decided by a Super Over, while 16 other matches were decided by very small margins.
Season of Two Halves
Looking back at the IPL season, one could almost draw a line to separate it into two halves.
In the first 30 matches of the season, the teams batting first did well - although at that point in time several captains preferred to chase. In the second half of the season, partially influenced by the onset of winter and the effect of dew, teams chasing turned out to be very successful.
In the days leading up to the IPL season, pundits had questioned if the lack of sufficient pitches across the three venues would see matches become low-scoring contests and if spinners would play a big role at the back end.
However, right to the last match, pitches had a bit of green - and that could only have been possible because a lot of time had been invested and plenty of thought had gone into the planning and scheduling. Pace bowlers were very successful, and quality spinners (like Rashid Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravichandran Ashwin and several others) stamped their authority on proceedings too.
Two other statistics affirm that the surfaces held up well:
- the overall scoring rate in the season (8.28) wasn’t drastically different from the last few seasons
- the overall strike-rate of pacers (20.25) was the second-best among the 13 seasons played so far
- the overall economy rate of spinners (7.54) was the lowest since 2012.
Stars of IPL 2020
Several individuals entertained with bat and ball, and several new stars emerged during the season. Here’s highlighting a few of the standout performances from IPL 2020.
Though Kings XI Punjab didn’t make the playoffs, their captain bagged one of the major honours of the season; KL Rahul walked away with the Orange Cap for being the highest run-getter of the season. Winning the Orange cap put Rahul in an elite list; only three other Indian batsmen have won the honour previously, namely Sachin Tendulkar, Robin Uthappa and Virat Kohli.
True to the IPL’s motto – “where talent meets opportunity” – several of the youngsters shone brightly under the spotlight. Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Devdutt Padikkal made a name for himself with his aggregate of 473 runs – the highest aggregate by an Indian uncapped batsman in a debut IPL season.
Ishan Kishan blitzed his way into the record books; his aggregate of 516 runs would be the highest season-aggregate for an Indian uncapped batsman. Among others, Suryakumar Yadav forced himself into the Indian team selection equation, while Ruturaj Gaikwad made a reputation for himself.
Several of the young and inexperienced bowlers too shone brightly in IPL 2020. Comeback boys Varun Chakravarthy and T Natarajan not only collected 17 wickets and 16 wickets respectively, but often dismissed the big fish in the opposition. The likes of Rahul Chahar, Ravi Bishnoi, Rahul Tewatia, Kartik Tyagi and Arshdeep Singh too collected a rich haul of wickets and impressed with their application and temperament.
Major Records
A couple of the big records were set during the season. KL Rahul’s 132 not out against RCB would become the highest individual score by a Kings XI Punjab batsman, and also set a new high for the highest score made by any team captain in the IPL.
Rajasthan Royals obliterated a 12-year old record; they set the record for the highest run-chase in the IPL when they chased down 224 against Kings XI Punjab.
Another major record that was set during IPL 2020 was the fastest delivery bowled in the league. The Delhi Capitals’ Anrich Nortje was clocked bowling at 156.22kph in the match against Rajasthan Royals. In fact, Nortje bowled 5 of the 6 fastest deliveries this season. Navdeep Saini was clocked as the fastest Indian bowler; his fastest delivery registered 149.38kph on the speed gun.
Oddities
One could also pick out several numbers or eventualities as oddities. Here’s listing a few of the oddities.
- IPL 2020 had 4 matches which ended in a Tie and had to be decided in a Super Over – more than any other season. In fact, one of the Tied contests was decided by means of a second Super Over after the first Super Over too ended with both teams on the same score.
- Delhi Capitals were the only team to not post a single century partnership in the entire season.
- Delhi Capitals’ openers were dismissed for a ‘Duck’ on 9 occasions in the season; all other teams’ openers together bagged 12 ducks!
- Sunrisers Hyderabad were the only team to not concede a century partnership in the entire season; the highest partnership against SRH was the unbroken 92-run stand between KKR’s Shubman Gill and Eoin Morgan.
- Delhi Capitals had a rather uneasy equation with the coin toss. They went on to win only 3 of the 10 matches in which they won the toss. Their record in the 7 matches they lost the toss read: Won – 6, Lost – 1.
- Kieron Pollard won the toss in all the 4 matches he captained the Mumbai Indians in.
- Kagiso Rabada became the 3rd South African (after Morne Morkel in 2012 and Imran Tahir in 2019) to win the Purple Cap. Interestingly though, not one of Rabada’s 29 wickets in the IPL 2020 were LBWs.
- When the IPL was played in the UAE in 2014, the Mumbai Indians lost all their 5 matches. They lost 5 matches in IPL 2020 too – but they ended up winning 11 others, including the Final and walked away with the championship.
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