ipl cricket

The importance of the opening gambit in the IPL

The opening partnership is crucial in any form of the game, but in the Twenty20 version teams have little time to recover after an early setback

S Rajesh

May 9, 2008



Gautam Gambhir forms one half of the most consistent opening pair in the IPL © Getty Images

From the time Brendon McCullum got the IPL off to a stunning start, it's been largely accepted that a good beginning is more than half the job done in Twenty20 cricket. McCullum and Sourav Ganguly added 61 for the first wicket in 5.2 overs in the tournament opener, which set the platform for what turned out to be a massive total for Kolkata Knight Riders. Their opponents that day, Bangalore Royal Challengers, lost their opening wicket with four runs on the board and went on to get bowled out for 82. Since then, the tournament has gone completely pear-shaped for them, and their biggest problem has been the lack of runs at the top of the order.

The opening partnership is crucial in any form of the game, but in Tests and even in ODIs, batsmen have the cushion of being able to spend some time to play themselves in before launching into an onslaught. The compressed nature of 20-over cricket, however, means teams have to absorb the pressure of an early wicket without letting it affect the momentum of the innings. Most captains and commentators agree that a good start is perhaps the single most important factor for success in Twenty20 cricket, and the stats from the first half of the IPL largely support this assumption: the winning teams have averaged nearly 40 for the first wicket, at an average of almost 8.5 runs per over; the losing teams average less than half that number.

Almost invariably, a good start has led to victory. Only once has a team gone on to lose after putting together a half-century opening stand, but the circumstances then were exceptional - Punjab were up against a target of 241 against Chennai, and it was largely thanks to the 56 that Karan Goel and James Hopes added in 5.5 overs that Punjab managed to get to 207.

Opening stands in the IPL Runs Overs Average Run rate 100s/ 50s
Winning teams 1028 121.3 39.54 8.46 2/ 5
Losing teams 452 64.4 16.74 6.99 0/ 1

While a strong opening partnership usually means success, teams have also found a way to win despite poor starts. Rajasthan Royals are on top of the table with five wins in seven games, but their opening partnerships have averaged less than 20, with just one significant stand - 78 between Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar against Chennai. The team with the best opening partnership average is Deccan Chargers, but that is almost entirely due to the undefeated 155 runs that Adam Gilchrist and VVS Laxman added against Mumbai.

In general, most teams have spent the first half of the IPL searching for the ideal opening combination: in the first 28 games, 29 opening combinations have been tried out. Some teams, like Chennai and Kolkata, have been forced to make changes at the top due to the unavailability of their foreign stars. Others, like Bangalore, have chopped and changed the opening combination, desperately seeking a pairing that works. Three teams - Punjab, Rajasthan and Bangalore - have used five combinations so far. The only side that has stuck to a single pair is Delhi, who have the luxury of opening with Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, the pair who opened through India's triumphant campaign in the World Twenty20 in South Africa. Not surprisingly, they have been the most consistent partnership, with four stands of more than 30 in seven innings, including one half-century and one century partnership.

Bangalore, on the other hand, have easily been the worst of the lot. Their five pairs have added a grand total of 75 runs, for an embarrassing average of 10.71. They are also the only team whose openers score at less than a run a ball. Apart from the match against Mumbai, when Rahul Dravid and Shivnarine Chanderpaul added 37, their opening partnership has never managed more than 13.

Opening partnerships by teams Teams No. of pairs Runs Overs Average stand Run rate
Deccan Chargers 3 280 31 46.67 9.03
Delhi Daredevils 1 278 30 39.71 9.27
Chennai Super Kings 3 237 28.5 29.63 8.22
Kings XI Punjab 5 180 24.3 25.71 7.35
Kolkata Knight Riders 4 141 14.1 23.50 9.95
Mumbai Indians 3 150 23.3 21.43 6.38
Rajasthan Royals 5 139 21 19.86 6.62
Bangalore Royal Challengers 5 75 13.1 10.71 5.70

In Bangalore's defence, though, the Chinnaswamy Stadium has hardly been the most friendly venue for openers: the ten opening stands here have fetched only 149 runs. Apart from the 61 that McCullum and Ganguly added in the first match, no other first-wicket stand here has topped 22. Apart from Kolkata, which has hosted just two matches, Bangalore is easily the worst venue for opening pairs.

The DY Patil stadium is at the other end of the spectrum, but again primarily due to that Gilchrist blitz. Among the other grounds, the MA Chidambaram Stadium and the Feroz Shah Kotla have been good venues for opening partnerships. Kolkata is at the bottom of the table, but the Eden Gardens has hosted just two games, one of which - against Deccan - was on a minefield where both teams struggled to score.

Opening partnerships at each venue Venue Runs Overs Average stand Run rate
Mumbai (DY Patil) 272 31.4 54.40 8.59
Chennai 307 34.5 38.38 8.81
Delhi 203 21.1 33.83 9.59
Hyderabad 144 19.1 24.00 7.45
Jaipur 144 20 24.00 7.20
Mohali 167 22 20.88 7.59
Bangalore 149 22.3 14.90 6.62
Kolkata 48 7.5 12.00 6.13

In 28 games so far, only one pair has batted together more than four times, and just six others have played three or more times. The table below also shows how badly Chennai have been hit by the departure of Matthew Hayden. In the four matches in which Hayden and Parthiv Patel opened, they averaged 37 per stand, and scored their runs at a crisp rate. Though Stephen Fleming, Hayden's replacement, finally got among the runs against Delhi, his first three associations with Patel brought little joy for Chennai.

Opening pairs who have batted three or more times in the IPL Pair Innings Runs Average stand Run rate
Gambhir-Sehwag 6 233 38.83 9.32
Gilchrist-Laxman 4 226 75.33 10.51
Hayden-Patel 4 148 37.00 8.15
Ronchi-Jayasuriya 4 47 11.75 6.13
Smith-Asnodkar 3 101 33.67 6.97
Ganguly-McCullum 3 98 32.67 11.76
Fleming-Patel 3 27 9.00 6.00

All stats till the 28th match of the IPL, between Delhi and Chennai at the Feroz Shah Kotla.