Mystery of the 16th over

35 matches have been played in IPL 2009 and we are yet to solve the mystery of over # 16. The over # 16 still continues to be a batsman’s nightmare. As many as 29 wickets have fallen in this over so far in the tournament. Only over # 19 and 20 have seen more wickets falling (43 and 30 respectively). This is quite obvious because in last two overs, batsmen have to throw the caution out of the window and have to just tonk the ball around without caring for the outcome.

To put the things in perspective, only 21 wickets have fallen in over # 11 - quite often the very next over after the strategy-break, which has been subject of heated debates and is being made out to be a momentum-breaker.

Interestingly enough, over # 16 has found a competitor from unsuspected quarters. The very first over of the innings has slowly but surely become a concern for the batsmen. 25 wickets have so far fallen in the first over of the innings in 35 games. Compare this figure with the figures of IPL 2008 and we’ll find that only 21 wickets fell in first over in all 59 games!

It will be interesting to see which over finally wins the race. But for the time being, it is still over # 16 that is ahead of the rest.

Over-wise break-up of runs scored and wickets lost in IPL

Over #	Wkts	Avg runs per wkt	Average runs per over
1	25	13.92	5.27
2	18	23.33	6.36
3	13	38.31	7.55
4	13	40.38	7.95
5	15	39.00	8.89
6	23	21.83	7.72
7	18	21.00	5.82
8	10	45.40	6.98
9	18	22.50	6.23
10	16	27.31	6.79
11	21	19.33	6.34
12	12	44.67	8.38
13	20	22.80	7.24
14	16	28.19	7.25
15	21	23.43	7.98
16	29	17.69	8.81
17	17	32.12	9.58
18	25	21.60	9.47
19	30	15.63	8.85
20	43	9.88	9.14
(Overall)	403	23.29	7.57

Note: All statistics are upto the end of Match # 35 (Delhi Daredevils v Mumbai Indians)

Rajneesh Gupta