Cautious approach in middle overs in IPL – cause for concern?

If people were asked for the most exciting period of a T20 innings, the answer is most likely to be the death overs – usually considered as the final 30 deliveries of the innings. That’s primarily because it is packed with action – runs are scored at a faster rate and wickets also fall more frequently during that period.

At the other end of the spectrum, the first six overs also tend to garner a lot of interest. With only a couple of fielders outside the 30-yard circle, there is ample opportunity for an attacking approach from the batting team. And that leaves us with the middle phase of the innings – overs 7-15. While they might be less engrossing than the other periods, it does consist for as much as 45% of the innings – in pure numbers, it’s more than either of the other two phases.

While it might be unheralded and often overlooked, because of its volume, the nine overs in the middle are as important as the other two phases. And it can often play a huge role in the success or failure of a team.

RCB’S CAUTIOUS APPROACH HURTING THEM

Since 2017, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) haven’t enjoyed the best of times in the Indian Premier League (IPL). While they did just about reach the playoffs in 2020, they were well below-par in the three seasons before that. Over these seasons, one of RCB’s batting strategies has been to take the innings deep and then switch to fifth gear. They might be doing this because their batting has often been over-dependent on AB de Villiers and Virat Kohli, but regardless, it hasn’t brought them more success.

Over the previous four seasons, the only team close to RCB’s run-rate of 7.4 in the middle overs are Chennai Super Kings (CSK) at 7.5. But an important point to note is that the team from Chennai find the boundary much more frequently, which points towards a more aggressive approach. On the other hand, RCB seem to be less inclined to look for fours and sixes.

Well, there might be a suggestion that RCB have performed poorly in the recent past, so this is a resultant of that. Well, that could be the case, but it must be noted that RCB’s run-rate of 10 and balls per boundary rate of 4.9 between overs 16-20 since 2017 is not bad at all when compared with other teams.

PUTTING THE BRAKES ON

After a period of high-octane cricket in the Powerplay, there is sometimes a tendency for teams to let the game drift away in the middle phase. And that is especially relevant in the overs between 7-10. This is the period where teams tend to assess what totals they want to be targeting and change their tactics depending on that. But in a 20-over game, such a small amount of deliveries also constitutes for a lot of the innings – in this case, one-fifth.

Here again, since 2017, RCB find themselves further behind when compared to other current IPL teams. They have scored at a run-rate of below seven and take 9.5 deliveries to find the boundary in the four overs after the Powerplay. This is far from ideal and, if the team from Bengaluru are to win their maiden IPL, they’ll have to improve on these numbers this season.

With Glenn Maxwell joining RCB for the upcoming season, you’d think that there would be more intent in the middle overs. For one, Maxwell himself is an incredibly aggressive batsman and his presence in the line-up should also give players like Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal more freedom to attack earlier in the innings.

Before every IPL, the perennial question is whether RCB can finally attain gold. The question marks are usually centered around their bowling. But there have been some shortcomings when it comes to batting as well, not least the progress they make in the middle overs, and if they are to reach the summit, you’d think they need to vastly improve on that too.