As this year’s IPL comes to its climax, we have seen a fair share of one-sided matches and few matches which have gone into super over providing entertainment to the Indian public who have had to suffer due to Covid 19 related issues and its subsequent economic fallout. Another interesting feature of this year’s IPL most teams have been very evenly matched which is reflected in the points table and time of writing (2nd November 2020) only one team i.e. Mumbai Indians have qualified for Playoffs and till the end of last week all but one team i.e. CSK were in contention for the playoff.

So why is it that in this year’s IPL the teams have been more evenly matched? After all this year there were no large scale changes in any teams

One, Most Players and certainly the Indian players had a long break due to lockdown and they did find time to overcome their small niggles and be fit. Of course, they did not have match fitness but slowly and surely that was attained as well. Normally every year IPL is held in April-May during which time players would have finished the long international season and come and play IPL so few players do not have full fitness but this year was different. Of course, certain players like Andre Russel and Ishant Sharma have had injury issues but that is more long term

Two, Since the matches, were held only in 3 venues each of which is relatively close by there was less travel for the players involved compared to when IPL is normally held in India. Due to less travel and fewer fatigued players, the performance was better on the field.

Three, No team had a distinct home advantage. Normally CSK under dhoni employ their slow bowlers on the chepauk pitch and choke the run flow of the opposition but here generally the pitches were firm and true .As the tournament went on the average scores did come down but there was no distinct advantage or disadvantage for any team due to the conditions.

Four, The foreign fast bowlers like Archer, Boult, Fergusson, and Cummins have really performed very well. People normally don’t associate good bowling with T20’s and think its all about fours and sixes but good bowling makes sure that the batsman is always under pressure which in turn adds to the excitement

So this year the IPL has served its purpose of providing useful distraction and entertainment to the television watching Indian public

So let us know in the comments section why this year IPL has been much closer compared to previous years