5 things we miss dearly in IPL 2016

Close finishes

We have had two last ball finishes this year, but no Super Over yet. Overall, this season has seen very few nail-biting finishes. For example, there were more than a dozen last over finishes in the previous season, if you also include the losses of teams by less than 10 runs.

This year, close finishes have been few and far between. In fact, there have been more one-sided losses than seen in recent times. We are yet to get to the Super Over in a match. Close finishes bring interest to the tournament. It generally happens when teams are well-settled and are performing to their potential.

Most teams this year are still finding their feet, whether it is Delhi Daredevils (the new Rajasthan Royals mentored by Rahul Dravid and with good domestic players), Pune Super Giants, Kings XI Punjab (David Miller as captain gave way to Murali Vijay, a little too late) or Mumbai Indians (a team which has witnessed big wins and big losses).

Only KKR and the surprise package Gujarat Lions have had a more or less settled look about them. Statistically, number of wins by 5 wickets or more is already 28 this year. It was only 19 last season. Number of matches won last year with 10 or more balls remaining was 11. This year it is already 17.

Hopefully, number of matches won by 20 runs or more this year (8) will remain lower than that of last year (17). It is interesting though, that stat, because this has largely been a bat-second IPL where most teams have won chasing and not by setting targets.