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Andre Russell cutting loose in the IPL

IPL cricket betting pointers and guide to the grounds from Paul Krishnamurty

By Paul Krishnamurty

Cricket

Wed March 19, 2025 · 3h ago

Professional gambler Paul Krishnamurty is back with his guide to the grounds for IPL 2025, providing in-depth analysis, statistics and vital betting pointers.

In total, 13 grounds will host matches in IPL 2025. To compile these rankings and characteristics, a minimum of ten qualifying matches over the past five years was required for the study sample. Only nine meet that criteria. They are main home grounds for the teams, excluding Punjab Kings, whose two main venues, Mullanpur and Guwahati, failed to qualify.

Runs ranking is defined by first innings totals - specifically how many innings reached 180. Sixes ranking is defined by how many matches produced a total of 20 sixes. However whilst this data offers solid clues about how to bet at each ground, always consider the context, as explained below.

5 year-form: Restricted to IPL and T20 internationals. Reduced first innings were discarded.

1 year-form: Restricted to 2024 IPL.

AHMEDABAD (Narendra Modi Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 13-17

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 2-6

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 7th

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 8th

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 5th

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 7th

We’ve seen somewhat contrasting conditions at Ahmedabad throughout the study period. Occasionally, pitches have been very slow and low scoring, which explains why backing ‘extreme unders’ on runs has paid off more often than at most grounds. Four out of 30 first innings came in below 130 - which is a far higher return than the usual odds for that line.

Nevertheless, IPL pitches here are generally very good for runs and so far as the other extreme is concerned - 220 plus - this ground ranks the third likeliest, landing at a 17% frequency. Indeed, this ground may have ranked a little higher if home team Gujurat Titans hadn’t been notably weak with the bat last term, and historically better with the ball.

BANGALORE (M.Chinnaswamy Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 11-5

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 4-3

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 1st

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 3rd

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 1st

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 3rd

RCB’s home stadium is famous for big scores, due to the short boundaries. Low first innings totals are virtually unheard of, with under 160 landing once during the study period. Anything above 1.45 on the Betfair Exchange for 180 plus represents value, and 20 or more sixes landed in half the games here. Note that big advantage to defenders. The likelihood that they will set a big total offers a double incentive to back the team batting first.

RCB poster boy, Virat Kohli

CHENNAI (MA Chidambaram Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 14-15

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 3-6

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 9th

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 9th

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 9th

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 8th

As the rankings firmly indicate, CSK’s home ground is consistently one of the hardest grounds to score. No first innings reached 220 in 29 matches in the study sample. Don’t, however, rush to back unders in the early season matches here. This pitch gets slower as the season progresses.

Last season, three of the first five matches saw 200 posted first up, followed by nothing better than 175 in the final four. In 2023, two of the first four saw 200 posted, followed by nothing better than 182 in the final five. Despite the rise in power hitting, only two out of those 18 matches produced more than 15 sixes, and both came during the early batch.

DELHI (Arun Jaitley Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 10-8

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 5-0

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: Tied 2nd

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 1st

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 2nd

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 1st

Delhi Capitals’ home ground is notoriously small and as power hitting reached new peaks last term, the batsmen made hay. All five first innings totals were above 200, with four passing 220. The average number of sixes per match was a whopping 26.8. The result was no team managed to chase down these big targets although it should be noted, there had been no such bias to defenders historically.

HYDERABAD (Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 8-7

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 3-3

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: Tied 2nd

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: Tied 4th

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 4th

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 4th

Conditions at Hyderabad transformed last season with a new surface and a new-look Sunrisers line-up built to capitalise. Four out of six first innings here came in above 200, including a new IPL record score of 277. India then duly bettered that with an all-time T20 record of 297 against Bangladesh. This one-year ranking of fourth for runs is due to the criteria being 180+. Had it been 200+, this ground would have been tied second.

567 runs for Travis Head in last season's IPL

JAIPUR (Sawai Mansingh Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 5-6

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 2-3

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 5th

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 2nd

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 8th

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 9th

Jaipur, home to Rajasthan Royals, even better illustrates the vagaries of focusing on a 180 target rather than 200. The latter wasn’t reached in five 2024 IPL matches, yet with nothing lower than 179, it ranks second for runs using this criteria. This has always been a good round for scoring, yielding very few low scores, but large boundaries mean sixes are at a premium and extreme overs totals out of reach (note the bottom ranking for sixes).

Two betting angles appeal. 64% of matches yield fewer than 15 sixes. And all five first innings in 2024 landed between 175 and 200. Back in the days when scoring was generally lower, ‘middling’ between 150-170 runs consistently paid dividends. Don’t back the extremes here. Back the middle.

KOLKATA (Eden Gardens)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 11-10

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 3-4

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 4th

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: Tied 4th

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 3rd

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 2nd

KKR’s home ground is another exposed as not big enough to tame the modern cricketer as teams become more ever aggressive. 261 was the highest first innings total last term and it was successfully chased, with an astonishing 42 sixes hit during that particular match. 220 plus landed in half of the first innings last season and a quarter of matches over the longer study period.

In short, the opening run line should be at least 200 and sixes line above 20. There’s no advantage to batting first or second so this is a good venue to back high ‘both teams to score’ targets.

Sunil Narine mode: 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙙 😤🔥 pic.twitter.com/ZFIz3DasvH
— KolkataKnightRiders (@KKRiders) March 16, 2025

LUCKNOW (BRSABV Ekana Cricket Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 8-7

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 3-4

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 8th

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 7th

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 7th

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 6th

The final match here in 2024 saw KKR hit 235 but that was a big outlier and the first time 200 has been hit in the two seasons this ground has been on the IPL rota. The pitch has tended to be slow here, with sixes particularly hard to come by. 11 out of 15 games yielded fewer than 15.

Scores did rise in line with the general trend in 2024, but LSG’s home ground remains the venue likeliest to produce a very low score. Throughout the study sample, 20% of first innings landed below 130.

MUMBAI (Wankhede Stadium)

5 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 20-27

1 YEAR: DEFENDER/CHASER: 4-3

5 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 6th

1 YEAR: RUNS RANKING: 6th

5 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 6th

1 YEAR: SIXES RANKING: 5th

Home to Mumbai Indians, the Wankhede has by far the biggest study sample because it hosted a vast number of games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. The characteristics haven’t changed. These boundaries are very short, bringing huge totals into play. We saw a 234 first innings score last season and 247 in a T20I. In all matches over the past two years, 200 was breached more often than not during the first innings and 20 sixes passed in 60% of matches.

However there is often something for quick bowlers early on, and that brings the overall numbers down. A tried and trusted betting strategy is to back ‘overs’ on the run lines following the first powerplay or strategic timeout.