The Death Overs Are Getting Cheaper — For the First Time in 3 Years
Death Over Economy Dropped 0.27 in 2025 — the First Decline in 3 Years
Death over economy fell from 11.16 to 10.89 in IPL 2025 — the first year-over-year drop since 2021. After three consecutive seasons of rising death costs, bowlers finally clawed back 0.27 runs per over in the game's most volatile phase.
The Trend Line
Six seasons of death economy tell a clear story of escalation, correction, and escalation again:
| Season | Death Econ |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 10.13 |
| 2021 | 9.36 |
| 2022 | 10.43 |
| 2023 | 10.40 |
| 2024 | 11.16 |
| 2025 | 10.89 |
The 2024 peak of 11.16 was the highest death economy in six years. That translates to nearly 36.5 runs conceded across the final five overs every innings — a number that renders "par score" calculations nearly meaningless. The 2025 pullback to 10.89 doesn't signal a revolution. It signals a correction.
For reference, the 2021 trough of 9.36 — the lowest in our dataset — came during the UAE-hosted season where pitches slowed dramatically in the second half. The current 10.89 sits 1.53 runs per over above that floor.
The Raw Numbers
Across 73 matches in IPL 2025, death overs (16-20) produced 6,535 runs off 3,599 balls. That's a strike rate of 181.5 per 100 balls during death — still elite by any batting standard, but a step back from the carnage of 2024.
The league-wide death phase baselines for 2025 landed at 172.4 SR for batting and 10.34 economy for bowling. The death economy of 10.89 sits above the all-phase death baseline because it isolates overs 16-20 specifically, where the premium on scoring intensifies further.
Spinners at the Death: The Tactical Shift
The most striking feature of the 2025 death bowling leaderboard isn't a pace bowler. It's dominated by spinners.
| Bowler | Team | Death Econ | Death Balls | Dot % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunil Narine | KKR | 5.40 | 30 | — |
| Vipraj Nigam | DC | 6.17 | 36 | — |
| Kuldeep Yadav | DC | 6.60 | 60 | — |
| Jasprit Bumrah | MI | 6.98 | 98 | — |
| Varun Chakravarthy | KKR | 7.29 | 42 | 45.2% |
Three of the top five death economy bowlers are spinners. Narine's 5.40 economy across 30 death balls is nearly half the league average. Kuldeep's 6.60 across a more substantial 60-ball sample holds up under scrutiny. Varun Chakravarthy paired his 7.29 economy with a 45.2% dot ball rate — nearly every other delivery at the death produced zero runs.
Bumrah remains the gold standard among pace bowlers. His 6.98 economy across 98 death balls — the largest sample in the top five — is 3.91 runs per over below the league death average. That gap, sustained across a typical 3-4 death over allocation, represents roughly 10-13 runs saved per match in the death overs alone.
The spinner dominance at the death reflects a tactical evolution. Teams increasingly deploy mystery spin and wrist spin in overs 17-19, pushing conventional pace back to the powerplay and over 20. The batters who thrive against 140+ kph yorkers struggle with variations that turn and dip at different trajectories.
Death Batting Remains Elite
The 0.27 drop in economy didn't come because batters forgot how to score. The top death-phase batters in 2025 posted strike rates that would look absurd in any other era.
| Batter | Team | Death SR | Death Balls | Boundary % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shreyas Iyer | PBKS | 232.1 | 78 | 35.9% |
| Rinku Singh | KKR | 227.1 | 48 | 41.7% |
| Andre Russell | KKR* | 216.0 | 50 | 40.0% |
| Heinrich Klaasen | SRH | 215.7 | 70 | 32.9% |
| Nicholas Pooran | LSG | 213.6 | 59 | 35.6% |
*Russell was released by KKR after the 2025 season. Rinku stays.
Shreyas Iyer's 232.1 death SR across 78 balls sits 59.7 points above the 172.4 league average. More than one in three deliveries he faced at the death reached the boundary. Rinku Singh's 41.7% boundary rate is the highest in the top five — his 48-ball sample is smaller but the efficiency is staggering.
The separation between elite and average death hitters is widening. A 232.1 SR versus a 172.4 league average means Iyer produces roughly 4.8 extra runs per over compared to the average batter in the same phase. Over three overs of death batting, that's 14+ additional runs — often the difference between a competitive total and a match-winning one.
What 2026 Should Watch
The 0.27 decline doesn't guarantee a continuing downward trend. The 2021-to-2022 correction reversed quickly — death econ jumped 1.07 in a single season. The variables that drive death-over scoring (pitch conditions, dew, squad composition, auction reshuffling) shift every year.
What the 2025 data does confirm: spinner deployment at the death works when you have the right spinners. Narine, Kuldeep, and Varun aren't interchangeable with league-average tweakers. Teams without elite spin options at the death — and there are several heading into 2026 — will continue leaking runs at 11+ economy.
The death overs remain cricket's highest-leverage phase. The 2025 correction brought economy back below 11 for the first time since 2023. Whether it stays there depends on whether the rest of the league catches up to the spinner-at-death blueprint that KKR and DC exploited in 2025.