What a Par Score Actually Looks Like at the Arun Jaitley Stadium
Ninety five completed T20 matches at the ground, ball by ball. The first innings average is 170 and the median is 168, but the spread runs from 75 to 278.
Delhi's Arun Jaitley Stadium has just hosted three T20 internationals in five days. It is a ground with a reputation for runs, and the reputation is roughly right, but the number most often quoted for it is not.
The numbers
Across 95 completed T20 matches at the ground for which we hold ball by ball records, going back to 2013:
- First innings score: average 170, median 168
- Lowest first innings total: 75
- Highest first innings total: 278
- Second innings score: average 156, median 160
The second innings figure is lower for a reason that has nothing to do with the pitch. A side chasing 150 stops at 150. Second innings averages at every ground in the world are depressed by successful chases ending early, and reading them as evidence that batting gets harder is one of the more common mistakes in cricket analysis.
Median against average
The average is 170 and the median is 168, which are close enough that the distribution is not badly skewed. That is worth knowing, because it means the 278 at the top end is a genuine outlier rather than the tip of a fat tail. Most matches here land between about 150 and 190.
When a commentator says a ground is a 200 pitch, they are usually remembering the matches they enjoyed most. The median is the better guide to what the next match will look like.
The caveat that matters
Most of those 95 matches are Indian Premier League games, played in April and May. A T20 international in September is a different set of conditions: different time of year, different dew, different ball, and a pitch that has not been used for a two month tournament.
So the honest version is this. A par first innings score at this ground, across everything we can measure, is close to 170. For a September international, treat that as a starting point rather than a forecast, and expect the dew to matter more than the surface once the second innings begins.
Why 170 is a useful number anyway
Because the interesting question in a T20 is rarely what a good score is. It is what a chaseable score is, and the two are not the same. A side defending 170 at this ground is defending a total that has historically been about par, which means roughly half the time it has been enough.
That is the number a captain should have in mind at the toss, and it is a long way from 200.