T20 Death Overs: How Many Runs in the Last 5 Overs by League?
Across 6,141 men's T20 first innings, the last five overs produced 49.3 runs on average. The scorecard at the 15-over mark tells you far more than the competition name.
Death overs are where T20 totals are made or lost, and they are where many live run lines get priced. I wanted a plain answer: how many runs do teams actually add in overs 16-20 of the first innings, and how much does the wickets column change that? Across 6,141 full-length first innings the average was 49.3 runs, and those five overs produced 29.4% of all first-innings runs, despite being only a quarter of the overs.
The headline answer is that the league matters a little and wickets matter a lot. The gap between the highest and lowest competitions is a few runs. The gap between a side 0-2 down and a side 7 or more down after 15 overs is enormous. When I build a death-overs view for my free cricket tips page, I read the scorecard at 15 overs before I look at the competition name.
1League death-overs averages sit within a few runs
The CPL leads at 51.0 runs in overs 16-20, with the IPL on 50.9 and the LPL on 50.8 close behind. At the other end sit the BPL on 47.8 and the ILT20 on 47.6. The BBL lands on 48.0 and T20 internationals on 48.2, so the larger grounds and more disciplined death bowling in those formats pull them slightly below the franchise leaders.
I read this chart as a conditions map rather than a ranking. Caribbean venues with short boundaries reward clean hitting, while slower surfaces tend to blunt the yorker-length slog. Still, the whole spread is narrow, less than one productive over separates the top and bottom.
View the data: runs in overs 16-20 by competition
| First innings, average per innings | |
|---|---|
| CPL | 51 runs |
| IPL | 50.9 runs |
| LPL | 50.8 runs |
| PSL | 50.4 runs |
| SA20 | 50.4 runs |
| T20 Blast | 49.2 runs |
| T20I | 48.2 runs |
| Super Smash | 48.1 runs |
| MLC | 48.1 runs |
| BBL | 48 runs |
| BPL | 47.8 runs |
| ILT20 | 47.6 runs |
For a bettor that means the league name alone is a weak adjustment. It nudges a number by a run or two, but it will not rescue a price that ignores the match situation.
2Wickets lost by over 15 decide the finish
This is the chart that matters most. Across all competitions, sides 0-2 down after 15 overs added 55.6 runs at the death (1,098 innings), and sides 3-4 down added 52.2 (2,980 innings). Drop to 5-6 down and the figure falls to 44.6 (1,680 innings), and with 7 or more gone it collapses to just 29.2 (383 innings).
The IPL shows the sharpest version: 56.3 runs for sides 0-2 down against 25.3 for sides 7+ down. The BBL is flatter, with 32.2 in that bottom column, which suggests lower orders there are slightly more capable of hanging on. Bear in mind that each league's 7+ down cell holds only 30-76 innings, so I treat those single figures as rough guides.
First innings. Each league 7+ down cell holds only 30-76 innings; every other cell has 100+.
View the data: wickets in hand drive the finish
| 0-2 down | 3-4 down | 5-6 down | 7+ down | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPL | 56.3 runs | 53.1 runs | 45.2 runs | 25.3 runs |
| T20 Blast | 56 runs | 52 runs | 45.2 runs | 30.3 runs |
| T20I | 54.6 runs | 51.1 runs | 43.3 runs | 30.2 runs |
| BBL | 53.1 runs | 50 runs | 43.4 runs | 32.2 runs |
| All competitions | 55.6 runs | 52.2 runs | 44.6 runs | 29.2 runs |
Notice how gentle the slope is between 0-2 and 3-4 down, then how steep it becomes. Teams also lose an average of 2.6 wickets during the death overs themselves, so a side already five down has very little batting left to absorb that attrition.
3A 50.5 death-overs line is close to even
Across the full sample, first innings beat 45.5 death-overs runs in 60.1% of cases, 50.5 in 46.6% and 55.5 in 33.7%. Only 22.7% added more than 60.5, while 27.4% added 40 or fewer, so the tails are wide on both sides. That spread is the variance I always warn about: one dropped catch or one hat-trick over moves a total by a dozen runs.
By competition, the IPL clears 50.5 in 51.3% of innings and the PSL in 51.2%, while the BBL manages 42.5% and the ILT20 41.2%. The LPL beats 45.5 in 68.0% of innings and the SA20 clears 55.5 in 41.0%, but those come from 128 and 117 innings respectively, so I would not lean hard on either.
| Competition | Innings | Average | Over 45.5 | Over 50.5 | Over 55.5 | Share of total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPL | 1,199 | 50.9 | 64.2% | 51.3% | 36.7% | 30.0% |
| BBL | 609 | 48.0 | 57.5% | 42.5% | 30.5% | 29.5% |
| T20 Blast | 1,412 | 49.2 | 58.9% | 46.5% | 32.5% | 28.6% |
| PSL | 342 | 50.4 | 64.3% | 51.2% | 38.9% | 29.6% |
| CPL | 396 | 51.0 | 66.4% | 49.7% | 36.9% | 31.8% |
| BPL | 461 | 47.8 | 54.4% | 44.0% | 31.7% | 30.3% |
| Super Smash | 235 | 48.1 | 60.0% | 45.1% | 30.6% | 28.2% |
| SA20 | 117 | 50.4 | 65.0% | 50.4% | 41.0% | 30.1% |
| ILT20 | 131 | 47.6 | 55.0% | 41.2% | 32.8% | 29.2% |
| MLC | 102 | 48.1 | 57.8% | 42.2% | 29.4% | 27.8% |
| LPL | 128 | 50.8 | 68.0% | 51.6% | 37.5% | 30.0% |
| T20I | 1,009 | 48.2 | 56.3% | 42.6% | 31.6% | 29.1% |
The share-of-total column is remarkably steady, from 27.8% in the MLC to 31.8% in the CPL. Whatever the league, roughly three in ten first-innings runs arrive at the death.
4Death scoring has crept upward since 2012
The season average was 46.1 runs in 2012 and peaked at 51.4 in 2022, with 51.3 in 2025 not far behind. The line is not a smooth climb: it dipped to 47.2 in 2017 before jumping to 50.3 in 2018. The part-season 2026 figure sits at 49.7.
My main caveat belongs here. These are past frequencies from first innings only, and averages shift with ground sizes, impact-player rules and changing bowling plans from one season to the next. Recent seasons deserve more weight than the full 2005-2026 record, and nothing in these tables guarantees what the next innings will do.
2026 is a part-season. Smallest season: 147 innings.
View the data: death-overs scoring by season
| All competitions | |
|---|---|
| 2012 | 46.1 runs |
| 2013 | 48.4 runs |
| 2014 | 49 runs |
| 2015 | 48.8 runs |
| 2016 | 47.5 runs |
| 2017 | 47.2 runs |
| 2018 | 50.3 runs |
| 2019 | 48.3 runs |
| 2020 | 49 runs |
| 2021 | 49.3 runs |
| 2022 | 51.4 runs |
| 2023 | 49.9 runs |
| 2024 | 50.2 runs |
| 2025 | 51.3 runs |
| 2026 | 49.7 runs |
Betting notes
- Check wickets before league. A side 0-2 down after 15 overs has averaged 55.6 death runs, while one 5-6 down has averaged 44.6. Adjust for the scorecard first and the competition second.
- Treat 50.5 as near even. Only 46.6% of first innings cleared 50.5 at the death, so an over price at that line needs real support from conditions or batting depth to be worth taking.
- Fade collapses, not slowdowns. The real drop arrives at 7+ down, where sides averaged just 29.2, and in the IPL 25.3. Moderate wicket losses cost far less than the panic in a live market can suggest.
Quick answers
How many runs are scored in the last 5 overs of a T20 innings?
Across 6,141 men's first innings, teams averaged 49.3 runs in overs 16-20. That accounted for 29.4% of all first-innings runs.
Which T20 league scores the most at the death?
The CPL has the highest first-innings death-overs average at 51.0 runs, just ahead of the IPL on 50.9. The ILT20 is lowest at 47.6.
How much do wickets in hand affect death-overs scoring?
A great deal. Sides 0-2 down after 15 overs averaged 55.6 runs in overs 16-20, while sides 7 or more down averaged only 29.2.
I'm Kenji Nakamura, based in Tokyo, and I write all the cricket betting tips at bettips.vip โ reading the pitch as closely as the form.
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