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Ah, menopause — that time in your life when you say goodbye to your reproductive years and embark on a new journey. For some lucky women, this transition is a smooth one. For others, the sudden drop in hormones leads to years of hot flashes, night sweats, depression, and more. Most women fall somewhere in between and grapple with unwelcome changes that can impact their quality of life.
While there’s no “cure” for the inevitable transition of menopause, we can smooth your way forward through acupuncture. At Soul Potential Acupuncture and Wellness, Vonda Muncy treats a wide range of conditions using this ancient practice with great success. From back pain to the symptoms of menopause, acupuncture has a place in almost every area of your health and wellness.
Here’s a look at how acupuncture can redefine how menopause feels.
The price of menopause
Menopause is the transition that women make from their reproductive years to their nonreproductive years. Unfortunately, what precipitates this transition — the shutting down of your ovaries — comes with a sudden drop in your female hormones, namely estrogen and progesterone. And some women experience moderate-to-severe reactions to this sudden deficit.
While women experience menopause differently, most experience some degree of one or more of the following:

• Hot flashes
• Night sweats
• Vaginal dryness
• Thinning tissue and hair
• Sleep problems
• Weight gain
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Memory problems

As you can see by this list, menopause can have a serious impact on your quality of life, especially if your symptoms are severe and unrelenting.
Redefining menopause
Traditionally, doctors have treated menopause either symptomatically or through hormone replacement therapy, which comes with some risk. If you’d rather approach your symptoms holistically and naturally, acupuncture is an incredibly effective solution.
Acupuncture has been practiced for millennia and the principle behind the technique is that by releasing your qi, or energy, your body has the freedom to function as it should. The human body has incredible healing resources within, and our goal is to free up these resources so that they can flow more freely and do what they’re supposed to do — maintain your overall wellness.
To do this, we place tiny, sterile needles along certain acupuncture points to restore balance and flow within your body. These needles are designed to dismantle blockages along your energy pathways and also communicate with your brain, encouraging the release of neurotransmitters and endorphins.
When it comes to menopause, one study in Denmark found that acupuncture helped improve the symptoms of menopause in 80% of women. While the study was focused on hot flashes alone, researchers report that participants also experienced a considerable decline in night sweats, sleep problems, emotional symptoms, and skin and hair issues.
If you’re struggling with menopause, contact our office in Castle Rock, Colorado, to explore how acupuncture can help you enjoy this new stage of your life.

Just the left arm and back to highlight, then the carapace to paint… and he’s done! ✔️
The Brutalis, with the extra armour, makes the Redemptor look small when standing side-by-side!
MM’s were a must!

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William was a man of good intentions and an overall happily married husband. He adored his wife, Alice, and she was the love of his life. They lived in a nice home in the suburbs and plans to start a family. In the meantime, as an anniversary gift, William got Alice a pet white rabbit as a joke because “Every Alice needs her white rabbit” and the fact that Alice was always late and in hurry for work, for the white rabbit in wonderland was always in a hurry. Alice worked as a psychiatrist and William was an engineer who had a passion for writing books. He was writing a horror fictional piece on Jack the Ripper and had high hopes it would be a best seller. Except, his happy life was about to drastically change. One night, William was running late and arrived home at night, past his usual time. It was overly quiet in his home and all the lights were out, which was further unusual as Alice wouldn’t go to sleep without him. He called out to her and no voice returned his worried calls. William attempted to walk over to switch on the lights, but slipped on something wet on the ground. He stood up and collected himself, then turned on the lights. His mouth was wide open and no noise came out as he was struck with fear. The wetness he had slipped on was blood, and in the middle of it, the poor white rabbit William had bought Alice for their anniversary, dead. Now, a vastly frantic William, started crying out for Alice as he stumbled across his kitchen on his way to the living room. He flipped on the lights to see Alice’s lifeless body in the middle of the floor, covered in blood and disfigured from the damage that killed her. On the wall, smeared in blood, read “She decided to go down the rabbit hole, so I sent her to Wonderland. Ha ha ha”. Before William could come back to reality from his shock, the room filled with police lights and the door broke down, police swarming in. Fast forward to weeks later, William was convicted of the murder of his wife, Alice. Everything pointed towards William being the killer and this crushed his soul. No matter how much he pleaded and swore his love for Alice, no matter how much pain he displayed in her loss, whomever framed him, got away with it. William was sentenced to death row in prison. William did not belong in prison and it was evident. From day one, he was picked on and beaten by inmates. The guards harassed William relentlessly and teased him with Wonderland jokes due the murder of his wife Alice, the message on the wall, and the poor slaughtered rabbit. William was shown no mercy and his life became a constant struggle for survival, a pure hell. It wasn’t until a Doctor came in the night to the prison that William may be saved. She offered certain luxuries and promises to whichever inmate offered his services for an experiment. While every inmate was desperate for this opportunity, the Doctor, Dr. Queen, saw the beaten and disheveled William in the corner. She approached him and offered to him specifically. In question as to why, she said that William looked like he was beaten to his last card to play in survival, he deserves a break due to his admirable survivability. With enough convincing, he was willing. The beginning of the end is what was in store for William. Little did William know, he was about to be used as a disposable tool in unethical experimentation. Dr Queen suddenly became cold and apathetic towards William. She told him she was looking to study to vast complexities of the human mind and look to cure or better understand one of the most enigmatic disorders of the brain, dissociative disorders. Since she can’t use actual people who suffer from such disorders in experiments due to ethics, she was allowed to use one of the inmates on death row in a covert program. “What does this have to do with me?” William said in a fit of anxiety. “I don’t have any such disorder!” “Not yet you don’t.” Dr. Queen said sinisterly. “Now, unfortunately for you, the disorder I’m focusing on, DID, or, Dissociative Identity Disorder, is something developed in young developing minds that have endured horrific trauma.” She continued. “It isn’t heard of for an adult to suddenly develop DID from relatively current trauma, as when it manifests in most adults or young teens, it’s from a suppressed trauma from their childhood years. So we need to somehow get you to develop the disorder.” “W…well…wh…what are you, er, how are you going to do that?? William panicked. “Well, William, we are going to put you through any and every bit of possible trauma, damage, and pain possible until your brain decides to do what it does best, survive, and create an alter to handle the pain for you. Or you die like you would out in the prison environment anyway.” Dr. Queen said as she brushed her red hair from her face with a sadistic smirk. “Shall we begin?” William was hauled off to a secret part of the prison where he could be put through Hell without anyone ever hearing him, and Hell he was definitely put through. William had just about every sort of pain, humiliation, trauma, and distress casted upon him for around 2 months without success. If anything, it was remarkable and near uncanny how much William was capable of surviving. It was even further impressive how well his body was capable of healing and retaining itself. Dr. Queen went to do her research on William’s childhood and early life, to which she discovered she could hardly find anything. It was as if he didn’t have a childhood as his records were so vague and seemingly constructed, fabricated. Dr. Queen dug even deeper and got access to restricted files to which lead her to a disturbing discovery. She found files so hidden and buried that it was nearly impossible to find them unless you really dug deep. Within those files she discovered William’s horrific past and grinned widely. She gathered the files and fled back to the prison to confront William. A beaten and bruised William was sat down in front of Dr. Queen who showed him files of two adults, a woman and a man, slaughtered on a couch. “What does this have to do with me?” William managed to choked out of his swollen mouth. “You did this, William. You murdered these two, your biological parents.” Dr. Queen excitedly explained. “N…no. No! I’ve never seen these people before!” William exclaimed. “Stop this!” “William, these were your parents. They experimented on you ever since you were a baby. They injected you with experimental drugs and beat you, neglected you. They wanted to see if you could develop a healing or regenerative mutation of sorts. The trauma they put you through, it was despicable.” Dr. Queen said almost sympathetically. “Stop this! I want no part in this anymore. I’m done. Your games and mind tricks aren’t working. Just kill me and I can be with Alice again!” William cried. “I’m sorry, William, but you’re not going anywhere. You see, the torture you endured during childhood eventually broke you. You’ve had DID all along. You developed your first alter, Bill, who took over and shielded you from the trauma. Bill, he found an opportunity and murdered them, massacred them more like. How you overcame them as such a young boy is unknown and quite astonishing.” Dr. Queen said calmly. “Please stop. My head, it’s throbbing. This still doesn’t make me believe anything and prove I killed Alice.” William said somewhat vapidity. “This is where it gets bizarre. You see, you were in and out of foster care due to your disorder you then developed. You were violent and destructive. This followed you into your late 20s. There you met a psychiatrist, her name was Alice. Ring a bell? I can see your gears turning.”. Dr. Queen explained. “No. No more…” William was cut off. “You formed a bond with Alice. She was capable of chasing off your alters and keeping you stable. You fell in love with her. Despite the conflict of your other alters, Alice saw her presence kept you stable and she fell in love with you back. Or maybe she just found you interesting? She then buried your past and made you forget your past. Gave you a new one.” Dr. Queen Continued. William was visibly in a state of confusion and frustration. Just staring off beyond Dr. Queen. “Something must have triggered a tick in you and an alter presented itself and murdered Alice. Perhaps in a fit of retribution? Do they know something you don’t?” Dr. Queen questioned. William was in a near catatonic state and no longer in the conversation. Dr. Queen motioned for a guard to take him away for the night, but once the grizzly hand of the guard grabbed William’s shoulder, William looked up with a grin to a startled Dr. Queen. William grabbed the guard’s hand and twisted it, then crushed it. He grabbed his cuffs he secretly undid and stabbed the other guard frantically charging towards him with the sharp pointed unlatched end of the cuff. Dr. Queen was in sheer shock and fell down to her back. William approached her. “She shouldn’t have been chasing rabbits. She shouldn’t have jumped into the rabbit hole of Sir William’s mind.” William sneered. “B…Bill?” Dr. Queen shakily asked. “No no no, my red Queen, Bill is long gone. I’m the Rabbit, I’ve planned this all along, I manifested the moment Sir William saw the dead rabbit you see, but I kept hidden, filing through William’s mind. You see, you’re one of the young researchers shadowing the Doctors who experimented on poor little William. I’ve come to collect you and send you back to Wonderland. Just Alice really built a strong wall to hop over in poor Sir William’s head. Some other dark fellow in this noggin snuck out and took care of poor Alice and quickly retreated. However, now, your antics started to remind my good fellow on his past trauma, I couldn’t have that. Like you said, the brain survives and gave me a door, I was able to hop out!” Rabbit said. A visibly fear struck Dr. Queen looked puzzled on what to say or ask first. “To Wonderland? What ever do you mean!?” Dr. Queen cried. “What does the good Red Queen always say? Hm? Off with your head?” Rabbit said sincerely. “And you see, what you’ve done here during Sir William’s lovely stay, is allow another gentlemen to manifest in this headspace. One who Sir William oddly found an interest in. Let me introduce you to him, as he doesn’t talk much. Have at it, Mister Ripper.” Rabbit said, straightening himself out. His face became cold and emotionless. His stature changed to a more broad and hunched over brutish character, almost as if he grew in size. His eyes slowly scanned and met with Dr. Queen, to which he produced a nasty grin. Ripper slowly progressed towards Dr. Queen. “Run…” The Ripper growled. “I…I don’t understand” Dr. Queen said as she began to sob. The Ripper grabbed the end of the table and forcibly flipped the table in the air, flinging it over the railing, crashing on the ground below. “RUN!!!” The Ripper roared in an unnaturally deep voice. Dr. Queen stumbled and began running and screaming for help, hearing a low toned laughter fading behind her. That night, 20 guards, the warden, several inmates, and Dr. Queen were found massacred. William was nowhere to be found. William wasn’t seen since the events of the prison, however, a peculiar killer made a name for himself as he racked up victims. The killer wore a motif of the White Rabbit combined with the outfit of Jack the Ripper. It didn’t take long for others to put clues together to find out it was William, though, not really William. The identities of the White Rabbit and the Ripper were often the most present, as the Rabbit was often the brains and Ripper the brawn. He is vastly elusive and good at illusion and deception. The elaborate way he kills and escapes is often a hurdle in predicting his next moves and capturing him. He likes to play games with everyone victims and challenge them philosophically, psychologically, and physically. White Rabbit would like nothing more than to see them break, often making them choose between apprehending him or saving another of his victims. White Rabbit appears to display unique abilities such as above human strength, durability, stamina, and is capable of performing feats or actions not considered possible by basic human standards. the police assumes this is an effect of the experimentation done to William as a child and since the experimental drugs used upon William when his parents made them using, and experimenting with some animals blood, the police of this town feels responsible now for the damage that White Rabbit has caused, and not responding quick enough, all events that tried to stop the White Rabbit and try to bring back William, save him from himself. seem hopeless. White Rabbit seemingly fluctuates in abilities and tactics just as different personalities manifest. All the personalities seem to be obedient to the Rabbit alter. With the constant puzzles, riddles, elusiveness, stealth, and fighting and intellectual skills, White Rabbit is amongst one of the most challenging Killers, this world has ever seen. The constant change in personality makes him very hard to track or predict as it would require knowing each personality as its own person. The biggest mystery is finding out what makes the White Rabbit tick. they'll have to jump down the rabbit hole and chase the rabbit to get answers. We all know how elusive the white rabbit is in wonderland. Just go ask Alice, I think she'll know.

Morning breakfast of toast and butter... Bread leavened with milk kefir (no sourdough starter). If you have kefir grains but no sourdough starter, or if you have both and are just looking to switch things up, it makes a very good bread. Previously I only did rye bread this way and this one was a test recipe; almost perfect, next time I think with some honey. The yeast in milk kefir is close to that of sourdough and does the same job; however in my experience it takes longer and does well at elevated temps around 85 or even 90 (using a proofing mat). This was a white bread: •400g completed milk kefir (stirred the milk kefir back into a uniform liquid as soon as the curds and whey fully separated, and incorporated into the dough right away) •500g organic bread flour •50g whole wheat flour •3 tsp diastatic malt powder (10g) optional but I believe for milk kefir bread improves the rise •13g salt •Up to around a TBSP extra milk kefir added at the end of mixing to ensure any excess flour at the bottom was incorporated 1.) I did 4 sets of stretch and folds over a couple hours. The dough feels more dense and taught than regular sourdough, won't be a problem. 2.) Sat out with a damp cloth covering the bowl for around 4 hours 3.) Shaped and placed into floured 9" banneton, covered, refrigerated for around 14 hours 4.) Took another 4 hours on a heat mat 85-90°F 5.) Final shaping, scored, baked in a covered dutch oven at 485 for 20 minutes. (Was preheated at 500 for an hour.) Removed steam pan, another 465 for around 20 minutes.
malt powder: https://amzn.to/40zXFi banneton: https://amzn.to/3G3cuBQ milk kefir grains: https://amzn.to/3TTl9N1

25M. 92 kg 5'9. Fat tummy and hanging moobs but nice arms and back. Goal is 10-12% bf or 60 kg(lower limit, if I'm not lean enough by then I'll ultra super duper clean bulk) or something close to the stereotypical lean beach body in the mirror.
I'm eating at a deficit with high protein and lifting hard prioritising chest multiple days a week(coz my moobs/loose chest is my kryptonite). I know I'm probably really only burning 400 but that's fine. I don't eat back cardio calories. My only cheat meaI is 1 medium size pizza with extra cheese once a month.
I watch TV(YouTube, Netflix etc) or play on my PS5 while doing the cardio. I rarely hold on to the handles so core is getting nice some action I hope lol
I do it slow/ very low impact to be able to do it daily for like the next 200+ days(or until I reach my goal) lol , but at a decent resistance level for a long time.

There is a statement that has acquired cult status, especially on the T20 circuit, over the years: 'Batters win you matches. Bowlers win you tournaments.' But how true is this? In the first 15 seasons of the IPL, we have seen franchises build teams with a balance weighing towards one side or the other depending on a multitude of factors such as their home venue, style of captaincy and resource availability.
As the 16th edition looms on the horizon, it is a good time to revisit the data from the past and see if the statement is just a subjective conclusion that has led to a sweeping generalization, or whether it actually holds water. A deep look at the numbers shows whether one discipline is actually more important than the other, but also reveals the most complete championship[1]winning side thus far, who was the standout franchise over the first 15 years, and how to succeed at a batting-friendly venue like the Chinnaswamy.
Methodology
In T20 cricket, every team has two resources at their disposal - balls and wickets. The batting side attempts to optimize the first resource by scoring as many runs off every ball delivered. The bowling side tries to concede as few runs as possible for every ball bowled and knows that an important way to do this is to reduce the wicket reserves of the batting team. The two key metrics here are runs scored per ball, and balls taken per dismissal. In more popular parlance, this is run rate and balls per dismissal for the batting team, and economy rate and strike rate for the bowling team.
A batting impact score is therefore derived by combining the run rate and balls per dismissal (RR x BpD/100), and similarly the formula for bowling impact score is the combination of economy rate and strike rate (ER x S100). To figure out a team's total impact score for a season, we compare their batting and bowling impact scores with the average of the other teams in the tournament.
For example, Rajasthan Royals in IPL 2022 scored 8.72 runs per over and lost a wicket every 20.88 balls, whereas the other nine teams cumulatively scored at 8.52 and lost a wicket every 18.57 deliveries. This gives the Royals a batting impact score of 1.82 (8.72 x 20.88 divided by 100 = 1.82) compared to the tournament average of 1.58, meaning their net batting impact score was +0.24.
Likewise, they conceded at 8.51 per over and took a wicket every 19.19 balls in comparison to 8.54 and 18.76 by the other teams. This works out to a bowling impact score of 1.63 for the Royals, while the remaining nine sides managed 1.60. The net bowling value for the Royals is therefore -0.03, and their total impact score for IPL 2022 is +0.21 (+0.24 - 0.03).
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'Batters win you matches and bowlers win you tournaments.' But do they?
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Let's start by looking at the broader trend.
There are 126 instances of teams featuring across the 15 editions of IPL (Mumbai Indians for IPL 2008 is considered one instance, while their appearance in 2009 is considered another). Among those 126 instances, there have been 39 occasions that teams have finished with both batting and bowling impact scores in the green. The average final ranking for these sides is 2.7, which falls within the playoff qualification bracket (the top four sides qualify for the knockouts in IPL). In 27 instances teams have finished with a positive batting impact score and negative bowling impact score, and these sides on average have a ranking of 5.1.
On the other hand, of the 25 times teams finished with a negative batting impact score and positive bowling impact score, they had a marginal improvement in average ranking to 4.8. From the data analyzed above, it is safe to conclude that going bowling heavy at the expense of batting will not pay dividends and the sides that have done the best are the one that found the right balance, even if it is slightly tilted towards the bowling. If we look at individual cases, the above adage was perhaps put to its sternest test in 2018.
In general, across all T20 cricket, 2018 was the best batting year and the story was no different in IPL with scoring rates peaking at 8.65. CSK were the best batting team of the tournament with a batting impact score of +0.59, well ahead of the next placed Delhi Capitals (+0.24), while SRH was one of the two teams that ended with a positive bowling impact score. SRH successfully defended totals of under 150 thrice in the season and regularly restricted oppositions to par totals or below.
The two sides faced off against each other four times with CSK coming out on top on every occasion, including the final where they upstaged SRH's bowling by chasing 179 to win by eight wickets. In 13 matches against teams other than CSK that season, SRH went at 7.92 and picked a wicket every 17.18 balls, but they came undone against CSK with the same parameters reading 8.91 and 30.67 respectively from four exchanges.
CSK's batting impact score of +0.59 in 2018 was the best among all the teams that won IPL and they were one of only two trophy[1]winning sides to register a negative bowling impact score (MI in 2015 being the only other side). In this case, batting trumped bowling.
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SRH bowling vs CSK batting in 2018
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Another instance of this hypothesis being put through the acid test was in the 2015 final. This was the only instance of a final being played between a team with a positive bowling impact score and a negative batting impact score, and an opponent with scores the other way around. CSK, the league toppers, finished with impact scores of -0.04 and +0.27 in batting and bowling respectively.
Their opponents in the final - MI - were the best batting unit of the season with an impact score of +0.35, double the next best, while in bowling their score was -0.11. MI were 0.39 points ahead of CSK in batting and 0.38 points behind CSK in bowling making it the most batting vs bowling heavy sides in terms of impact scores facing each other in a summit clash. MI made 202/5 batting first and got the better of CSK, restricting them to 161 to make it 3-1 in head-to-head clashes in the season. So once again we saw batting strength getting the better of bowling strength.
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The bowling heavy sides that went all the way
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If the above suggests that it is batting that clinches trophies, let's look at some bowling teams that went all the way. In 2019, CSK were a hit away from clinching the title. The IPL returned to Chennai for a full season for the first time in a while and the tracks on offer at Chepauk slowed down significantly as the match progressed, which meant spin was the order of the day.
CSK realized this early and were aided in their pursuit by the fact they won six tosses out of eight home games. Luck factor aside, CSK on average bowled 15 balls of spin every innings more than their visitors, which proved to be the clincher. Imran Tahir was the Purple Cap winner that year with 26 scalps, while Harbhajan Singh and Ravindra Jadeja played the supporting cast to perfection. Deepak Chahar and Dwayne Bravo capped off the attack, owning either ends of the innings.
Each of CSK's top four leading wicket takers picked 15+ wickets at economy rates under 7.50 per over, covering up for what was one of CSK's weakest seasons with the bat. Two bowling dominant sides that went on to lift the silverware are Rajasthan Royals in the inaugural IPL and Kolkata Knight Riders in 2012, both with a bowling impact score of +0.28. Royals in 2008 had three of the four highest wicket takers (Sohail Tanvir, Shane Warne & Shane Watson) of the season, and a strong bowling attack was the backbone of their success at their bowling-friendly home in Jaipur, where they did not lose a single game.
The story was similar for KKR in 2012, where Sunil Narine led the attack with 24 wickets at an economy rate of 5.48 and was backed up by bowlers who made full use of the Eden Gardens track. No other championship-winning side has had their total impact score significantly boosted by bowling impact like KKR in 2012 (bowling impact score of +0.25 to batting impact score of +0.03). SRH in 2016 is another title-winning team whose balance was more skewed to their bowling unit.
They remain an anomaly as the only champions who had a negative batting impact score (-0.06), despite a cracking season from their skipper David Warner who hit 848 runs. Bhuvneshwar was the Purple Cap winner with 23 wickets and formed a formidable pairing with Mustafizur Rahman, who finished with 17 wickets and played big hand for them throughout the season.
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Team with best bowling impact scores
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The most complete championship-winning side
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It would be little surprise to anyone who has followed IPL diligently to hear which was the most rounded side that ever lifted the silverware. No other side dominated an IPL season as much as Mumbai Indians did in the 2020 edition.
They lost just five games in the season, two via Super Over and one when they rested most of their first choice players, underscoring their dominance. SRH in 2017 aside (more on them later), MI in 2020 is the only team that finished with a batting impact score above +0.50 and a bowling impact score above +0.25.
They had a strong batting order with three of their top four batters (Quinton de Kock, Ishan Kishan & Suryakumar Yadav) aggregating 480+ runs at 140+ strike rate, while both Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya provided the finishing touch to the innings striking at 175+. MI scored at 9.09 per over and lost a wicket every 24.41 balls - RCB in 2016 is the only other instance of a team managing the double of 9+ run rate and 22+ balls per dismissal.
Despite the obvious chinks in the bowling attack - like the lack of a genuine second overseas seamer and Hardik's inability to bowl - Jasprit Bumrah (27 wickets, SR 13.33) and Trent Boult (25 wickets, SR 13.76) controlled either half of the innings, which ensured that their bowling towered above the rest. MI on average were +1.15 runs ahead every over of the opposition (run rate of 9.09 and economy rate of 7.94), which was the best a team managed in a season.
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The GOAT
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Chennai Super Kings, with an average impact score of +0.41 across the 13 editions in which they competed, is the standout IPL side in the first 15 years of the competition's journey. CSK registered a positive impact score in 12 of the 13 seasons they featured in, missing out only in IPL 2022 - which also happens to be the only time both their batting and bowling impact scores were in negative territory Among the sides which have featured in at least three editions SRH is a territory. Among the sides which have featured in at least three editions, SRH is a distant second with an average impact score of +0.14, while MI is the only other side to register a net average impact score in positive territory (+0.09).
Of the top ten entries on total impact score across the 15 editions, CSK occupy as many as five of them, with three of those culminating in title wins (2011, 2018 & 2021). In all three title-winning seasons, they managed a +0.50 batting impact score while their bowling impact score in all of these seasons was below +0.10, underscoring how batting-dominant CSK have been in their successful years. CSK teams are renowned for having deep batting lineups and they often rely on skipper MS Dhoni's tactical acumen to ensure the bowling unit's output is greater than the sum of its parts.
The only exception to this trend was their maiden title win in 2010 where they achieved their lowest batting impact score (+0.25) and highest bowling impact score (+0.11) of their four title-winning seasons. They were staring at an early exit midway through the tournament with just two wins from seven matches but regrouped well in the second half to win five matches, four of them at their bastion at Chepauk, to stage a comeback that culminated in the double of IPL and CLT20 trophies.
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Title winning teams with impact scores
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Cracking the Chinnaswamy code
A common denominator for every T20 dynasty is the dominance at their home ground and a team built around the characteristics of it - for example the fast bouncy wickets at Perth for the Scorchers, or the Chepauk turner for Chennai Super Kings. The Chinnaswamy Stadium typically presents a flat wicket combined with short boundaries, negating the home team's ability to assemble a squad tailored to the venue and leaving them little home advantage.
Yet RCB seemed to crack the code when they realized it is futile to plan to defend runs, and a far better strategy to go hunting for wickets. The 2015 RCB bowling attack did this to perfection when four of their highest wicket takers (Yuzvendra Chahal, Mitchell Starc, Harshal Patel & David Wiese - all with 15+ wickets each) combined to take 76 wickets between them at a rate of one every 13.9 balls. RCB's strike rate of 15.10 in that season is the best any side had managed in a season and the blueprint was set.
In the following year, they followed the same strategy with changes in personnel around Chahal. Chahal broke the door to national team selection with a 21-wicket season (SR 14.05) and was assisted by Shane Watson (20 wickets, SR 16.95), Chris Jordan (11 wickets, SR 15.27) and Sreenath Aravind (11 wickets, SR 15.91). As mentioned below, they failed to grab the clutch moments in the final and fell at the last hurdle for the third time.
The Chinnaswamy wicket was re-laid in 2017 but RCB veered away from this approach in the following years, failing to qualify for the Play Offs for three consecutive seasons between 2017 and 2019. They haven't played at the venue in the post-Covid era, a phase in which they have leaned towards a strong bowling lineup - unlike the sides of the past which were heavily loaded towards batting. RCB did find some success with their new approach, making the Play Offs for three successive years since 2020. How RCB's fortunes will pan out as they return to their home at Chinnaswamy will be one of the stories to watch out for in the 2023 IPL.
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The outliers
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In the 126 instances of teams featuring in the IPL so far, only one team has managed a total impact score of over one point. To the surprise of many, the team in picture is SunRisers Hyderabad in 2017, who finished third in the league phase, winning eight of the 13 completed games. SRH lost a wicket every 26.32 balls, which happens to be the second best a team ever managed in a season(marginally behind Chennai Super Kings' 26.63 in 2014).
Bowling strike rate wise, their 16.36 deliveries per wicket was only bettered on two other instances, giving them a positive difference of almost ten balls for every wicket lost and every wicket taken - the highest any team has ever achieved in a season. SRH in 2017 had five batters aggregating over 200 runs, four of them averaging over 28 balls per dismissal, while four of them scored those runs at a 135+ strike rate.
David Warner won the Orange Cap for his 641 runs (SR 142, BpD 41) followed by Shikhar Dhawan (479 runs, SR 127, BpD 29), Moises Henriques (277 runs, SR 136, BpD 34), Kane Williamson (256 runs, SR 151, BpD 28) and Yuvraj Singh (252 runs, SR 142, BpD 20). SunRisers' run rate of 8.64 was the highest they ever managed in an IPL season, further underlining how good a season they had batting wise - in a phase where SRH were renowned for their bowling-heavy strategy under Tom Moody.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar led the bowling charts, winning Purple Cap for the second year running with an eye popping strike rate of 12 balls every wicket. A teenaged Rashid Khan made giant strides in his debut IPL season with 17 scalps at an economy of 6.63, followed by Siddarth Kaul and Mohammed Siraj, who bagged 16 and 10 scalps at strike rates of 13.4 and 13.8 respectively.
In a tournament where they dominated with both bat and ball, SRH were unlucky not to go further as they crashed out in the Eliminator to KKR at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The tracks at Chinnaswamy were re-laid before the season which made it play contrary to its usual self, making batting a mean job. Adding to SRH's misfortune, the chase was cut short when rain reduced the game to a five-over shootout, leaving them little chance of a comeback.
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Teams with best impact scores
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The only other instance a team came close to match SunRisers' feat was RCB in IPL 2016, where they finished with a net impact score of +0.96. They assembled what could arguably be the finest batting lineup the IPL has ever witnessed - Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, and KL Rahul making up their top five. Kohli's magnum opus of 973 runs in a single edition in 2016 remains unmatched, and he was ably supported by AB de Villiers (687 runs, Avg 52.85, SR 169) and KL Rahul in what was his breakout season (397 runs, Avg 44.11, SR 146). RCB's scoring of 9.63 in 2016 is the best any team has managed in an IPL season thus far, and they did so losing a wicket only every 26.17 balls, giving them a batting impact score of 0.92 - the highest any team achieved in a season.
Gayle and Watson did not have particularly fruitful tournaments with the bat, but Watson more than made it up for that with his best season with the ball, accounting for 20 wickets. Like SRH in 2017, RCB was also unlucky not to end their title drought in 2016 as they failed to latch on to the key moments on the night that mattered. From a winning position, their inform middle order choked under pressure in the back half of the run chase to end eight runs short.
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Team with best batting impact scores
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The unlucky ones
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Of the top 25 teams on total impact score, the only side that failed to make it past the league phase is the RCB side of 2013. They finished with a total impact score of +0.60, while no other side that finished outside the top four could even get to +0.30. RCB in 2013 also remain the only side across 15 seasons that failed to finish in the top four despite winning more than half of their league games (nine wins and seven defeats from 16 league games).
MI in 2008 is another side that was unfortunate to miss the knockouts despite a total impact score of +0.28. They started off in the worst possible manner, losing four games on the trot, their original captain injured and their stand-in captain suspended. They staged a remarkable comeback to win their next six games before falling agonizingly short in the final over in their following three games.
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