In IPL 2026, the average first-innings score across the 64 fully scored matches in CricMind's match database was 196.5. In IPL 2009 the equivalent figure was 150.3. That is 46 extra runs per first innings in 17 years, and the gap did not open evenly. Some grounds went up a long way, one well-known high-scoring ground went down, and one venue that hardly mattered two years earlier had the highest average in the league.
This piece goes through the 2026 season one ground at a time. For each venue we compare the 2026 numbers with Cricsheet ball-by-ball records from 2008 to 2025, split into the full history and the 2023–2025 period (the three seasons after the Impact Player rule arrived). Venue reputations are slow to change and data changes every season, so a record of where they disagreed in 2026 should stay useful long after the season.
The 2026 Venue Story: Three Kinds of Ground
The 2026 season, which ran from 28 March to the final in Ahmedabad on 31 May 2026, was played at 14 venues. After merging the two names used for the Mullanpur ground, they fall into three groups: grounds that went well past their own recent history, grounds that stayed close to it, and one ground that went against the league-wide rise in scoring.
The runaway grounds: Mullanpur, Wankhede and Chepauk
The Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur had the most extreme numbers of 2026. It hosted three matches with scores recorded: 219, 254 and 222 in the first innings, and 223, 200 and 228 in the chases. All six innings reached 200. Its first-innings average of 231.7 was 62.8 runs higher than its 2023–2025 average of 168.9 over 11 matches. In April 2026 Punjab Kings scored 254/7 against Lucknow Super Giants there on 19 April. Nine days later, on 28 April, Rajasthan Royals chased down 222 at the same ground.
[Wankhede Stadium](/venues/wankhede-stadium) has long been a high-scoring ground, but the 2026 figures were large even by its standards. Its first-innings average was 216.3 over six matches, compared with 187.0 in 2023–2025 and 170.5 across 125 matches since 2008. Eight of its twelve innings passed 200. The highest was on 29 April 2026, when Mumbai Indians made 243/5 and still lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad, who reached 249/4 with eight balls to spare. The 492 runs in that match made it the highest-scoring game at Wankhede in 2026.
[MA Chidambaram Stadium](/venues/ma-chidambaram-stadium) moved the most relative to its reputation. Chepauk has been known for slow, turning pitches since 2008, and the numbers supported that: 163.9 across 91 matches, the lowest long-run average of any current major venue, and still only 168.3 in 2023–2025, when most other grounds were climbing. In 2026 its average jumped to 197.7. Six innings passed 200, including Gujarat Titans' 229/4 on 21 May 2026, which Chennai Super Kings answered with 140 all out. CSK won four and lost three at home. That record reflects the change: a home advantage built on slow pitches is weaker when the home pitch plays like everyone else's.
The steady grounds: Eden, Ahmedabad and Lucknow
[Eden Gardens](/venues/eden-gardens) averaged 191.2 in 2026, slightly below its 2023–2025 figure of 196.7. That is still high for Kolkata, but it did not follow the league-wide jump. Its range was wide. Kolkata Knight Riders scored 247/2 against Gujarat on 16 May, and Mumbai Indians were held to 147/8 four days later. Qualifier 2 on 29 May also went to the chasing side: Gujarat reached 219/3 in 18.4 overs to beat Rajasthan's 214/6.
[Narendra Modi Stadium](/venues/narendra-modi-stadium) hosted nine matches, more than any other ground, including the Eliminator and the Final. Its average fell to 181.2 from 195.3 in 2023–2025. The ground produced two of the most one-sided league results of the year. Mumbai beat Gujarat by 99 runs on 20 April, bowling them out for 100, and Gujarat bowled Sunrisers Hyderabad out for 86 on 12 May. The Final, on 31 May 2026, was also low-scoring. Gujarat made 155/8, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru chased it in 18 overs to win a second straight title after their first in 2025.
[Ekana Cricket Stadium](/venues/brsabv-ekana-cricket-stadium) in Lucknow stayed close to its history, with 181.2 in 2026 against 175.4 across 22 earlier matches. It also hosted one of the closest games of the season: on 26 April, Lucknow and Kolkata both finished on 155, and Kolkata won the Super Over. LSG won two and lost three at home, continuing the pattern covered in our Lucknow franchise deep-dive.
The contrarian: Arun Jaitley Stadium
[Arun Jaitley Stadium](/venues/arun-jaitley-stadium) was the highest-scoring major venue of 2023–2025, with a first-innings average of 201.5. In 2026 it dropped to 171.6. The average hides how varied the ground was. It hosted a successful chase of 265 (Punjab Kings' 265/4 against Delhi's 264/2 on 25 April), and two days later it saw Delhi bowled out for 75 by Bengaluru, who chased the target in 6.3 overs. The median first-innings score was 162.
Delhi did follow one clear pattern: the side batting second won six of seven matches. The only exception came on 8 April, when Gujarat defended 210 against Delhi by a single run.
Data Deep-Dive: Every Ground, Side by Side
Table 1 — First-innings averages, 2026 vs history (minimum 3 matches in 2026)
| Venue | 2026 Avg 1st Inns | 2026 Matches | 2023–25 Avg | 2008–25 Avg | Shift vs 2023–25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mullanpur (Maharaja Yadavindra Singh) | 231.7 | 3 | 168.9 | 168.9 | +62.8 |
| Wankhede Stadium | 216.3 | 6 | 187.0 | 170.5 | +29.3 |
| Dharamsala (HPCA) | 210.7 | 3 | 194.3 | 183.1 | +16.4 |
| M. Chinnaswamy Stadium | 210.0 | 3 | 189.1 | 173.0 | +20.9 |
| Rajiv Gandhi Intl, Hyderabad | 209.0 | 7 | 189.4 | 164.9 | +19.6 |
| Sawai Mansingh Stadium | 205.8 | 5 | 187.2 | 165.5 | +18.6 |
| MA Chidambaram Stadium | 197.7 | 7 | 168.3 | 163.9 | +29.4 |
| Eden Gardens | 191.2 | 6 | 196.7 | 168.6 | −5.5 |
| Narendra Modi Stadium | 181.2 | 9 | 195.3 | 180.4 | −14.1 |
| Ekana Cricket Stadium | 181.2 | 5 | 175.4 | 175.4 | +5.8 |
| Arun Jaitley Stadium | 171.6 | 7 | 201.5 | 171.8 | −29.9 |
Source: CricMind match_history (IPL 2026, 64 fully scored matches) and Cricsheet IPL archive 2008–2025. Mullanpur has no IPL history before 2024, so its 2023–25 and all-time columns are identical.
Seven of the eleven grounds exceeded their 2023–2025 averages by at least 16 runs. Three were lower. Among the grounds that fell, the two biggest drops came at Delhi and Ahmedabad, which had been the two highest-scoring major venues of the previous three seasons. In 2026 the grounds that were already highest-scoring did not keep pulling away. The biggest gains came at grounds that had lagged behind.
Table 2 — Chasing and home record by ground, IPL 2026
| Venue | Chasing Wins | 200+ Innings | Home Team | Home Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arun Jaitley Stadium | 6 of 7 | 4 | DC | 2–5 |
| Sawai Mansingh Stadium | 4 of 5 | 7 | RR | 2–3 |
| Wankhede Stadium | 4 of 6 | 8 | MI | 2–4 |
| Eden Gardens | 4 of 6* | 5 | KKR | 3–2 in league† |
| MA Chidambaram Stadium | 4 of 7 | 6 | CSK | 4–3 |
| Narendra Modi Stadium | 5 of 9 | 3 | GT | 5–2 in league |
| Rajiv Gandhi Intl, Hyderabad | 2 of 7 | 6 | SRH | 5–2 |
| Mullanpur | 2 of 3 | 6 | PBKS | 2–1 |
| Dharamsala (HPCA) | 2 of 3 | 5 | PBKS | 0–3 |
| Ekana Cricket Stadium | 2 of 4‡ | 3 | LSG | 2–3 |
\Includes Qualifier 2 (GT beat RR). †KKR's five league matches at Eden, against LSG, RR, GT, MI and DC. ‡Super Over tie on 26 April excluded.*
Across the 63 decided matches in the dataset, the chasing side won 40, or 63.5%. Between 2008 and 2025, no major ground had a long-run chasing win rate above 64%. Most were between 45% and 57%. In 2026 the league-wide figure reached the level of the most chase-friendly individual grounds. Toss winners picked up on this: they chose to bowl first in 52 of 64 matches (81%). Even so, toss winners won exactly 32 of 64 (50%). Choosing correctly at the toss did not produce more wins.
Hyderabad was the main exception to the chasing trend. Sunrisers batted first in all seven home matches. When they posted 194 or more, they won all five. When they were held to 156 and 165, they lost both. SRH were the one team whose home pitch clearly rewarded batting first, and they kept to that approach all season.
The Dharamsala anomaly
Punjab Kings played three matches in Dharamsala in May 2026 and lost all three, to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru. At Mullanpur, their main home ground, they won two of three. Dharamsala averaged 210.7 in the first innings and every innings there passed 199, so the conditions were not the problem. PBKS lost because the opposition matched or beat their totals on a pitch where no score was safe. For a franchise planning the 2027 home schedule, a 2–1 record at one ground and 0–3 at the other is worth noting.
Legacy Impact: What the 2026 Venue Map Means Now
"Venue reputation" is now a lagging indicator
The main lesson from 2026 is that the traditional description of each ground is now years behind the numbers. Chepauk's slow-pitch reputation dates from roughly 2008–2022. Delhi's run-fest reputation comes from 2023–2025. In 2026 each ground behaved closer to the opposite of its reputation. Squad building, playing XI selection and toss decisions based on those older descriptions were working from outdated information.
That has practical consequences. Chennai's retention strategy has favoured spin depth for a decade, and on a Chepauk averaging 197.7 that strategy pays off less. Delhi's squad was built for high scores, but its home ground produced a median first-innings score of 162, and Delhi Capitals went 2–5 there.
The ceiling rose most where the floor had been lowest
The grounds with the biggest gains in 2026, Mullanpur (+62.8), Chepauk (+29.4) and Wankhede (+29.3), were not the grounds that led in 2023–2025. The highest-scoring grounds of 2023–2025, Delhi and Ahmedabad, both went down. Across the league, scores converged at a higher level: in 2026 the spread between the highest and lowest venue averages was about 60 runs, and at least seven grounds averaged above 195.
Why this matters for prediction
This matters directly for CricMind's Oracle. In the pre-match model, the venue factor carries a 10% weight, and it is calculated from each ground's historical first-innings average and chasing win rate. In a season when Chepauk played about 30 runs above its all-time average and Delhi about 30 below its recent form, any model that weights career venue history heavily will misjudge par scores. The venue data in this piece is the kind of recency correction the Oracle needs to calibrate for the next season. Every settled call is tracked publicly on the leaderboard.
What 2027 should expect
Some 2026 venue results will probably regress next season, especially at grounds with only two or three matches in the sample: Mullanpur, Dharamsala, Raipur and Chinnaswamy, which staged only three fully scored games. Other shifts look more lasting. Chepauk's move toward 190-plus scores and Delhi's split between very high and very low scores both fit the 2023–2025 data at other venues. Expect teams to weight toss decisions and XI composition much more by ground than they did in 2026, when 81% of toss winners chose to bowl whatever the venue.
Three Takeaways
- Chepauk was the biggest story of 2026. Its long-run average of 163.9 was the lowest of any major current ground. In 2026 it averaged 197.7, and Chennai's spin-based home advantage became a 4–3 record.
- Delhi went against the trend. It went from the highest average of 2023–2025 (201.5) to 171.6, with a median first innings of 162, a 265 chase, a 75 all out, and the chasing side winning six of seven.
- Chasing won 63.5% of decided games, and batting first worked in only one clear case. Sunrisers Hyderabad, batting first in all seven home games and unbeaten when they reached 194, were the only side for whom it reliably worked.
FAQ
Which IPL venue had the highest average first-innings score in IPL 2026?
Among grounds that hosted at least three fully scored matches, the Maharaja Yadavindra Singh International Cricket Stadium in Mullanpur had the highest 2026 first-innings average at 231.7. All six innings played there passed 200. Wankhede Stadium was second at 216.3.
Which venue saw the biggest scoring drop in IPL 2026?
Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. It averaged 201.5 in the first innings across 2023–2025 and 171.6 in 2026. The figure includes Delhi Capitals being bowled out for 75 by Royal Challengers Bengaluru on 27 April 2026.
Did Chepauk stop favouring spin in IPL 2026?
The scores suggest a big change. Chepauk's 2026 first-innings average of 197.7 was about 34 runs above its 2008–2025 average of 163.9, and six innings there passed 200. Chennai Super Kings finished 4–3 at home.
Was it better to bat first or chase in IPL 2026?
Chasing was clearly better. The chasing side won 40 of 63 decided matches (63.5%) in CricMind's dataset. Toss winners chose to bowl 81% of the time, although toss winners won only half their matches.
Which team had the strongest home record in IPL 2026?
Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Titans both went 5–2 at home in league matches. SRH batted first in all seven home games and won every one where they reached 194. Punjab Kings split their home games between two grounds, going 2–1 at Mullanpur and 0–3 at Dharamsala.
Where was the IPL 2026 Final played and how did the venue behave?
The Final was played at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on 31 May 2026. The venue averaged a relatively modest 181.2 in the first innings in 2026, and the Final followed that pattern. Gujarat Titans made 155/8, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru chased it in 18 overs to retain the title.
How reliable are these venue numbers?
They are based on the 64 IPL 2026 matches with complete scorecards in CricMind's match database, compared with the Cricsheet IPL archive for 2008–2025 (1,169 matches). Matches with incomplete or duplicated records, and a rain-reduced 11-over game in Guwahati, are excluded from the averages. Grounds with only two or three matches in 2026 should be read as early indications, not settled trends.