Pressure
What really puts a T20 batter under pressure?
Since the 2023 IPL playoffs, and for the whole season since 2025, the IPL has planted a tree for every dot ball, and the broadcast shows a small tree in place of each dot in its over-by-over graphic. When ESPNcricinfo launched its Smart Stats in spring 2018, it came with a Dot Pressure Index for bowlers. It gave a point for three dots in a row within an over and two for a maiden, on the belief that strings of dots build pressure on the batting side and that this often leads to wickets.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar said much the same after Sunrisers Hyderabad defended 118 against Mumbai Indians in the 2018 IPL: “when you keep bowling dot balls, they come under pressure and commit mistakes.” Across men’s and women’s T20s of every era, a wicket falls in the next six balls after four dots in a row 28% of the time. However, it turns out that is about the same as the chance of a wicket in the next six balls from any ball at all, which is 29%.
What makes a chasing T20 batter get out more often is the required rate on the scoreboard, the strain cricket already calls scoreboard pressure, and a run of dots on its own does not do it.
What a run of dot balls actually does to a batter
A batter who has faced dots on more than half his balls so far blocks 17% to 25% more often than his usual rate for that stage of the innings and that number of wickets down, allowing for who was bowling. In that more defensive frame of mind he scores 4% to 8% fewer runs a ball than usual, but he is no more likely to get out. The Dot Pressure Index paid bowlers for exactly this, a slower batter, on the promise of a wicket that does not follow.
Furthermore, two sides that finish on the same total are just as likely to win, whatever share of dots they faced along the way. A batter who attacks less does cost his side runs, but that cost already shows in the total on the board, the figure that decides the match.
When does the required rate start to bite?
In men’s T20 internationals and leagues since 2022, things change noticeably for chasing batters at about 10 runs an over. By 12 to 15 an over, chasing batters are out 23% more often than usual.
The extra wickets come from the total on the scoreboard being chased. A dot early in a comfortable chase barely matters, but a dot that pushes the asking rate past 10 an over adds to scoreboard pressure. The Dot Pressure Index scored dots only by how many came in a row within an over.
Why batters swing harder as the rate climbs
At 12 to 15 an over, chasing batters play 29% more big shots than usual: slogs, sweeps, ramps and hooks. These are the shots that clear the rope and the shots that find the man at deep midwicket, and a batter chasing a steep target has to accept both outcomes. The scoreboard changes how he plays, and how he plays changes how often he is dismissed.
With no more than two wickets down at 12 to 15 an over, batters swing more and are out more often still.
What happens when dots and a losing chase arrive together?
When a chasing side is given less than 25% to win and its batter has faced dots on more than 55% of his balls, he is out 38% more often than usual and scores no more runs for it. Dots and wickets only line up when the scoreboard is already against the batter. The dot ball supplies the deficit, the scoreboard the wickets.
Does the pitch change the pressure in a T20 chase?
Behind the rate on a low-scoring pitch, batters are out 45% more often than usual. On a high-scoring pitch, the figure is 9%.
It is disproportionately harder to raise the scoring rate on a tougher pitch, and chasing batters get out trying.
Do fielders feel the scoreboard too?
A bowling side in a T20 chase given less than 25% to win drops 21% more of its chances than usual. A side given above 75% to win drops fewer than usual.
Do wickets come in clusters after a dismissal?
In the six balls after a wicket, the new batter is out 3% less often than usual and the set batter at the other end 7% less often, so wickets do not come in clusters this way. When a T20 chase does lose wickets in a rush, a climbing required rate is the place to look.
How ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats measure pressure
ESPNcricinfo’s Smart Stats explainer of March 2019 does not mention dots. Its pressure index is built from the match situation: the required rate, the wickets in hand, and the quality of the batters and bowlers still to come.
A measure built on the match situation fits these findings. The required rate and the wickets in hand both change how often chasing batters get out, while a run of dots on its own does not. The dot ball carried on as broadcast content, an easy, digestible story for viewers.
Verdict: scoreboard pressure brings T20 wickets
Cricket already has a name for what the required rate does to a chasing side: scoreboard pressure, the strain of a required rate that climbs as the balls run out. Fans and commentators use the phrase loosely, and these figures put a measure on it. Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s point holds once the scoreboard is attached, because every dot bowled in defence of 118 also left the chasing side more runs to find from fewer balls, and the mistakes come from the risks a batter has to take once the asking rate gets away from him.
Strip the scoreboard away and a run of dots leaves a batter slower and more cautious, with his wicket intact and his side no less likely to win once the runs are counted. Put the same dots into a chase that is already slipping, or onto a pitch that is hard to score on, and they feed scoreboard pressure.
The dot ball can keep its tree, because it does cost a side runs, but in a T20 chase what brings the wicket is scoreboard pressure. A run of dots alone does not.