Raising the bar to 250 paar: This season's IPL is setting a new norm of 250-plus scores
Gaurav Kanthwal
Will it be 400-paar, 350, or down to 250? Number crunching is the flavour of the season, though no one knows what exactly will be the Lok Sabha seat tally on the result day, June 4. However, on the night of May 26, the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL-2024) will bring an end to a season of bizarre totals, breaching all past records.
The lure of the IPL has always been about seeing batsmen hit sixes and fours. Power-packed batters, with meatier bats, unleashing their range of strokes has been the norm in the IPL. This year, it has gone farther than ever before.
Disney Star claims that the first 51 matches of the IPL 2024 registered a record viewership of 510 million. Hearing and visually-impaired fans were included in the fold with a special feed in Indian sign language, and audio descriptive feed. But this edition has been remarkably unusual in many more aspects. The insanity of rustling up 250-plus totals on featherbed pitches evening after evening has increased exponentially.
Two years ago, a 200-plus total was the norm. This season, till May 17, 250-plus scores have been posted eight times. Considering that it has happened only twice before since the IPL took off in 2008, the frequency is startling. Five teams — Sunrisers Hyderabad (thrice), Kolkata Knight Riders (twice), and Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Delhi Capitals and Punjab Kings — have breached the mark.
As many as 1,158 sixes have been hit in 67 matches. The playoffs are scheduled for May 21, 22 and 24. A mind-numbing 42 sixes were clobbered by batters from Punjab Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on April 26, a match the Kings won. The winning captain, Sam Curran, was succinct: “Cricket is turning into baseball, isn’t it? I am sure everyone wants to keep seeing sixes.”
Every 13th ball this season has been a six; in Delhi, it’s been hit every eighth ball. Last year, every 15th delivery was a six. More than 30 per cent of the total runs scored in 2024, the highest in any IPL, have come through sixes.
“Game (IPL) badal gayi hai… Batters are aiming at the stands and going for the roof. Single-double ka zamana gaya… It is the strike rate of the batter, rather than his average, that makes his presence felt in the team. It is but natural that batters will also score faster. The grounds are the same. New grounds are even bigger,” says Amritsar-based coach Raj Kumar Sharma, father of red-hot Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener Abhishek Sharma.
For fans watching this mayhem, a stage has come where frequent high-scoring performances have started to get almost annoying. Bowlers aren’t happy either. Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) pacer Mohammed Siraj expressed anguish at 250-plus totals being posted “in every second match”. “Keep bowling, keep getting hit. Small boundaries and flatter pitches are making it extremely difficult for bowlers this season,” he said after the RCB’s win against Gujarat Titans on April 30.
Spinners are no longer in the fight. CSK, a team which thrives on spinners, has sparingly used them this season. Harbhajan Singh was his usual acerbic self when he said that Rajasthan Royals’ Yuzvendra Chahal is the only spinner who is bowling like a spinner, looking to take wickets; the “rest all are just rolling their arms over”, content at not getting hit.
Seeing batters swinging from the first ball to the last, irrespective of the bowler’s reputation, and that too over a period of nearly two months, is turning out to be quite monotonous for some.
Gujarat Titans’ batting coach Gary Kirsten says it’s a lop-sided contest between the bat and the ball. “It needs to be an even contest and maybe it hasn’t been so much in this IPL. I think it’s been like the batter is dominating more. The most important thing is that it’s an even contest. And if it becomes uneven, I would like that to be addressed as best as they can,” he said.
The fans do come to see a run-fest but are served instead with a run glut. But for how long can a spectator see bowlers, good and average alike, getting clubbed all over the park again and again? Clearly, the contest is not between the batter and the bowler, but between the batters of one team versus the batters of the other. “Why then do you need a bowler, use a bowling machine instead” is the feeling among disenchanted fans.
What once started as a novelty is now falling into the trap of predictability.
Longtime IPL buff and seasoned orthopaedic surgeon Dr Mandeep Dhillon, who has worked with several international cricketers, says, “As a spectator, too much of slam bang has taken away the charm. Rookie bowlers are under too much of stress, not only physically but mentally. They get disillusioned quickly and have to be counselled.” His prescription for a healthy contest: “A 160-plus total with something for the bowler in the pitch to make it balanced entertainment.”
On an average, six to eight centuries are hit in the IPL every year. This season has seen a lot more, unusually so — 14 tons till May 17.
In all, a century has been scored 93 times in the 916 IPL matches played across 17 seasons (six came in the UAE and two in South Africa). In any other format, openers have to eke out their living in the face of the onslaught of swing and seam. But in the IPL, the top three get the best of both worlds. A flat launching pad, with fielding restrictions tying the hands of bowlers — 93 of the total 101 centuries in the IPL have been scored by the top three.
The top four teams this season have been those with the best batting averages. Rajasthan Royals (40.2), Chennai Super Kings (35), Kolkata Knight Riders (34.3) and Sunrisers Hyderabad (33.1). Predictably, they are the ones to make the playoffs. “If fans come only to watch sixes and fours and applaud only centurions, why is it that football and hockey are watched with passion even if both the teams play out a goalless draw?” questions Dharamvir Singh, a former India hockey player and senior Punjab Police officer who watches IPL off and on.
The introduction of the Impact Player rule, which gives a team the liberty to replace a player according to the conditions, invariably favours batters. As a result, the batting side is encouraged to play aggressively even if the wickets keep falling.
An IPL match is now dominated by attack; earlier, it was defence. A 200-plus total is counted as nothing more than a par score. It’s the 250-plus total by the team batting first which turns the heat on during the chase. It is for this reason that openers like Jake Fraser-McGurk (DC), Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma (SRH), Phil Salt and Sunil Narine (KKR), Jos Buttler and Yashasvi Jaiswal (RR) go hammer and tongs right from the first ball. From being fearless, the batters have changed gears to being reckless. It is the strike rate that makes a batter’s presence felt, rather than his average.
Ricky Ponting, however, is of the view that this 250-plus total is an Indian phenomenon only, with venues such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Delhi encouraging big totals. He does not see it happening anywhere else, for the time being.
Franchise coaches are harping on the batters to make a big impact. Hanging in there — a hallmark of a true blue batter in conventional cricketer — is dismissed derisively. Remember, Rahul Dravid was shown the door politely. Cheteshwar Pujara, too, had no admirers here. A 15-ball 40, at the least, is what’s expected from a batter. Even Virat Kohli, the Orange Cap holder and the highest run-getter in the IPL, is drawing criticism for his “sluggish” strike rate of 155.16.
Analysts say the Impact Player rule introduced last year has taken the bowler out of contention. Besides the playing XI, a team now lists four substitutes at the toss. Any one of the four can be used as the Impact Player depending on the conditions anytime during the match. More often than not, it’s the batters who step in.
There are signs that the BCCI may address this trend next year. India captain Rohit Sharma says he is not a big fan of it. “You are taking out so much from the game just to make it a little entertaining for people. Guys like Washington Sundar and Shivam Dube are not getting to bowl, which for us (India team) is not a good thing.” The BCCI better pay heed.
