The batting blitz turning cricket into baseball
By Ayaz Memon
There’s been carnage and plunder in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the world’s richest cricket tournament, this year.
At grounds across the country, batters are throwing caution to the winds, unleashing big shots without mercy and turning virtually every match into a six-hitting festival. This is leaving bowlers hapless, confounding experts and fans about where Twenty20 cricket is headed.
Look at some of the numbers highlighting the batting mayhem witnessed so far.
After the 39th match of the season between Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants on Tuesday night, a total of 1,191 fours and 686 sixes had been struck.
In comparison, IPL 2023 recorded 2,174 fours and 1,124 sixes. With over half the current season remaining, it’s reasonable to expect last year’s figures to be easily exceeded.
The increase in fours and sixes has correspondingly boosted team totals.
In the early IPL seasons, a score of 150-160 was deemed competitive, but today it often leads to defeat in eight out of 10 games. To illustrate the shift in scoring patterns, consider Yuvraj Singh’s six sixes off Stuart Broad in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007, where India totalled 218 – a monumental achievement at the time. However, 16 years later, team scores of 200 have become routine.
