So what’s next in the IPL? Scores of 300, even 350? Or how about 350 getting chased down? Batters scoring double centuries, 25-ball centuries? Well, after all, that seems to be the pattern the league is heading towards. There’ve simply been far too many 200-plus scores this season, with last evening’s game between Kolkata Knight Riders and Punjab Kings leasing the way, which saw PBKS gun down KKR’s 261 to record the highest chase in T20 cricket, let alone IPL, with eight balls to spare.
As Jonny Bairstow pummelled a century, and Prabhsimran Singh, along with Shashank Singh, clubbed fifties if their own to get PBKS over the line by eight wickets, India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin showed sympathy for the bowlers and echoed the thoughts of several Indians watching the IPL. “Save the bowlers, someone please,” he posted on X, followed by SOS emojis. He further posted: “It’s run a ball for the last 2 overs of a T 20 game in a chase of 260-plus. Let that sink in.”
His message is a food for thought. In the last 12 IPL matches, 12 times have teams scored over 200 runs. 250 has been crossed seven times this season and bowlers have merely been reduced to bowling machines. Even 200 is not a safe total. Gone are the days when 180 used to be a challenging target. They’re long behind us. The imbalance between the bat and ball, flat wickets, and the dreaded Impact Player rule has taken the excitement out of this year’s IPL and which is why fans aren’t entirely wrong if they feel 2024 is the ‘worst IPL’ of all time, a hashtag that has been trending since last night.
