I was commentating on the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Lucknow Super Giants game and it suddenly dawned on me that the way to play T20 cricket is transforming before our eyes in this IPL.
The contrast between the two teams was stark. Lucknow fought their way to 165 on a pitch that looked slow, tacky and difficult to score freely on. KL Rahul adopted his usual safety-first approach and once they had reached only 27-2 in the powerplay, 165 was about as good a score as they could have hoped for.
What then happened in the Sunrisers’ run-chase was nothing short of astonishing! Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma played as if they had not been watching the first innings.
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There were no thoughts about the slowness of the pitch, they literally just tried to hit every ball for six and the end result was a score of 107 without loss after six overs, the second-highest powerplay score of all time in men’s T20 cricket (behind their own record of a scarcely believable 125 vs Delhi Capitals last month). The difference between the two teams’ powerplays ended up being a staggering 80 runs.
Sunrisers ended up chasing down their target in less than 10 overs, with a shell-shocked Rahul effusive in his praise of the top-order ‘Travishek’ combo (you’ll be hearing this term a lot more I think).
The bottom line, however, is that it was Rahul himself who was mainly responsible for the annihilation suffered by his side. The Super Giants played an old-school brand of T20 where they assessed the pitch, kept wickets in hand in the middle overs and then attacked at the end to get up to what looked like a defendable score. Except it wasn’t.
Those tactics don’t work against sides who have two confident openers willing to chance their arm and who don’t care about getting out early. Head and Abhishek put the bowlers under intense pressure from ball one and got more bad balls as a result, as even good bowlers tend to wilt in that situation.
This seems to be the new way to play and unless teams like Lucknow adapt, they will get left behind.
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It will be fascinating to see how teams play at the men’s T20 World Cup in June – will we see the same all-out aggression? I have a feeling we will – as long as the pitches aren’t extremely slow – and we may well look back at the 2024 IPL as having changed the way T20 cricket is played forever.
Hyderabad’s win means that Mumbai Indians are the first side who officially can’t make the playoffs. Their batting was so impressive last year and with Jasprit Bumrah back I genuinely thought they might overpower teams and go all the way (see my disastrous prediction in the tournament-preview team guide).
To say their campaign has been a bit of a damp squib is an understatement. Bumrah has been at his mesmerising best but the rest of the attack has been woeful, and the lack of a quality spinner has come back to bite them hard.
The superstar batting lineup just hasn’t got going either. Expect them to make wholesale changes at the mega auction before next season – they should start with getting in some high-quality International bowlers and revamping the overseas contingent in general, which is so lacking compared to some other franchises.
That probably leaves us with a four-way fight for the last two playoff spots, unless Royal Challengers Bengaluru or Punjab Kings can win their final three games and give themselves a chance.
Sunrisers’ batting is virtually unstoppable when it gets going and, with both their final group matches at home, they look extremely likely to finish in the top four. Lucknow have two decent games left on paper against Mumbai and Delhi – even if both are away – yet, after watching that mauling by Sunrisers, it seems hard to back them.
Chennai Super Kings have an extra game left compared to their rivals around them, so I may just lean towards Ruturaj Gaikwad’s side sneaking into the playoffs.
Whatever happens, you can be sure of one thing, the rampant run-scoring in this season’s IPL is far from over!
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