Twenty20 cricket in general, and the Indian Premier League (IPL) in particular, is constantly reinventing itself and pushing the bar of impossibility to stratospheric levels. The ongoing season of the IPL, less than a quarter of the way into the league stage, has already witnessed the two biggest team totals in the league’s history. It is the fastest-scoring edition of the T20 extravaganza, which has seen cumulative average batting run rates rise by more than a full run since its inception in 2008, from 8.30 to 9.36.
The Impact Player rule, introduced last year, has only played into the hands of the willow-yielders further, allowing teams to beef up the line-up with specialists. To offer bowlers some respite, the tournament organisers decided to permit two bouncers in an over this year, doubling their capacity to opt for the short-pitched stuff. The decision came after the two-bouncer-per-over provision, trialled during the Syed…
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