Punjab Kings (PBKS) gunned down Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) huge total of 261 to record the highest chase of T20 cricket in a match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Friday.
While Jonny Bairstow hit a century, Prabhsimran Singh and Shashank Singh scored blistering half centuries to get PBKS over the line by eight wickets.
Reacting over the development, veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin showed sympathy for the bowlers. He echoed the thoughts of several Indians watching the IPL.
“Save the bowlers, someone please,” Ashwin posted on X (earlier known as Twitter), followed by SOS emojis.
“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,” the veteran spinner added.
Notably, 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.
The imbalance between the bat and ball, flat wickets, and the Impact Player rule has taken the excitement out of this year’s IPL. It’s the main reason 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.