The first six overs and the last five. Is that what the IPL is about? When one-day cricket (50 overs) was threatening to take over the sport, attracting the crowds and the money and endangering the calendar, it had gone through a similar phase. First ten and last ten, television viewers told themselves, which meant they had 30 overs to attend to more pressing matters.

Did T20 grow out of this middle overs crisis? There is one significant difference, though. While in the longer format, it was a holding period to ensure there were wickets in hand for the final slog, T20 is all slog. It is about hitting fours and especially sixes, and there’s always someone down the order who can occasionally do this as well as the top guys do. The opener and the finisher share one aim.

This year’s tournament saw more sixes (1426) and fewer viewers. Perhaps there is a connection. The viewership data are from Broadcast Audience Research Council and concerns the first half of the tournament, but it is telling all the same.

Better balance

Even the six-addict might like to see better balance between bat and ball. Achieving this will be the tournament’s aim between now and the next edition. Or maybe not. So far administrators have been more keen on loading the dice in favour of the batter.

The format has one advantage, however. It can make new rules. The farther it moves away from the red ball game, the better it is for both. This column has been arguing for years that T20 and Test match cricket are different sports which just happen to use the same equipment.

Still, it is ironical that in a tournament where totals of over 200 (and once even 250) were casually chased down, the final was a tribute to the bowling. RCB restricted Gujarat Titans, having out-thought their opponents with consistent short-pitched bowling. They never looked in trouble thereafter. Virat Kohli was resplendent in reply, playing an innings worth losing sleep over, as millions did.

In Kagiso Rabada’s second over the sequence of 4,4,6,4 alone was worth the price of the television set. That six off one of the fastest deliveries of the night was enticed into going over the fence with the gentlest of persuasions, all wrist and bottom hand. Kohli didn’t even look up as if too shy to countenance such treatment of a great bowler. Rabada, the tournament’s most successful bowler was taken for 88 runs in all by Kohli in this year’s IPL, off just 37 deliveries. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the quiet warrior through the season. RCB owe him.

Gujarat Titans effectively lost the final in the first four overs after their prolific openers Shubman Gill and Sai Sudharsan were dismissed. This might sound like fixing the dots after the picture is complete, but it was clear only one team expected to win from there. The scoreboard pressure so favoured by commentators was on the side which had batted first.

Some years ago, Kohli would have managed the chase differently, anchoring the innings without taking risks. But this new Kohli has internalised the tactical changes in the format which calls for only one gear – the top one. Two hundred is the key figure, whether as a fighting total or a batter’s strike rate. GT fell well short of the first while Kohli got to his half century at that rate.

Look into the future

Two events might have given us a peep into the future. The tacky ‘entertainment’ between innings and the referral to AI by commentators. Is AI getting ready to take over from them? May not be a bad idea considering some of the quality!

Has the IPL has become too predictable, the six-hitting too frequent for its own good? No sport played only for the aficionado can survive. Fans unbothered by nuance and untouched by a wider range of skills ensure success.

So will the cricket board decide that preparing less than perfect batting pitches, and fiddling with the rules come under the category of killing the golden goose? The balance it usually looks for is in the balance sheet.