India, April 19 -- With IPL at the halfway stage, the strategic timeout throws up an opportunity to look back at what's happened. To an extent it's the usual story - a rerun of the past with bat dominating ball, bowlers looking for cover and teams considering anything less than 200 to be sub-par. The impact player makes cricket a 12 versus 12 contest, the extra batter is an added weapon, a handy option in case the regulars fire blanks.

Quite often, the IPL is reduced to a celebration of power hitting, what a coach would describe as 'last round' batting. IPL earlier had specialist 'finishers' in Pollard, Russell, ABD, Raina, MSD. Now, the coaches and mentors have made a 360-degree switch and the new mantra, patented and exported from Hyde...