New Delhi, April 21 -- T20 cricket, by design, has always been about batters entertaining with fours and sixes. But even accounting for the format's inherent bias, the balance seems to have been tilted too much in favour of bat in IPL 2023 and 2024. Glance through the highest totals in the tournament's 17 editions and you will find that six of the top seven have come in these two years. The four biggest totals ever all belong to this season, three of which have been racked up by a Sunrisers Hyderabad batting line-up that operates on fifth gear all through.

Yes, batters seem to be more adept at six-hitting than ever before, but it cannot be mere coincidence that this surge in scoring rates has corresponded with the introduction of the Imp...