India, March 22 -- Every season of the Indian Premier League is suffixed with the label 'the season of hope.' The hope that new heroes will emerge. That limits will be stretched, that feats once only fantasised about will be realised. And the desperate, lingering hope that the magical mark of 300 will be breached. Surpassed. Shattered.

Only thrice in all T20s, across all levels, in more than 10,000 representative matches, has 300 been topped in an innings. All of them, including a scarcely believable 349 - that's a staggering 17.45 runs per over, on average - have come in the last 18 months. The top four five scores in IPL history, ranging between 266 and 287, all came in the 2024 season, with Sunrisers Hyderabad alone accounting for thr...