The Indian Premier League, which has — depressingly — turned into a fief of fiery batsmanship, now runs the risk of losing its appeal on account of this unfair duel between bat and ball. The relevant data are revealing. Teams had scored over 250 runs on only two occasions in the previous editions of the tournament. But this seeming barrier has been breached numerous times in this IPL season, with the city side, Kolkata Knight Riders, coming up second best on two occasions even after putting up scores of over 220 runs. The persistent deluge of sixes and boundaries — the strike rates of some of the batsmen are over 200 too — is bound to daze, not dazzle, even the most ardent fan of cricket’s youngest sibling. This is not to suggest that the IPL was designed to be fair to bowlers. Shorter boundaries, flatter pitches — apparently climate change is playing a role in this too — modern bats that can turn mishits into high-scoring shots and so on were meant to make the bat lord over the ball. This dominance, the cricket puritan would quarrel, had an ulterior motive: to blur the lines between entertainment and sport for commercial gain.

There is no doubting the IPL’s popularity in and outside India. The public endorsement for Twenty20 cricket has also led to it influencing the oldest form of the game: outlandish shots, faster-scoring rates and electric fielding are no longer uncommon in Test cricket. But excess of any kind can turn out to be toxic. The IPL’s sour deal for bowlers now threatens to rob it of the element of competitiveness that is central to cricket and its following. There is a case for the minders of the IPL and T20 cricket to not only make the pitches, especially those in the subcontinent, friendlier to bowlers but also amend some of the rules to ensure the league’s longevity.