IPL 2024: Yet another milestone frazzled in record-shattering season

As a cornerstone of cricketing excellence, the 2024 season of the IPL has reinforced its reputation as the epitome of exhilarating T20 leagues on a global scale. The 17th edition of the IPL has seen boundaries being struck with increasing frequency, setting a rapid pace of scoring unmatched in previous seasons. 

The encounter between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Lucknow Super Giants at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, although promising to be an exciting contest between two sides desperately eyeing a spot to be a part of the playoff, resulted in being a thoroughly one-sided affair, particularly in the second half of the fixture.

The openers of SRH, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, clobbered their way to a stupendous victory in the end, making extremely light work of the 166-run target set by LSG. A host of records got eclipsed along the way; the difference in the powerplay totals by sides in a particular match (80-27/2 and 107/0), winning with the most number of deliveries to spare while chasing targets in excess of 100 (62), etc. These, along with a few more, were achieved in the second innings of the game.

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A breakthrough feat was broken in the first innings after it was Krunal Pandya's second successive six off Jaydev Unadkat's slot delivery which the former stroked over the bowler's head for a maximum. That six marked the 1000th six in IPL 2024, which came in record time in terms of the number of deliveries (13,079), as compared to 2023 and 2022 - where this endeavour had taken 15,390 and 16,269 deliveries, respectively.

Also Read: IPL 2024, Match 57 Stats Review: SRH register highest total in the first 10 overs, Travis Head's batting heroics and other stats

The past couple of seasons have been surreal for batters, where extraordinarily turbo-charged batting has led to an upsurge in the rate at which runs were amassed. The previous couple of seasons saw a total of 1124 and 1062 sixes being hit, respectively. It remains to be seen the extent of havoc that can still be wrought in the matches ahead, as IPL 2024 leans heavily towards batters.