MUMBAI: For a tournament accustomed to 200-plus totals being scored and chased with monotonous regularity, what happened on Monday night at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi is certainly a rarity, an aberration. Breathing fire, Royal Challengers Bengaluru pacers Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar reduced a hapless Delhi Capitals to eight for six by just the fourth over. DC were eventually bowled out for 75, as RCB won by nine wickets.
Amongst those left bewildered at the way the match panned out in an otherwise batter-friendly IPL 2026, Sunrisers Hyderabad's assistant coach James Franklin, whose team, riding on its bevy of big-hitters, chased down 229 against Rajasthan Royals with ridiculous ease. “I didn't actually watch last night's game; I caught up with it on a scorecard (later). I couldn't really quite believe what I saw. At the moment, in IPL particularly, we're getting so used to these 200 plus scores, so to see a scorecard totally opposite end of the spectrum was quite amazing,” Franklin said in the pre-match press conference, ahead of his side's crucial match against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.
The former New Zealand left-arm pacer, who once played for MI in the IPL, agreed with the thought that at the moment, the balance in the IPL is heavily loaded in favour of the batters. “It'll be interesting to see how it moves going forward; not just through this tournament, but potentially future editions of IPL — whether you start to get it a little bit more balanced back towards the bowling side of it. It does feel at the moment, things are very skewed in the batter's favour. Whether that's the pitches, the impact player rule, (or) the skill set of the batters (that) are just very, very high right now and the bowling is trying to catch up (and) whether it's the pitches, yeah. So, let's see, let's watch this space,” Franklin said.
Asked if the high-scoring contests in the IPL had become boring, Franklin was non-committal, asserting that as a coach, he was focused on his team's performance, and it was up to the viewers to ponder on the trend of big totals. “From my point of view, I'm deeply entrenched in the game. I'm getting consumed by what's happening in the here and now. The opinion of whether it's getting boring or not is probably up to the likes of yourselves and the consumers that watch it. We're dealing with the here and now in terms of this is real time, this is how the games are panning out at the moment that are high scoring. We have to, from a coaching and a team point of view, work generally with that,” the former Black Caps fast bowler added.
Explaining how the explosive, in-form Abhishek Sharma prepares for a game, Franklin said, “The one thing I'll say, as far as Abhishek is concerned, he is very detailed with how he plans and prepares for oppositions. He'll know and understand what MI’s bowlers will try and present to him, particularly in the powerplay. He likes to have conversations around the different bowlers that he's going to be coming up against in the next game. So, he'll be well aware of potentially how they might come at him.” He denied that SRH were too dependent on their power-packed top four of Abhishek, Travis Head, Ishan Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen to bat out the opposition, particularly on flat tracks, and win them games. “I don't think there's an over-reliance on the top four; they're doing an exceptional job as a unit. Every game that we've played so far, there's been significant partnerships between those top four, whatever combination you put together,” he said.
Meanwhile, MI pacer Ashwani Kumar, who has taken impressive hauls of four for 24 (against Gujarat Titans at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad) and two for 37 (against Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede Stadium) said he was ready to share new-ball responsibilities if the team asked him to do so. “I am preparing myself to be ready with the new ball whenever the opportunity comes my way,” he said.
