Do you know
what this is ??
IPL is thoroughbred entertainer .. .. .. it is more a Batters’ game. Fearless batsmen make mincemeat of famous bowlers hitting them all over – the Sixer count enthralls audience and now a days 60+ in last 4 sounds hittable.
Yesterday at Mullanpur, it was far different – a Bowlers match. KKR rolled PBKS over for 111 and were in control of the chase in the seventh over. They needed 52 from 13 overs with eight wickets in hand. That's when Yuzvendra Chahal came on to bowl. The pitch by no means was a square turner - Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy had picked up two wickets each, but they were getting turn in a way mystery spinners do - with quicker speeds and shorter lengths while keeping the stumps in play.
Yuvi Chahal is a mystery in different ways – after having been bought for INR 18 crore in the IPL 2025 auction, he hadn't completed his quota in three of his first five games for Punjab Kings (PBKS). In the last of those, he hurt his shoulder but recovered in time to face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). His team had been struggling to get him into the game and that threatened to be the case again in Mullanpur on Tuesday.
The batsman gave him
nothing to bowl and by the time he came on, the match was becoming one
sided. But in the end Punjab Kings (PBKS) successfully defended 111 against
Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR); the lowest in the IPL (excluding shortened
matches). The previous lowest was 116 for 9 by Chennai Super Kings (CSK)
against Kings XI Punjab (now PBKS) in Durban during the 2009 edition. KKR surprisingly were bowled out for 95
- and the first time they have been
bowled out for under 100 since 2009. It is also the third-lowest total in the
IPL by any team against PBKS and the lowest since 2017.
Good to see these matches – over the years batsman wielding power hammers called bats have changed the game. Decades ago, we saw famous batsmen using and endorsing bats like Slazenger, G&M, Grey Nicholls, SG, SS, BDM and the like….. now you see bats without brand name explicit but advertiser’s logo prominent !! (in between those days there were ‘oiled /non-oiled bats’) ~ for a change this is no post on Cricket but on bats !!
The history of the cricket bat is a fascinating, intriguing tale of the very evolution of the game itself, from the hockey stick-like beginnings to the brutal, beautifully-crafted profiles of modern day. Though it remains the batsman’s key instrument of expression and destruction its shape, weight, power and quality of materials have changed through cricketing history. Cambridge University suggested one such modification when they asked the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) to change the material used in making cricket bats from willow to bamboo.
According to research
at the Centre for Natural Material Innovation, bamboo bats would be lighter,
stronger and offer a larger ‘sweet spot’- the point from which the ball takes
the maximum acceleration. Law 5.1 states
about the bat :
5.1.1 The bat
consists of two parts, a handle and a blade.
5.2 The handle
5.2.1 The handle is
to be made principally of cane and/or wood.
5.2.2 The part of the
handle that is wholly outside the blade is defined to be the upper portion of
the handle. It is a straight shaft for
holding the bat.
5.2.3 The upper
portion of the handle may be covered with a grip as defined in Appendix B.2.2.
5.3 The blade
5.3.1 The blade
comprises the whole of the bat apart from the handle as defined 5.2 and in
Appendix B.3.
5.3.2 The blade shall
consist solely of wood.
5.3.3 All bats may
have commercial identifications on the blade, the size of which must comply
with the relevant specification in Appendix B.6.
5.4 Protection and
repair
Subject to the
specifications in Appendix B.4 and providing 5.5 is not contravened,
5.4.1 solely for the
purposes of either protection from
surface damage to the face, sides and shoulders of the blade or repair to the
blade after surface damage, material that is not rigid, either at the time of
its application to the blade or subsequently, may be placed on these surfaces.
.. .. the law is elaborate. The overall length of the bat, when the lower portion of the handle is inserted, shall not be more than 38 in/96.52 cm. According to rule : 5.7.2 The blade of the bat shall not exceed the following dimensions: Width: 4.25in / 10.8 cm; Depth: 2.64in / 6.7 cm; Edges: 1.56in / 4.0cm. Furthermore, it should also be able to pass through a bat gauge – the photo of which appeared at the start of this post !
Kolkata Knight Riders' (KKR) Sunil Narine and Anrich Nortje's bats failed the gauge test during yesterday’s game against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in Mullanpur. The Narine incident came first. Before KKR's unsuccessful chase of PBKS' 111, the bats of some of the KKR batters were checked by reserve umpire Saiyed Khalid outside the playing arena. Narine, the KKR opener, and Angkrish Raghuvanshi were standing together, and the thickest part of Narine's bat wouldn't pass through the gauge. Narine appeared to have a chat on the matter with Khalid, who also checked Raghuvanshi's bat, which passed the test.
After KKR's chase went downhill from a solid 62 for 2 in the eighth over, Nortje was out to bat as the last man, but the bat he went out with failed the test carried out by the on-field umpires Mohit Krishnadas and Saidharshan Kumar, according to TV commentators. The Nortje incident took place at the start of the 16th over of KKR's innings. The game was paused as substitute Rahmanullah Gurbaz came out carrying spare bats for Nortje. The replacement bat passed the test, but Nortje did not get to use it as Andre Russell was bowled immediately after.
Interesting !
Regards – S Sampathkumar
16.4.2025
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