T20s have pushed One Day Internationals

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

After scoring 414 runs in an ODI how many teams would have feared loosing. Not that it hasn't been done before (remember Australia-South Africa, Wanderers) but 414 ought to be a match winning score even in the flattest of the batting surface. But Sri Lanka gave a scare to India when they almost surpassed India's mammoth 414, to fall shot by just three runs in the end. People at Rajkot would have got a bonus on their money worth having witnessed 825 runs scored in a ODI in 100 overs.

Welcome to the new age cricket where run a ball cannot guarantee a victory. It was just about a decade back that 300 would be a winning score in an ODI. Then came the era when 300-350 came within reach. T20 cricket had pushed the envelop further and no target seems to be insurmountable. Batsman have become more aggressive with their batting and with a power play available in the death overs the bowlers are left to their mercy.

In today's India-Lanka match 23 sixes were score which a decade ago could be the total number in a 5 match series. Add to that 83 hits to the fence a whopping 470 runs came in boundaries which is more than half the runs of the two scores taken together. Both the teams having come out of two high scoring T20 games were in murderous mood and there was no mercy for the bowlers. Any bowler giving away run a ball would have been proud of himself.

One more thing which T20 cricket has done is with the shot selection of the batsman. Not too long ago most of the batsman other than a (Jayasuriya, Afridi or Sehwag) would loft a good length ball for a six. But in the last two years fast bowlers being hit over their head has become a very common sight. No longer are captains relaxed of sixes not being hit when their quickies are bowling. Grounds haven't become smaller, just that the batsman have started loving the air more than the ground.

Having said all this, there is a negative side to this as well as the classical cricketers will die a slow death in the ODIs too like the T20s. Batsman like Rahul Dravid and Damien Martyn who used to steer their teams off bad situations would not be sought after commodity. Teams would like to pick more slam bang cricketers than the classical batsman. Is this better for the game? Is this better for the bowlers? What next 500.....A few years is maybe all that is needed to know these answers.