Pitch perfect Josh ​Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar show how to restore IPL's bat-ball balance

NEW DELHI: Royal Challengers Bengaluru's new-ball pair Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar offered a reminder on Monday that high-class bowling, with a hint of assistance from the surface, can restore the bat-ball balance in this year's Indian Premier League (IPL).

The IPL has become a batter's paradise, with flat pitches and ‌short boundaries ⁠contributing to ⁠sky-high scores and teams routinely chasing down 200-plus totals.

The impact player rule, which allows teams to replace a bowler with a specialist batter during a match, has also contributed to what critics say is a lack of balance between bat and ball this season.


On Saturday, Delhi Capitals racked up 264-2, briefly the season's highest total, and yet watched ⁠helplessly as ‌Punjab Kings pulled off a record chase with seven balls to spare.

Two days later, however, on a different, livelier ⁠surface at the same Arun Jaitley Stadium, Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar claimed seven wickets between them and bundled out Delhi for 75.

Delhi lost six wickets inside four overs, a stark contrast to the batting carnage often seen during powerplays.

Both Bengaluru seamers bowled the conventional test match length and got the ball to swing around.

"Even I'm surprised the way the wicket played," Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar ‌said.

"The way they hit those areas and got that bit of swing, that was tremendous to see. I think the swing was normal, and ⁠the good thing was we got early wickets and that's why it kept us in the driving seat."

Delhi captain Axar Patel said they struggled against two world-class bowlers.

"They swing the ball and have done it at every ground," he added. "If our openers or one-down batters had batted one or two more overs, it could have been a different score or a different match. Credit to them for the way they bowled."