'Looks like that's where the game is going to go' - Ricky Ponting makes assertive assertion ahead of GT-DC clash

A bit off-topic, but those of you following football for a while, would be wary of one of the greats of the game when it comes to football managers, Sir Alex Ferguson, who once said, "attack wins you games, defence wins you titles".

For those of you who still did not get it in terms of cricketing sense, the famous quote corresponds to something along the lines of "attacking batting wins you games, defensive bowling wins you titles", which has always been the norm as far as T20 cricket is concerned.

What this edition of the IPL has witnessed, has truly been a striking deviation from the usual trend observed over the past so many years. This season's IPL has observed both teams in a particular match scoring in excess of 200 five times, with there being 14 occasions where teams have made 200 or more in an innings (KKR-3, SRH-3, CSK-2, MI-2, PBKS-1, DC-1, RCB-1, RR-1). And guess what, it's only been 31 games so far.

Head coach of the Delhi Capitals, Ricky Ponting, in a press conference ahead of their game against the Gujarat Titans, imparted the same mania towards which teams would want to incline towards. He acknowledged the Sunrisers Hyderabad to be the trendsetters, with SRH shattering the highest total registered in the history of the marquee tournament not once, but twice, in the current edition.

He also gave the rule of the Impact Player as something which has brought about this phenomenon. The former Australian captain alluded to the way Travis Head of SRH batted a few days back against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru, stating that unless batters have full confidence in their batting order going deep and the batters to follow, none of this could be seen first-hand.

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"Looks like that's where the game is going to go. Sunrisers [SRH] are obviously responsible for a couple of those [big scores]. KKR got 260-odd [272/7] against us. I think the Impact Player is having a big effect on the way teams are batting. You watched the way Travis [Head] batted last night. You can't bat that way unless you've got confidence in the players underneath you and you bat deep in your batting order as well," Ponting was quoted as saying by NDTV Sports. 

I think it's potentially more attacking batting that's going to win this IPL: Ponting

Furthermore, Ponting imparted that considering the peculiar regulations of the IPL unlike the Big Bash League and the previous editions of the IPL (pre-2023), he felt the teams going for the kill with the bat, and the ones aiming to take the most aggressive modus operandi would be more likely to win this edition's IPL.

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"Quite often, big tournaments like the IPL and the Big Bash back in Australia have been won by the best defensive bowling teams. But the way this IPL is going, and [with] the different rules in the IPL, it looks like it will be won by the team that's most willing to take on the bowling and try and post some really big scores. I think it's potentially more attacking batting that's going to win this IPL than defensive bowling," he added.