While the Delhi Capitals versus Sunrisers Hyderabad may have shaken the most passionate of youngsters with dreams of becoming a bowler to the core, South Africa's legendary seamer Dale Steyn believes that despite the odds stacked up against the ones with the ball in hand "it’s always a good time to be a bowler".
Steyn encouraged bowlers to transform themselves into their best version possible to dictate terms to the batters wielding their marauding willow in thin air.
Steyn's message came after the 17th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed a run-fest of its own kind on Saturday (April 20).
The 35th game of IPL 2024 saw the bat dominate the ball like it had never before. Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head opened the innings for Sunrisers Hyderabad and targetted every possible area of the park which forced the Delhi bowlers to duck for cover.
The pair registered the highest powerplay score ever recorded in a men's T20 innings. Abhishek hammered 46 off 12 balls and was extremely close to breaking the record for the fastest fifty in the cash-rich league.
On the other hand, Head was also perilously close to breaking Chris Gayle's record of the fastest century in the history of the IPL. Head was batting on 84 off just 26 balls and needed to reach the three-figure mark on the next three balls to shatter Gayle's record.
A 30-ball ton would have helped him equal Gayle's record. However, it wasn't meant to be as DC fought back really well to pull things back drastically and prevented Sunrisers from going past 300, which looked well within the reach of the visitors at one stage.
In reply, Delhi Capitals didn't go down without putting up a fight. Their overseas signing, Jake Fraser-McGurk launched an onslaught on the Sunrisers bowlers and registered the fastest fifty for Delhi in the IPL off just 15 balls.
Though Delhi fell 67 short of the Sunrisers' total, they hammered their bowlers and made their bowling attack sweat throughout.
