The most recent innovation in one-day cricket has turned matches upside down. I am referring to the new Batting Powerplays which can be taken by the batting team at any time they want. Before that, as we all know, the bowling team decided when they wanted to take the 5-over fielding-restricted segments. We saw the new rule causing a lot of headaches for the fielding team in the recent SA-Australia matches.
The main effect of this rule comes in the 2nd innings when the batting team is chasing a consequential total. Just when the bowling team may think that they have the run rate under control, the batting team takes the Powerplay and takes enough off them to reduce the run rate to a pressureless 4-5 runs per over. Since the fielding team does not know when the Powerplay will be taken, they are sometimes forced to bowl out some bowlers (such as spin bowlers) to avoid disaster in the Powerplay. Previously, some spinners (Saqlain Mushtaq, Anil Kumble) would be held back even for the final over.
In the long term, this could also play the opposite way too. Once batting teams understand that they could make a lot more off the Powerplay, they may decide to take it easy during the regular overs and bet huge on the batting Powerplay. But in between, they could lose good wickets and when the Powerplay comes, they don’t have good batsmen to take advantage of the Powerplay.
Secondly, the need for making maximum use of Powerplay may result in some injudicious slogging resulting in lost wickets and missed run-making opportunities because of mindless swings. And finally, while the batting team may get a lot of runs off the Powerplay, they may not get enough to get them out of the hole they are in. As an example, consider the just-concluded match between India and Sri Lanka.
In the first innings, the timing of the Powerplay can be challenging. Ideally, you want two genuine batsmen already set, but not too tired, who are capable of piercing the inner fielding circle and finding the gaps in the boundary. The problem is that if you wait too long, there is a greater chance that you would lose many wickets and your lower order is left to make sense of the Powerplay. If you do it too soon, the batsmen may not feel ready to take big risks, especially if they are already 3 or 4 wickets down. Sometime between the 35th and 45th over seems to be a good time from a logical standpoint, but we will have to see how this works in practice after seeing this in action in more matches.
