Now only the final is left but the picture is now almost clear as to how this season was. The records that are in discussion are till Qualifier 2 on 24 May:

-Although they were not in good form with the bat in the playoffs, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma of Sunrisers Hyderabad were the most dangerous opening pair. In the last league match, against Punjab Kings, Abhishek Sharma's 66 (5 sixes) in 28 balls was amazing. Abhishek had 32 sixes in 47 IPL matches from 2018 to 2023 season – 42 sixes in this season alone (number 1 in the list of most sixes) including 22 sixes on spin in just 82 balls. Team India needs such talent.

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-The domestic talent reached a new level. Abhishek Sharma, Nitish Reddy, Shashank Singh, Ashutosh Rana, Swapnil Singh, Harshit Rana, Harshal Patel and Vaibhav Arora and many more made tremendous contributions. When players like Shashank win games worth Rs 20 lakh, teams will definitely focus on local talent in the future.

-The condition of impact player was introduced in 2023 but the teams did not use it properly in the first season. This time this 'player' made players like Shivam Dubey or Venkatesh Iyer useless as all-rounders. This is not very good news for Indian cricket. Abhishek's 2-24 in Qualifier 2 on May 24 proved how important such all-round ability is for the team.

-200+ scores, which when made, were a guarantee of victory in almost 90 percent of the matches – became common this time. 200+ was crossed 41 times this season – the record of 37 broken in 2023. IPL's 4 top team scores were made this time while 500+ match totals were made 4 times – this was not achieved even once in the first 16 years of the tournament.

-In the first season of IPL, 620 sixes were hit in 59 matches – in the next season only 508 were hit. The balance between bat and ball is constantly getting disturbed – the record of 1000 was broken for the first time in 2022, this year before the final, 1251 sixes had been hit – the highest in the history of the league. Due to this the run-rate also increased.

-The most interesting matches were those when small scores were made and the ball did wonders. The defending of a score of 163 in the Lucknow-Gujarat match at Ekana Stadium was thrilling. The play-off matches were amazing even without big scores. The good of Indian cricket lies in such matches.

-The way Mumbai Indians traded Gujarat Titans captain Hardik Pandya before the IPL started was wrong and BCCI will have to stop it. This not only spoiled the cricket of two teams – it also made the auction useless. In this way you can lure anyone you want. Perhaps the loss that Mumbai Indians suffered due to this trade will be a lesson for everyone.

-The era of CSK or MI domination in IPL may be over- None of the 4 teams that were in the playoffs in 2023 made it to the playoffs this year.

– Virat Kohli has not forgotten how to score runs in every format yet – 741 runs in 15 innings at an average of 61.75, one 100 and five 50s and is at the top of the run charts. The special thing is the strike rate (154.69) which is his best and has surpassed the record of 2016. 38 sixes – tied for second place in the list.

– Though Harshal Patel took 24 wickets, Jasprit Bumrah with 20 wickets was the most impactful bowler in the tournament – Economy of 6 in the powerplay and 6.1 in the death overs is an amazing record in a season where runs were pouring in. 3+ wickets in an innings 4 times and an economy of less than 7 in 9 matches is amazing.

-RCB making it to the playoffs despite winning only 1 match in their first 8 matches of the season will always be an example and they became the first IPL team to do so. After that, it was possible only when they won 6 matches in a row. Rajasthan did exactly the opposite – won 8 out of the first 9 matches but only 1 out of the next 7.

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