Super Over 27, the end for Maxi?
1 May 2025
Don’t forget to listen to the latest ep of the Dennett on Cricket podcast.
Ball 1
Here’s a challenge for you. Have a read of this report and tell me if anything strikes you as odd.
In a historic Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter on 28 April 2025, 14-year-old Vaibhav Suryavanshi delivered a record-breaking performance for the Rajasthan Royals against the Gujarat Titans at Jaipur’s Sawai Mansingh Stadium. The left-handed opener scored 101 runs off just 38 balls, reaching his century in a mere 35 deliveries. This feat not only made him the youngest centurion in men’s T20 cricket at 14 years and 32 days but also marked the second-fastest century in IPL history, trailing only Chris Gayle’s 30-ball hundred in 2013.
Suryavanshi’s innings was characterised by aggressive stroke play, including 11 sixes and 7 fours. He notably scored 30 runs in a single over off debutant Karim Janat and reached his century with a six over mid-wicket off Rashid Khan. His partnership with Yashasvi Jaiswal yielded a 166-run opening stand, facilitating Rajasthan’s successful chase of a 210-run target in just 15.5 overs.
This performance surpassed Yusuf Pathan’s 37-ball century in 2010, making Suryavanshi the fastest Indian to achieve an IPL hundred. His rapid ascent in cricket includes a first-class debut for Bihar at age 12 and a 58-ball century for India’s Under-19 team.
Cricketing legends such as Sachin Tendulkar and Yuvraj Singh have lauded Suryavanshi’s talent, with Rajasthan Royals’ coach Rahul Dravid praising his composure and skill. As Rajasthan Royals aim for playoff contention, Suryavanshi’s emergence offers a promising prospect for the team’s future.
Well – what do you think? Notice anything?
The answer is, it was entirely written by artificial intelligence. I know because I was the one who asked Chat GPT to write it!
More and more articles are being written - in part or in full - by AI. And while it is quite incredible how good it has become so quickly - it would have been unimaginable even five years ago - there are still some giveaways.
There is a slightly ‘off’ element to the style and the content is very predictable. To me, AI reads as though written by a precocious 12-year-old, keen to show off their vocabulary.
Be on the look out for it though - more and more articles are being written at least in part by AI - including the articles of a fairly prominent ex-Aussie star, who shall remain nameless!
And if it is this good now, imagine how good it will be in a few years . . .
If you’re interested in my actual thoughts on the 14-year-old’s incredible ton, you can find them here.
Ball 2
Josh Hazlewood is wearing the purple cap!
A bit like the yellow jersey in the Tour de France, the leading wicket takers and run scorers in the IPL get to wear special caps and, as I write, Hazlewood is in the number wicket-taking spot, with 18.
Just as impressive though, is is economy rate. In a league when fast bowlers tend to get smashed, Hazlewood is only conceding 8.4 runs per over - the fourth best of all pace bowlers.
Here is the full list, as at 30 April , (remember, it’s just quicks, no spinners, and only those who have bowled 20 overs or more). I’ve highlighted the three Aussies: Cummins continues to battle hard and do an adequate job and although Starc has been relatively expensive he has taken 14 wickets.
Ball 3
100 runs off 92 balls . . . and out 15 times.
That is the sorry story of Glenn Maxwell across the IPLs of 2024 and 2025.
An average of 6.7 and a strike rate of 108.7.
By way of comparison, in the 2023 IPL he scored 400 runs off 218 balls, at an average of 33.3 and a strike rate of 183.5.
And, sadly, it would appear Maxwell will not have a chance to improve on his numbers - he fractured his finger in training a few days back and will be out for the rest of the tournament.
I’ve always been a colossal Maxwell fan and even now, I feel obliged to mention that his bowling in these last two seasons has been, just quietly, quite superb. Across this IPL and last one, when he has been given a chance to bowl - and, in my opinion it has not been enough - he has taken 10 wickets at 23.9, and at an economy rate of just 8.2 runs per over. 8.2 might not sound good but it is in fact elite - it would be better than almost every single other bowler.
But that is cold comfort - batting is what he is paid the big bucks for (apparently he has earnt about $20 million across his entire IPL career!).
So, is this the end of his IPL career? It must be a strong possibility. He will be 37 come the next IPL and, as David Warner found at this time round, IPL franchises are pretty ruthless.
Hopefully Maxwell can take as much time off as he needs and come back completely injury free - I still think he has something to offer Australia and would love to see him starring in the next T20 World Cup. Incidentally, this is in just nine months from now, obviously.
Ball 4
Given I did it for the bowlers, here are the batters listed in order of strike rate so far in the IPL. I’ve included those with 5 innings or more and 200 runs or more, but I have included all Aussies, just for interest.
Tim David gets an ‘N/A’ rather than ‘2’ given he has not quite yet made the 200 runs cutoff. But he, along with Mitchell Marsh (note Marsh’s excellent average of 42) are by far Australia’s two best batters so far.
Josh Inglis hasn’t yet had much of a chance - he has looked better than his figures indicate. But the IPL futures of Maxwell (as mentioned above) and Jake Fraser McGurk are uncertain.
By the way, Nicholas Pooran from the West Indies (top of the list) might well be the best T20 batter in the world at the moment.
Ball 5
It’s 1 May 2025 - 95 years to the day since Bradman finished his first ever innings on English soil.
Much speculation had surrounded his England debut with some opining he would struggle with the extra movement and greener pitches.
Well, he was 75 not out after day 1 of the tour opener against Worcestershire and then on day 2, 95 years ago today, finished with 236 - ending any discussion about any possibility of him struggling!
Poor old Worcester were in a for a pasting over the years. Here are Bradman’s scores against them in each of his four tours:
1930: 236
1934: 206
1938: 258
1948: 107
You will notice that Bradman ‘only’ got a century in 1948. Here is his explanation for that from his autobiography, Farewell to Cricket:
It was at Worcester that I had made a double century in the first match of our 1930, 1934 and 1938 tours. On all sides there was the query — would I do it again?
Well, frankly, I think I could have done so, but having made a century I threw my innings away. We had an unusually large number of players and I wanted them to have batting experience under English conditions.
My own form was obviously all right, but my injured side was still troubling me and I felt it unwise to carry on beyond a certain point.
Ball 6
Still on the theme of starts to an English tour, it is 40 years since one of my favourites - the early days of the Ashes of 1985.
Australian cricket was at an all-time low in 1985. Despite this - indeed partially because of it - I had got hooked on the sport in the summer of 1984/85.
Allan Border was my favourite player - the man who famously held the side together in those tough times - and I remember fondly waking up each morning to hear the scores of the early Ashes tour matches.
In my memory, Border seemed to score a vast number of runs in those games.
And it was thrilling - to wake up to radio news bulletins of his success, given how rare Aussie success was back then.
A couple of years back I decided to look up those early matches, to check if Border was truly as dominant as I remembered him to be. Pleasingly he was!
And, given it is now forty years ago to the month, it seems appropriate to mention them here.
So, here are AB’s scores in the early matches of the tour:
8-10 May v Somerset: 106
11-13 May v Worcestershire: 135
22-24 May v MCC: 125
25-28 May v Derbyshire: 100
30 May v England (1st ODI): 59
1 June v England (2nd ODI) 85 not out
3 June v England (3rd ODI) 44
Border went on to score 597 runs at 66.3 in the Ashes themselves as Australia got hammered 3-1.
They made up for it of course, winning the next four series on English soil!