There is seemingly an endless number of franchise tournaments around the world of cricket but the daddy of them all is undoubtedly the Indian Premier League (IPL). There are various T20 contests in all parts of the globe, including less obvious cricket outposts such as North America and the Middle East. Whilst there are even shorter T10 leagues and cups (as well as perhaps the newest format of the lot, The Hundred), it is T20 that has most clearly caught the public’s imagination.
The IPL is its leading light and attracts the best players in the world, as well as seeing a seemingly endless stream of talented local players take to the field. The 2025 competition started on the 22nd of March and whilst it is early days, there are signs that this may be the highest-scoring edition of the IPL ever.
After just five games we had already seen a deluge of runs, with six scores of over 200. Many fans, especially in India, want to see sixes, fours and huge totals and the wickets and outfields have been prepared accordingly. Pundits – especially those who used to play with the ball in hand – may well bemoan the lack of balance and suggest that the game is too one-sided in favour of the batters, but the crowds have been lapping up the big hits and huge scores.
Sunrisers Set Standard
The first game of the new season was far from low scoring, with an aggregate of 350 runs in a clash between Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. However, chasing, RCB reached their target of 175 with 3.4 overs spare, Virat Kohli’s superb unbeaten 59 (off 36 balls) seeing them home with room to spare.
That set the tone for this year’s competition and in the event’s third innings (the first of the second clash), Sunrisers Hyderabad upped the ante even further. They blasted a massive 286/6, the second-highest team score in IPL history and just one run shy of their own league-leading score of 287/3 that they managed just under 12 months ago.
Sunrisers know a thing or four about compiling big totals in the IPL and, rather amazingly, they now boast four of the top five team scores in the competition’s history. The direction of travel in the IPL is clear, with all five of the biggest tallies coming last season or this, and nine of the 10 highest also occurring in that same period. Heinrich Klaasen’s team came up just short of setting a new record in their first fixture of the 2025 season and all six of their top-order batters struck at rates of over 200. The skipper himself plundered 34 from just 14 balls. Whilst everyone who came to the crease did their job well, the innings was anchored, though that is not quite the right word, by Ishan Kishan’s fabulous 106 from 47 balls.
Jofra Archer, bowling for Rajasthan Royals, was on the wrong end of some power hitting, recording the worst bowling figures in IPL history. His four wicketless overs cost 76 runs (19 per over) and he was given the treatment by Kishan and co. In reply, the Royals made a fist of chasing the huge target and after just eight balls they had raced to 20 without loss. Sanju Samson, opening, hit 66 from 37 balls but he was the only one of the top four to go past 11. A powerful display from keeper Dhruv Jurel (70 from 35), Shimron Hetmyer (42 from 23) and Shubham Dubey (34 from 11) took the Rajasthan team to 242/6 but aside from that first eight-ball spell they always looked like coming up short.
Runs Keep Flowing
That the Royals’ score of 242 left them well short, and yet was itself the 18th-best tally in IPL history, illustrates the sort of season we seem in for. Whilst match three of the 2025 campaign was relatively low scoring, the following two matches saw all four franchises blast scores in excess of 200.
Lucknow’s 209/8 proved insufficient to prevent Delhi Capitals from winning in a tense finish. Delhi got over the line with just one wicket and three balls in hand, in large part thanks to the 66 from 31 balls of Ashutosh Sharma, batting at number seven, and the man that came in after him, Vipraj Nigam (39 from 15 balls).
Game five witnessed Jos Buttler’s first match since stepping down as England’s white-ball skipper. The Somerset lad hit 54 from 33 balls and although all of the top four made scores of at least 33 for the Gujarat Titans, their score of 232/5 chasing did not give the Punjab Kings too much to worry about defending their impressive 243/5.
Punjab skipper Shreyas Iyer was the key man, and his rapid, unbeaten 97, from just 42 balls, laid the foundations for that big score, after his side had been put in to bat. In the end, it was his partnership with number seven, Shashank Singh, that proved crucial in propelling them to a total that was above par. Shashank struck at 275, hitting 44 from 16 balls as he and his skipper put on 81 very quickly.
Will We See a Score of 300?
As said, the highest previous score in IPL history is the 287/3 that Sunrisers blasted against RCB on the 15th of April 2024. There have only been four scores in excess of 270 in the relatively lengthy history of the IPL, so it would be quite a leap for us to see a side make 300 in 2025.
However, given the way scoring has been and the quality of players taking part, we have to believe it is on the cards. It might not happen in 2025 but we certainly wouldn’t be surprised to see a new record score hit this season, and the magical 300 mark to be broken within the next few years.
The wickets are very favourable to the batters and they now have so many different ways to score that even a very good ball can be out away if the batter gets it right. In addition, as some of the scores detailed above have shown, franchises have players batting at seven, eight and even lower who are capable of hitting 30 or 40 runs off just a few balls. Records are there to be broken, and with the highest score in international T20 cricket standing at 344 (by Zimbabwe against Gambia), 300 in the IPL certainly looks plausible.