Aussie World Cup winner and PBKS coach amazed by blistering batting in IPL powerplays, says, ‘I'm glad I'm not a bowler’

In the last four IPL innings before the CSK-DC game, two powerplay scores have been 90 plus and once a team even crossed the 100-run mark.

Updated on: Apr 11, 2026, 20:42:08 IST

Written by Prateek Srivastava

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Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin is totally astonished by the quality of batsmanship in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL). On Saturday in New Chandigarh, PBKS comfortably beat Sunrisers Hyderabad to win their third game this season. Chasing SRH’s 219/6, PBKS were never threatened in their pursuit. Openers Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh scored fifties to set their team on a path from where one could only win.

Brad Haddin is right. It's not a great time to be a bowler. (ANI Pic Service)

Both teams particularly played well in the powerplay. SRH scored 105 in six overs thanks largely to Abhishek Sharma, who overall made 74 off 28 balls. PBKS scored 93 in their turn. Even last night, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had led Rajasthan Royals to 97/1 at the end of the powerplay. This mindset of going great guns in the first six overs is particularly common in the IPL. Former Australia wicketkeeper batsman Haddin breathed a sigh of relief that he was lucky not to be a bowler.

Also Read: With Vaibhav Sooryavanshi making rapid, threatening strides, Priyansh Arya sends a stark reminder he is in the race too

“I'm glad I'm not a bowler in the first six overs... The one thing we did really well after those first six was we stayed calm, got the game back. The middle overs... That's where it was won. Ricky [Ponting, PBKS head coach] spoke to the players: they know their plans, and just stay calm. Things might be bubbling up, but you know your plans. If you get a chance, you pounce on it, like they did here,” he said after his team’s win.

‘Nobody wants a single anymore’

Haddin, two-time World Cup winner in 2007 and 2015, revealed how the batsmen of today were not willing to rotate the strike. “It's interesting to talk to batters about rotating strike — they say we don't need to do that anymore, we just put it in the second tier. They need to keep their courage and be brave in the first six covers, we're very clear about our bowlers getting wickets... We've seen that in the game against Kolkata, against Finn [Allen] and [Cameron Green]. The mindset is to get wickets, not be defensive," he said.

With their third win in four matches — remember one of them was a washout against Kolkata Knight Riders — PBKS stay in second place on the points table behind Rajasthan Royals, who beat RCB on Friday night to make it four out of four. PBKS and RR are right now the only two teams this season who haven’t lost a game yet. Shreyas Iyer’s men will now be on the road for their tie against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prateek Srivastava
Prateek Srivastava is a senior sports journalist having been in the profession for two decades now. He started his print career with the India Today Group and later also worked for the Asian Age. In 2009, sensing the wind of change, he switched to the digital media and joined Mobile ESPN. There, he covered the 2011 Cricket World Cup and 2010 Hockey World Cup as a venue reporter. He did plenty of voice-over work too, over there. After leaving Mobile ESPN, Prateek went on to work for Cricketnext, Gocricket and Cricbuzz. At Gocricket (Times Internet Limited), he covered the 2014 T20 World from Bangladesh. There he also received a team leadership award, given at the end of the month. Prateek has also covered the 2016 T20 World Cup in India, this time working for Sportz Interactive. He also worked for Chinese giants Alibaba over two years and led their ""Short News"" content team at UC Browser. While cricket is Prateek’s expertise, he has also done a lot of golf. In fact, he has covered India’s first two European Tour events back in the late noughties. He has also done extensive writing on football having been associated with the Indian Super League for three seasons. Finally, Prateek is a literature aficionado and swears by Philip Roth and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and when he doesn’t joke, he is usually quiet and at work.Read More

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