There have been 34 matches in IPL so far. Matches where aggressive batting and hitting sixes are the major part of the story. Every season of IPL, the run rate has increased consistently, but what is happening in this year's IPL carries a different significance. So far this season, the runs per over has risen to 9.42, which is the highest in IPL history.

Three of the highest team scores in IPL history have come this year, while four of the five highest have come this year. IPL has also seen 500 sixes in record time. Here are some more statistics courtesy of ESPN Cricinfo to prove how much sixes are being celebrated in this year's IPL. For the sake of comparison, the statistics of the last few seasons after 34 matches are also presented here-

This season's runs have risen to 9.42 runs per over, which is 7 percent higher than 2023, the second-highest run per over after 34 matches. That doesn't seem like much. However, the second-highest runs after 34 matches came in 2023—8.81 runs per over, which is 3.1 percent higher than 2020's 8.54 runs per over.

The difference in runs per over between 2024 and 2023 is 0.61, which is the highest since the 2009-10 season. In 2010 it was 8.41 runs per over, while in 2009 it was 7.62. But in 2009 IPL was held in South Africa, so the conditions of that IPL were completely different.

Fours and sixes have been relatively high this season. However, compared to last year, the main difference is found as a six. This year's IPL has seen sixes every 13.48 balls, up 11.6 percent from 15.24 sixes in 2018 (second highest). In terms of boundaries per ball (fours and sixes), this year's IPL is 7.1 percent more than 2018.

The milestones of 200, 300, 400 and 500 sixes each came at record averages. The first 100 sixes came from 1425 balls, the next 100 sixes came from 1014 balls, the next 100 sixes came from 1334 balls.

It took 1718 balls to reach 300 to 400 sixes and 1389 balls to go from 400 to 500. It took 13,748 balls to hit 500 sixes in the 2013 IPL, almost double this season's.

big collection

Out of 34 matches, more than 270 runs have been scored in 3 matches. Until the start of this season, the highest in IPL history in 1025 matches was Royal Challengers Bangalore's 263, of which 175 runs came from the bat of Chris Gayle. So far this season, 200 or more runs have been scored 14 times, after the same number of matches in 2023, 200 or more runs have been scored 15 times. But this time the collections are getting bigger beyond 200, 220 or more runs 8 times, 240+ runs 5 times. This time the run is increasing by more than 9 runs in the powerplay. Scored around 12 runs in the death overs (11.72).

This time in the IPL, 60 or more runs have been scored 20 times in the powerplay, of which 72 runs have been crossed 10 times. Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians have scored 72 or more runs in the Powerplay three times, Kolkata twice.

However, none of these teams could break Kolkata's record of 105 runs in the Powerplay in 2017. Kolkata have scored the highest 88 runs in the powerplay this season, and that run against Delhi is fourth in the list.

This time 13 times the teams scored 100 runs in the first 10 overs, which is also a record. Before this, the teams scored 100 runs in the first 10 overs 8 times out of 34 matches last season. 84 is the highest run in the death over this time, this run by Mumbai against Delhi is the second highest in the death over. The highest score of 89 in the death overs was in 2016, by Bengaluru against Gujarat.

Bowlers under unprecedented pressure

Bowlers are under the most pressure this season. In this year's IPL, there have been 205 overs of 15 runs, 54 overs of 20 runs or more. One Anrich Norkiai scored 205 runs in 16 overs, scored more than 20 runs in an over 4 times. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Reese Topley, Horshal Patel scored 20 runs or more 3 times.

Flurry of strokes on the bat

45 batsmen have scored 100 or more runs in IPL so far. Among them, only English all-rounder Sam Curren has a strike rate below 120—117.85. Among them, 28 batsmen had a strike rate of more than 150, 10 more than 175.

Abdul Samad, Dinesh Karthik, Ashutosh Sharma, Andre Russell - these four have a strike rate of more than 200. After 34 matches last season, 20 batsmen had a strike rate of over 150, 5 over 175, 1 over 200. You can understand why this year's IPL is different!