International cricket is a batsman’s game, but in increasingly loud voices, bowlers are having their say. Between the inaugural edition of the World Twenty20 championships in South Africa and this one in England, the game itself has undergone a big change.

The highest team total going into the final in this edition is South Africa’s 211/5 versus Scotland; in 2007 it was 260/6 scored by Sri Lanka against Kenya. The highest individual score in this edition, going into the final, was Tillakaratne Dilshan’s 96 off 57. In the first edition, it was Chris Gayle’s explosive 117 off 57. The best bowling figures of this edition — Umar Gul’s five for six . In 2007 — 4/7 from New Zealand’s Mark Gillespie.

Have the pitches been harder to play on? Have batsmen been out of form? Or is it just that the bowlers have figured the game out?

While the conditions this time have suited fast bowlers a fair bit— with the ball darting around especially in the games that have been played under heavy cloud cover — Sri Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara reckons the time when this format was considered the death of bowlers is past. “Bowlers have realised that they have a big role to play in T20. The attention is always on the batsmen who have to go for the big hits all the time, but one good spell can win a match.”

Even Younis Khan, the Pakistan captain agrees. “If you have good spinners in your XI, you will do well in this format. Shahid (Afridi) and Saeed (Ajmal) have been in great form and they have put pressure on the batsmen in the middle overs.” There have been a fair number of tricks that have been on display.

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