5 things from recent cricket history that will make you feel really old

A lot has changed in world cricket over the years. New rules have been added to make the game more interesting. New players have carved niches for themselves as old ones have made way for them.The England victory in the most competitive Ashes of all time happened 9 years back. The famous Dravid-Laxman stand that overthrew Australia at Kolkata happened no less than 13 years ago. The double hundred by Rohit Sharma may still be fresh in our memories, but it has already been well over 4 years since Sachin hit the first ODI double hundred ever.Here is a compilation of cricket events gone by that actually happened a much longer time ago than we have ourselves believe.

#5 Seperate Powerplays

They have been around for 9 years. That’s right. It may sound a thing of modern day limited over cricket, but it has been around for quite some time to count it as something that is not new. People who started following cricket only recently cannot relate to how different it used to be in the 90s and early 2000s. It is difficult for them to imagine a game where the umpire didn’t have to circle his arm after the 10th over of the innings every time, which basically indicates the beginning of powerplay, nor did the batting side have to rack its brains on what was the perfect and tactically feasible time to take the batting powerplay.

True, there used to be field restrictions for the first 15 overs, but powerplays has greatly changed and the game of cricket, and if we go by what we have seen so far, it has been for the better.

They were first introduced in 2005, wherein the first 10 overs was mandatory powerplay, and the bowling team had to take 2 more such blocks of 5 overs each. The rules were changed in 2011 when a batting powerplay was introduced, which could not be taken any later than the 36th over.

The batting powerplay was a very subtle addition to the rules, and it has produced some really significant periods of play in ODI games even until today. Many a times teams have collapsed trying to make use of the fact that only 3 men were patrolling the region outside the 30-yard circle, while many bowling attacks have also been destroyed by set batsmen who have used the batting powerplay to the fullest.

It may have tilted the game a bit in the favour of the batsman, but nobody seems to care as long as the game has become more interesting and has attracted a lot of viewership thanks to the pelting of the bowlers that the game has to offer. Should the ICC try and think of some new additions in the future that would benefit bowlers, for a change, perhaps?