With the ICC constantly trying out new innovations to make the game more spectator-friendly, Red Bull too has taken a leaf out of the world body and has experimented with a two innings concept and an energiser over at the Red Bull Cricket Campus tournament.
In the fifth edition of the RBCC World Finals here, the organisers have come up with an innovative concept of an 'energiser over' where the runs scored gets doubled and if the team loses a wicket then five runs are added to the opponents' score.
The energiser over, which is bowled with the pink ball, proved to be a game changer for many teams in the tournament with Bangladesh snatching a two-wicket win yesterday against Pakistan after amassing 28 runs in the 16th over while chasing 153 to win.
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"It is a good experiment. It can help a team or can affect its chances, it could be both plus and minus. So it is a good innovation for this kind of tournament. But I don't think internationally it can be implemented," Bangladesh coach Shehk Mamun told PTI.
India allrounder Yash Nahar too didn't favour the concept as he felt it favours the chasing team.
"It favours the chasing team if they have to really score huge run in the end overs. It can go any way but I don't favour this concept. I don't think it has the potential as a concept," he said.
However, during the match against Loughborough University, England, Assupol Tuks Cricket from South Africa, University of Pretoria scored 22 runs in the 16th over which was an energiser over. The score got doubled to 44, helping South Africa set a target of 199 for England, which they failed to chase, losing by 54 runs.
India captain Hitesh Walunj feels it is a good concept provided it is made compulsory to take the energiser over between 7 to 15 overs.
"It is a good concept as long as it is made compulsory that it should be tried in the 7-15 overs. It should be compulsory. Otherwise there is no time to recover if taken in the end overs," he said.
During the India leg of the RBCC in Feb-June this year,
Red Bull had tweaked the T20 format with each team batting twice. So four innings were being played in a match and captains who won the toss allowed their opponents to choose whether to bat or field first so that they can reserve the right to decide whether to bowl or bat after the first 20 overs, where both the teams have batted for 10 overs each.
It was also not a traditional innings like it happens in Tests. Here, a team's 2nd 10-over innings picked up where the 1st innings left off, i.E. If a team made 60 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 10 overs, they had to start their second innings 3 wickets down, with 60 runs on the board and the same two batsmen at the crease.
Also it is not compulsory to play all five bowlers in both the 10 overs innings. If a team wishes, a bowler's entire quota of four overs can be bowled in one innings.
"I think this format have a lot of potential. Though it might look complex, a lot of strategic decision making goes into it and it makes it more interesting and less tiring for the players as there are two innings of 10 overs," Hitesh said.
