NEW DELHI: Twenty20 was designed to favour batters, but few anticipated the bowlers` bloodbath that unfolded across four weeks in India and Sri Lanka at the just-concluded Twenty20 World Cup.

The 20-team tournament became a high-octane showcase of power-hitting, redefining the upper limits of scoring and rewriting what a `par` total looks like in this format.

A staggering 780 sixes were hit in this year`s tournament, a 50.87% jump from the 517 hammered in the 2024 edition in West Indies and the United States.

The 200-mark was breached a record 14 times and eventual champions India alone posted three of the four 250-plus totals in the tournament.Flat tracks across both host nations combined with fearless intent pushed the collective batting strike rate to 134, the highest in tournament history and a stark indicator of where white-ball batting is heading.

As India muscled their way to a mammoth 255-5 in the final against New Zealand in Ahmedabad, former England captain Michael Vaughan took to X to say: `fantastic striking ... but lets be honest this isn`t a fair balance between Bat & Ball.

New Zealand coach Rob Walter, however, saw little point in complaining about batting carnage if fans were enthralled.

`I guess it comes down to what you view as entertainment, really,` Walter toldreporters. `It seems to be the trend around the world that runs are the thing that people want to see. Of course, I believe you still want to have an even contest.

That appetite for fours and sixes was reflected off the field as well.

The India-England semi-final in Mumbai shattered digital records, with ICC chairman Jay Shah noting on X a peak concurrency of 65.2 million viewers the highest for any live event worldwide.

`It is tough, the bats are very good, Walter said.

`The guys obviously practise hitting the ball far, and when the pitches give not much to the bowlers, it does make it very tough. `But ultimately, if that`s the waythe game`s going then the onus is obviously on the bowlers to develop their skills and develop them quickly.

India`s Jasprit Bumrah is probably the template.

The seam-bowling genius, for the third time in a T20 World Cup, walked away with the best economy rate (6.21) of any player to have bowled 100-plus balls a reminder that elite skill can still choke scoring even on highways.

`Bumrah is a once-in-a-generation bowler. I can call him a national treasure,` India captain Suryakumar Yadav said of his pace spearhead, who produced a match-winning haul in the final. `He knows how it needs to be done. He is the best in the business.`-Reuters