Four hundred and fifty three runs in 40 overs. Thirty-six fours and 26 sixes. A target of 231 in a Twenty20 game almost chased down. If the 51st match of this year’s Indian Premier League were an inanimate object, it would be in the shape of a nail that is driven into a collective coffin of bowlers in the modern era.

The commentators damn near punctured their lungs on Thursday night, reaching decibels that were beyond safe-hearing limits, to tell you what an absolutely breathtaking match it was between Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians. This was “Twenty20 cricket at its absolute best,” they screamed.

Sure, T20 is all-about entertainment about how good can a game of cricket really be if it’s just the batsmen dictating terms?

Yes, this is not a new phenomenon. Just a few days earlier Delhi Daredevils scripted the highest chase in IPL history against Gujarat Lions, when the Feroz Shah Kotla witnessed a combined 31 sixes being hit – another IPL record. No target is un-chaseable these days. The top 10 best chases in ODIs have all come in the last 11 years.

The sad part is that, thanks to the frenzy surrounding the IPL and other T20 leagues, these high-scoring matches are now seen as the corner-stone of exciting games. The flattest of pitches are seen as “good pitches” even in the eyes of former cricketers commentating on the matches. No one, it seems, is willing to spare more than the occasional thought for the plight of bowlers.

Harbhajan Singh, who was one of the 13 players to roll his arm over at the Wankhede on Thursday, went as far as saying the man-of-the-match should be the curator. What he said after that, even if tongue in cheek, should give a moment of pause to everyone connected with the game.

“Time is near when only bowling machines will be bowling not bowlers.”

Forgetting where your allegiances lie for a minute, when a bowler who is actively involved in the game fears for the future of his kind, you know there is something seriously wrong. Sure, the fans like to see the big hits but a line needs to be drawn somewhere.

Perhaps the only saving grace was that match was still won by two bowlers who bowled some mean yorkers at the end.