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By:

Waleed Hussain

4 March 2025 at 2:34:30 pm

Opener turned into six -hitting contest

Mumbai: The IPL 2026 opening match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium wasn’t a cricket contest. It was a full-scale six-hitting festival, complete with bowlers serving as reluctant ball boys and the leather sphere treating the boundary ropes like an optional suggestion rather than a hard limit. SRH, batting first after being inserted, scraped together 201 for 9 in their full 20 overs. Stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan led the charge with a...

Opener turned into six -hitting contest

Mumbai: The IPL 2026 opening match between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium wasn’t a cricket contest. It was a full-scale six-hitting festival, complete with bowlers serving as reluctant ball boys and the leather sphere treating the boundary ropes like an optional suggestion rather than a hard limit. SRH, batting first after being inserted, scraped together 201 for 9 in their full 20 overs. Stand-in skipper Ishan Kishan led the charge with a fiery 80 off just 38 balls, peppering the stands with 5 sixes and eight fours. It was the kind of knock that screams “I’m the captain now, watch me launch.” Youngster Aniket Verma (or Ankit, depending on the scorecard scribbles) chipped in with a brisk 43 that included another 4 sixes in a desperate late surge. Heinrich Klaasen added his usual muscle, but the early wobble to 49/3 thanks to Jacob Duffy’s fiery 3/22 in the powerplay kept things from spiraling into total absurdity. SRH’s total sixes: a “modest” 12. How refreshingly conservative. One almost expected them to apologize to the bowlers for not clearing the stadium entirely. Then came RCB’s reply. Chasing 202, the defending champions made it look like a Sunday net session gone gloriously rogue. They polished off the target in a mere 15.4 overs, losing just 4 wickets and winning by 6 wickets with 26 balls to spare. Devdutt Padikkal went ballistic with 61 off 26 balls — a strike rate that would embarrass a missile. He smashed 4 sixes and seven fours, treating SRH spinners like they owed him money. The middle overs turned into a personal highlight reel as he dispatched deliveries into the second and third tiers with contemptuous ease. Elder Statesman Virat Kohli, ever the composed elder statesman at 69 not out off 38, casually added 5 sixes of his own. King Kohli didn’t just bat; he conducted a masterclass in timed aggression, finishing the game with a flourish of boundaries that had the Chinnaswamy crowd in absolute delirium. Rajat Patidar and a quick cameo from Tim David ensured there were no unnecessary heart attacks for the home faithful. RCB’s six tally: a cheeky 13. Combined across both innings? A staggering 25 sixes in one high-octane evening. That’s not T20 cricket anymore. That’s aerial warfare with a red leather projectile. The ball spent more time orbiting the stadium than rolling on the turf. Ground staff probably clocked more kilometers chasing it into the stands than the batsmen ran between wickets. Spectators got an unexpected workout fielding souvenirs, while bowlers stared skyward like astronomers discovering new constellations every over. “Where did that one go?” became the unofficial match commentary.
Collective Hug The bowlers deserve a collective group hug — or perhaps therapy. Jacob Duffy’s impressive debut haul was the lone bright spot for the attack, but even he must have questioned his career choices every time a length ball disappeared into the night. Short balls? Met with the same disdain. Full tosses? Please, they were practically gift-wrapped invitations to the parking lot. Harshal Patel and the SRH death bowlers leaked runs like a sieve in the final stages, watching six after six sail over their heads while fielders sprinted futilely, arms outstretched in vain hope. The spinners fared even worse. One over from a hapless SRH tweaker disappeared for multiple maximums, turning what should have been a containing spell into a public humiliation. Krunal Pandya and Harsh Dubey were taken to the cleaners with such regularity that you half-expected the umpires to intervene on humanitarian grounds. Why bowl when the batsmen treat your best deliveries like practice balls for a batting cage? It’s almost insulting how nonchalantly these sixes were dispatched. No drama, no buildup — just clean, brutal connection followed by polite applause from the crowd and another sprint for the ball boys. Traditionalists mourning the death of “proper” cricket could only clutch their Test whites tighter and mutter about the good old days when a six was an event, not the default setting. At Chinnaswamy, the pitch played like a trampoline on steroids, and the boundaries shrank with every lusty swing. Group Therapy By the 15th over of the chase, the match had lost all pretense of competition. It became a group therapy session in power-hitting, where everyone took turns launching the ball into orbit. The six-count on the giant screen must have broken some internal software trying to keep up. If this is the tone for IPL 2026, buckle up, folks. Expect every subsequent game to threaten world records for most maximums, highest strike rates, and most exhausted retrieval staff. The real MVP? Not Kohli’s classy anchor, not Padikkal’s blitz, not even Duffy’s early breakthroughs. It was the six itself — that glorious, crowd-pleasing projectile that turned a cricket match into prime-time entertainment. Bowlers might as well start their run-ups from the sightscreen next time; at least give the ball a fighting chance. Bravo to both teams for kicking off the season with such unapologetic carnage. You’ve reminded us why we love this format: raw power, minimal fuss, and maximum entertainment. Just don’t be surprised when future matches come with a mandatory “six insurance” clause for nearby residents. The ropes are trembling, the stands are full, and the bowlers are already booking appointments with sports psychologists. Long live the six. May the aerial assault continue unabated.

Credible Promises, Credible Threats

A plan is negotiable. A commitment is not.

Do you mean what you say? Not in a motivational way. In a practical way. Because most people in these companies have seen this pattern before:

  • a new leader comes in

  • announces something big

  • people panic, adjust, comply for a week

  • then the leader gets busy, distracted, or tired

  • everything returns to old normal


So the system develops a habit: wait it out.

If you want change to become real, you have to break that “wait it out” habit. And you don’t break it with more planning. You break it with commitments that are believable.


Which Seat?

  • Inherited seat: People assume you can change your mind anytime because you have power. They wait.

  • Hired seat: People assume you won’t last, or you’ll be overruled. They wait.

  • Promoted seat: People assume you’ll protect old friendships and bend rules. They wait.


Different seats. Same test: credibility.


Small-town Wow

Think about a public vow in a small town. If someone says, “I will do this,” in a private room, it’s easy to change later. But if they say it publicly where everyone will remember, it becomes harder to reverse. Not because of law. Because of reputation.


That is how commitments work in legacy businesses too. The moment you make something public and link it to your identity, reversing it becomes costly. That cost is what makes it believable.


Thomas Schelling, a well-known strategist, wrote about this idea: commitment changes the game only when it is credible. In simple terms: it must be hard for you to undo it.


Your Initiative

Most leaders think credibility comes from authority. It doesn’t. In MSMEs, authority is often blurry:

  • the old guard has informal power

  • the owner still overrides

  • relatives have influence

  • senior staff can slow things quietly

  • people don’t know who will “win” in a conflict


So when you announce a change, people don’t ask, “Is this correct?” They ask, “Will this stick?” And the honest answer depends on one thing:


Real Cost

If there is no cost, it’s a plan. Plans are negotiable. Commitments are different. Commitments lock you in. An empty promise sounds like:

  • “We will digitise everything.”

  • “We will become process-driven.”

  • “We will improve accountability.”


A credible promise sounds like:

  • “For this pilot, no one will lose their job because of a mistake.”

  • “Every Monday 11 AM, we will do the dispatch scoreboard no exceptions.”

  • “Only entries in this queue will be approved. Everything else waits.”


Notice the difference: it’s concrete, and it creates a visible consequence. Also, credible promises are often smaller than empty promises. But they change behavior faster.


Credible Threats

When I say “threat,” I don’t mean aggression. I mean an enforceable rule. Most MSMEs suffer because rules are optional. And optional rules create politics. So a credible “threat” is simply:

  • clear

  • calm

  • enforceable

  • consistently applied


Example: “Data must be submitted by 6 PM every day.”

If nobody checks and nothing happens when it’s missed, it’s not a rule … it’s a wish.


A real rule has a gate:

  • “If it’s not updated by 6 PM, it doesn’t get discussed in the 10 AM review.”

  • “If PO details are missing, the PO doesn’t move.”

  • “If a quotation isn’t logged, it won’t be approved.”


No shouting. No humiliation. Just a gate.


Design Commitments

Three practical guidelines:

  1. Promise protection before you demand discipline

    People won’t share the truth if the truth will hurt them.

    That’s why “no layoffs from the pilot” is powerful as it reduces fear.

  2. Make rules enforceable by design, not by energy

    If your rule needs you to chase people daily, it will die.

    Put it inside the workflow as a gate (Week 3 logic).

  3. Start with one promise and one rule

    Too many commitments create confusion and loopholes.

    One promise + one rule is enough to change the mood.


(The author is Co-founder at PPS Consulting and a business operations advisor. She helps businesses across sectors and geographies improve execution through global best practices. She could be reached at rashmi@ppsconsulting.biz)

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