IPL - Is no total safe anymore?

It's not a new normal but definitely, a significant precedent when even 200-plus totals are not safe anymore. Nicholas Pooran on Monday and Rinku Singh on Sunday, twice now teams have dug themselves out of a hole to launch late assaults and fashion spectacular wins.

Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium may not be India's biggest ground, but Ahmedabad's Narendra Modi Stadium definitely stretches the batter. The bowling too showed nerves on both occasions. But it's probably more mental than anything else as deep batting line-ups are now backing themselves to ace a 10-run-per-over chase.

"Psychologically, chasing 220-odd would have put additional pressure on us. But 213 we felt the momentum was still on our side," said Nicholas Pooran, whose 19-ball 62 orchestrated Lucknow Super Giants' dramatic last-ball win, by one wicket, against Royal Challengers Bangalore on Monday.

When Pooran came to the crease, LSG needed 114 from 58 balls, about 12 runs per over. You can break it down anyway you want but the most straightforward approach for a T20 specialist like Pooran is to see it as a couple of sixes per over. He trusted that instinct. The first ball came at a flatter trajectory from leg-spinner Karn Sharma and he defended, but the next one was tossed up and Pooran didn't hold himself back. Two more sixes in the next over from Sharma and Pooran had kickstarted a remarkable comeback.

"I just felt like I had to take that chance against the leg-spinner to get my innings going and that was the rest of my innings there," he said. "I just felt like everything flowed for me after that. I was reacting tonight, and I have been working really hard on my game, and this is how I want to be."

A partner like Ayush Badoni, another young clean hitter, helped since no bad balls are wasted and the running between the wickets isn't compromised. "Even Badoni came out and played really well. We were scoring boundaries, scoring at close to ten runs an over. In the blink of an eye, the game changes it came down from 14 to 10 and we were able to control the game for a couple of overs there," said the Trinidadian.

From the outside, it might have looked like carnage. But Pooran, 27, reveals what goes in the mind, how he weighs up the bowlers and field placements while keeping in mind the current ask and data matchups, referring to Rinku Singh's innings the previous night when he smashed five sixes in a row to win the game against Gujarat Titans.

"It's never over," he said. "When I'm outside I just try my best to watch the game, try to break it down, be in the moment. Yes, we lost two wickets, and the run rate is up to 15. We could have easily been out of the game, you know, psychologically. But in this game, I just felt it was all about partnerships, and when you get into that zone it's easier to break down the game. You know who your match-up is and you know who you are looking to attack, who you can get 15-20 runs from or you know who the bowler is who can get you out or who they're going to bring back to get you out.

"That's how the game should be played. T20 is a difficult game, experience plays a massive role. And I have struggled for the last 6-7 years in finishing games. I have made bad decisions at the wrong times and cost my team a lot of games. It's just a learning curve for me, that was my journey and I'm happy I can learn from it and come up with a match-winning performance," he said.