With the start of the IPL 2024 playoff stage with Qualifier 1 between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad, fans are zeroed in for every delivery. Both these teams have been the best in IPL 2024 with a dominant set of players who followed a free-flowing aggressive batting approach which has helped them break multiple records.
Hence with a laser focus on each ball, fans discovered a symbol of a tree replacing the sign for the dot ball delivered on the broadcast. So with every ball, the curiosity regarding what the tree denotes increased. This tree represents the green initiative started by the Board For Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).
Why dot ball is replaced by a tree sign in IPL 2024 Qualifier 1?
Under the program, the BCCI will plant 500 trees for each dot ball bowled in the Playoffs. The initiative was started in the IPL 2023 playoffs with the first Qualifier between Gujarat Titans and Chennai Super Kings. Last year, after the playoffs and the final, BCCI in collaboration with Tata planted 1,47,000 trees as 294 dot balls were bowled.
Everyone is proud of it: Shreyas Iyer on finishing 1st in IPL 2024
At the toss before the KKR vs SRH game, Shreyas Iyer praised his team for finishing top of the table with nine wins and three losses in 14 games. Speaking at the coin flip, Iyer said, "I would have loved to bowl. I had a chat with the curator and he said it's a mixed soil, let's see how it plays, hoping for a good game."
"Important that we keep the momentum going and stay in the present. Great achievement (finishing at the top of the table) and everyone is proud of it, we are taking one match at a time and we need to be positive about what's going to happen here. We are going with the same team," he added.