Sunrisers Hyderabad scale new heights in another hit-a-thon

Sunrisers Hyderabad went on to get the highest-ever IPL score, bettering their own 277 against Mumbai Indians scored earlier in the season. Travis Head scored the fastest-hundred by an SRH batter by getting there in just 39 balls, SRH also smashed 22 sixes in all which was the most in any IPL innings. Head’s eight sixes was the joint-most by any SRH batter in IPL history. And he had great company. Heinrich Klaasen, given a promotion at No. 3, scored only 67 but even that contained 7 sixes in all.

The sixes story above summed up SRH’s batting approach in essence. Put in to bat, Pat Cummins only half-joked that 240 was a par total at the Chinnaswamy stadium but his batters seemed to have taken the words to heart. First Abhishek Sharma, alongside the effervescent Head, stole the show with a 108-run stand in just 49 balls.

Abhishek matched Head stroke for stroke as the duo toyed with RCB’s attack irrespective of the bowling changes made. It was a show that continued with Klaasen arriving and having Mahipal Lomror to challenge him early on. Klaasen latched onto the spinner with a couple of sixes to get his innings going while Head took down the pacers with ease. He had started off by picking out Lockie Ferguson and Yash Dayal to get to a fifty in just 20 balls inside the powerplay. And it continued with Will Jacks being taken down for 21 in his third over. He raced towards his ton with three fours off Vijaykumar Vyshak as SRH brought up 200 in just 15 overs.

RCB had entered the game with a host of changes, dropping the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Mohammad Siraj and continuing to keep Cameron Green out. But it didn’t result in any change of fortune as SRH brought their ‘A’ game on the night. No bowler was spared, with Yash Dayal’s 69 in four overs becoming the second-most expensive spell in IPL history. No RCB bowler had an economy-rate less than Jacks’s 10.70. For if it was not Head or Klaasen, there was Aiden Markram and Abdul Samad. The duo smashed 56 in the last three overs to power SRH to where no team had gone before in the IPL.

No prizes for guessing about the pitch. Although it wore a look of green and brown as some two-paced surfaces do, this one turned out to be a batting paradise. The slower balls were picked up and deposited into the stands with ease and no particular bowler could claim to have come to terms on it from either end.

In a batting exhibition, the bowlers were invariably reduced to sideshows. For even as they started with left-arm spin which has traditionally been an Achilles heel for RCB’s openers, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis got them going with a rousing opening stand that raised 80 in just 38 balls. Du Plessis was the early adopter to the ‘hit everything’ strategy and it brought him a quickfire fifty before some hiccups.

RCB lost Kohli – bowled off a Mayank Markande googly and then saw the highly-reputed Will Jacks be run out backing up too far as bowler Jaydev Unadkat managed a deflection onto the stumps after his follow-through. That dismissal set them too far back, and they further plummeted when Pat Cummins got Du Plessis to glove a pull before trapping Saurav Chauhan LBW first ball. Cummins would also get Mahipal Lomror to chop one onto his stumps, leaving RCB severely dented. But that didn’t matter much to Dinesh Karthik.

Even as the game appeared to be slipping away from RCB at 122/5 at the halfway stage, Karthik did not let go. He continued the hitting exhibition that had been on offer all night, using deft footwork and smart angles to smash five fours and seven sixes in his 35-ball 83. It was still not enough to prevent loss, but saved RCB a few blushes at the end.

Brief Scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad  287/3 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 34, Travis Head 102, Heinrich Klaasen 67, Aiden Markram 32*, Abdul Samad 37; Reece Topley 1-68, Lockie Furguson 2-52) beat  Royal Challengers Bengaluru 262/7 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 42, Dinesh Karthik 83, Faf Du Plessis 52, Anuj Rawat 25; T Natarajan 1-47,  Pat Cummins 3-43, Mayank Markande 2-46) by 26 runs

(Cricbuzz)