Head, Abhishek begin the massacre, Klaasen completes it
The three batters, along with Markram, power Sunrisers to a record total of 277 against Mumbai Indians, surpassing the previous highest of 263 by Royal Challengers versus Pune Warriors in 2013
Travis Head played a gem of an innings, Abhishek Sharma dished out a stunning knock too and Heinrich Klaasen came up with another blitzkrieg to propel Sunrisers Hyderabad, put in by Mumbai Indians, to the highest ever total of 277 for three in 20 overs in the IPL history at the floodlit Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday.
The previous best score was 263 for five by Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Pune Warriors in 2013.
Terrific move
Sunrisers’ move to prefer Head to Marco Jansen proved to be a terrific one as the Australian opener, dropped on five at midoff by Tim David off Hardik Pandya’s first ball in the second over of the innings, played some extravagant strokes, especially treating 18yearold South African leftarm pacer Kwena Maphaka with disdain — pulling him nonchalantly for two huge sixes and straight driving to the fence.
Even as his partner Mayank Agarwal mistimed a pull off Hardik Pandya straight to the midon in the fifth over, Head continued to be in a zone of his own, showing his class and hitting prowess.
And to Sunrisers’ delight, another southpaw Abhishek Sharma was equal to the occasion, pulling pacer Gerald Coetzee for six and then treating veteran legspinner Piyush Chawla with scant respect, hitting him for three sixes in his first over.
Just when the secondwicket pair of Head and Abhishek was threatening to take dangerous proportions putting on 68 runs off 28 balls, there was huge relief in Mumbai camp as Head slashed uppishly off Coetzee straight to the fielder in the deep midwicket in the eighth over.
Abhishek kept the scoreboard rattling with some huge hits — pulling Maphaka for a six and then straight into the sight screen to bring up his 50 off just 16 balls with two fours and six sixes.
Clueless attack
The Mumbai attack was clueless with the sole exception of Jasprit Bumrah as Sunrisers reached 148 for two at the halfway stage. Then, the South African duo of the classy Aiden Markram and the more belligerent Klaasen joined
Mumbai Indians had made 185 for four after 15 overs in pursuit of the highest run chase in the tournament. Hardik (20) and David (2) were at the crease. Rohit (26), Kishan (34), Naman Dhir (30) and Tilak (64) were the batters dismissed
hands for an unbroken fourthwicket partnership of 116 of 55 balls to push Mumbai completely on the defensive.