Records go for a six as SRH outshines MI in run fest
After Head, Abhishek and Klaasen power Cummins’ side to the League’s highest total of 277, Hardik’s men stay in the hunt for a major part of the chase before losing steam and finishing at 246
Travis Head played a gem of an innings, Abhishek Sharma was stunning and Heinrich Klaasen flamboyant as the trio fashioned Sunrisers Hyderabad’s impressive 31run win against Mumbai Indians in a highscoring IPL league match at Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Wednesday night.
Rollicking start
When Mumbai began the daunting chase of 278, it was obvious that the target was too high.
This despite Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan ensuring a rollicking start before both fell, going for big shots.
Later, local boy Tilak Varma showcased his powerhitting with a brilliant knock but that was not good enough as Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins struck the big blows — removing Rohit and Tilak — at crucial moments to shortcircuit Mumbai Indians’ hopes.
Tim David too came up with some big hits towards the end but Mumbai needed something extraordinary and it didn’t happen.
Earlier, Mumbai’s gamble to put the host in backfired badly as the bowling looked ordinary, the exception being Jasprit Bumrah.
Sunrisers posted the highest total of 277 for three in IPL history, eclipsing the previous best of 263 for five by Royal Challengers Bengaluru against Pune Warriors in 2013.
The home team’s move to prefer Head to Marco Jansen proved to be a great one as the Australian opener, dropped on five at midoff by Tim David off Hardik Pandya’s first ball in the se
Klaasen, Abhishek and Head tore the Mumbai Indians attack apart, hitting fours and sixes at will.
cond 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 with aplomb.
Southpaw Abhishek was equal to the occasion against both pace and spin, pulling pacer Gerald Coetzee for a six and later hitting legspinner Piyush Chawla for three sixes in his first over.
Abhishek was busy hitting boundaries at will and later the South African duo of the classy Aiden Markram and the more belligerent Klaasen joined hands for an unbroken fourthwicket stand of 116 off 55 balls to put the visitors totally on the defensive.
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD Mayank Agarwal c David b Hardik 11 (13b, 1x4), Travis Head c Dhir b Coetzee 62 (24b, 9x4, 3x6), Abhishek Sharma c Dhir b
Chawla 63 (23b, 3x4, 7x6), Aiden Markram (not out) 42 (28b, 2x4, 1x6), Heinrich Klaasen (not out) 80 (34b, 4x4, 7x6); Extras (b-4, lb-1, nb-2, w-12): 19; Total (for three wkts. in 20 overs): 277.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-45 (Mayank, 4.1 overs), 2-113 (Head, 7.5), 3-161 (Abhishek, 10.6).
MUMBAI INDIANS BOWLING Maphaka 4-0-66-0, Hardik 4-0-46-1, Bumrah 4-0-36-0, Coetzee 4-0-57-1, Chawla 2-0-34-1, Mulani 2-0-33-0.
MUMBAI INDIANS
Rohit Sharma c Abhishek b Cummins 26 (12b, 1x4, 3x6), Ishan Kishan c Markram b Shahbaz 34 (13b, 2x4, 4x6), Naman Dhir c Cummins b Unadkat 30 (14b, 2x4, 2x6), Tilak Varma c Mayank b Cummins 64 (34b, 2x4, 6x6), Hardik Pandya c Klaasen b Unadkat 24 (20b, 1x4, 1x6), Tim David (not out) 42 (22b, 2x4, 3x6), Romario Shepherd (Impact Player in place of Maphaka) (not out) 15 (6b, 2x4, 1x6); Extras (b-1, lb-4, nb-1, w-5): 11; Total (for five wkts. in 20 overs): 246.
FALL OF WICKETS
1-56 (Kishan, 3.2), 2-66 (Rohit, 4.3), 3-150 (Dhir, 10.4), 4-182 (Tilak, 14.1), 5-224 (Hardik, 17.6).
SUNRISERS BOWLING Bhuvneshwar 4-0-53-0, Unadkat 4-0-47-2, Shahbaz 3-0-39-1, Cummins 4-0-35-2, Umran (Impact Player in place of Head) 1-0-15-0, Markande 4-0-52-0.
Toss: MI.
PoM: Abhishek.
SRH won by 31 runs.