BENGALURU: Sunrisers Hyderabad batters have been on a roll, and on Monday against
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
, they were at their belligerent best.
Travis Head
(102; 41b, 9x4, 8x6) scored the fourth fastest IPL century to help his team secure a 25-run win at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here after achieving the highest-ever total in the league — 287/3 in 20 overs. SRH broke their own record of 277/3 set against Mumbai Indians last month.
Red-hot
Heinrich Klaasen
also made it count with a quick-fire half century (67; 31b, 2x4, 7x6).
Aiden Markram and Abdul Samad too joined the party. SRH hit 22 sixes, a record for most maximums in a single IPL innings. Batting allrounder Will Jacks — who bowls off-spin — was RCB’s most economical bowler with an economy rate of 10.70.
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In reply, RCB did not go down without a fight. Their fifth defeat notwithstanding, they finished with 262/7 in 20 overs. Faf du Plessis (62; 28b; 7x4; 4x6) and
Virat Kohli
(42; 20b, 4x6, 2x6) got the team off to a good start, scoring 79 in the first six overs.
But they lost Kohli, Jacks and Rajat Patidar quickly. After Du Plessis returned to the dugout in the 10th over,
Dinesh Karthik
(83; 35b, 5x4, 7x6) took charge and took the SRH bowlers to the cleaners. But the target was beyond RCB’s reach much before. Karthik’s brilliant innings remained among the brightest takeaways for RCB from the match.
Earlier, asked to bat, Sunrisers were off to a rollicking start with openers Head and Abhishek Sharma combining to score 76 in the Powerplay. The Australian gradually began to dominate proceedings and brought up his half-century in 20 balls, including four fours and five sixes, while his partner was scoring at a strike rate of 150.
Head was unstoppable. He did not hold back against the spinners or pacers, smashing Jacks for four and two sixes in the seventh over. Even after Abhishek (34; 22b, 2x4, 2x6) was dismissed by Reece Topley, the visitors sent in-form Klaasen up the order to maintain the flow of runs after a 108-run opening stand.
Head attacked the pacers, who primarily bowled short and completed his ton in 39 balls. The southpaw was keen to make it count further but lost his wicket to Lockie Ferguson while going for another maximum. The onus fell on Klaasen and the batter hit two sixes off Mahipal Lomror. It just proved to be a teaser for what was to come from Klaasen.
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