NEW DELHI: In the IPL match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and
Royal Challengers Bengaluru
, the focus was primarily on hitting sixes rather than showcasing traditional batting skills, according to
Aaron Finch
, the captain of Australia's T20 World Cup-winning team.
SRH posted a formidable total of 287 for three, surpassing their previous record of 277/3 against Mumbai Indians on March 27 in Hyderabad.
This impressive score was largely due to
Travis Head
's first-ever T20 century and
Heinrich Klaasen
's destructive innings of 67 runs.
In response,
Dinesh Karthik
played a blistering knock of 83 runs off just 35 deliveries for RCB. However, his efforts were not enough to secure a victory for his team. The match witnessed a total of 38 sixes being hit by both teams, highlighting the dominance of power-hitting in the game.
"It was never going to be a game where you talk about batsmanship. It's a game where you talk about who hit the most sixes and that was the difference," Finch said on Star Sports.
"They (RCB) had to start at 14 (runs per over). And if you have one bad over it goes to 16."
Finch said the Hyderabad side used the Powerplay segment well.
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"They (SRH) were getting lucky in the first powerplay and they needed those sixes and Travis Head was the difference there.
"He started off well, his intent to get the ball rolling and then a courageous move to keep Klaasen at No. 3 and say we need to keep going, we have a deep batting line-up and we are going to put the bowlers to the sword here," added Finch.
The aggressive style of play demonstrated by these batsmen has led to significant changes in team strategies and has contributed to exciting matches and impressive victories, such as SRH's recent 25-run triumph.
Finch observed that IPL teams have begun to adjust their tactics by promoting powerful strikers like Klaasen in the batting order. These players exhibit a fearless approach to the game.
"A lot of times teams think that Klaasen has so much power to the back end, let's hold him back. Like (RCB's) Glenn Maxwell at times, you don't want to expose him right now because if he gets out, then we've got to rebuild. Teams don't think like that anymore.
"(SRH coach) Dan Vettori has talked about that, play aggressive, play fearlessly and bear the consequence if it doesn't go right. If it does go right, you don't lose."
Dinesh Karthik once again underlined his value making a 35-ball 83 at a strike-rate of 237. Finch said the ability to strike the ball comes naturally to Karthik, given his more than two decades of experience in the game.
"Well, once you've got 20-25 years of experience behind you, and you've got that bulk of balls you've hit throughout your whole career since you were five years old, you don't lose that ability to bat.
"So, I think, it works in their favour because they train specifically for that role which they play for their team. They don't over train, they aren't trying to improve on their skills or they aren't trying to improvise anymore, they just train specifically," said Finch.
The Victorian cricketer added that players like Karthik are examples for others preparing to be specific about their roles.
"That should be a lesson for players around the world, that you have to be really specific with your preparation and how you go about it.
"You can hit as many balls as you want, if you walk out to the middle with a clouded mind or are not fresh, you're going to find it hard no matter how well you're playing."
(With PTI inputs)
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