Sunrisers Hyderabad, on Monday (April 15), broke their own record for highest team total in IPL history, posting a daunting total against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Earlier this season, SRH had amassed 277/3 against Mumbai Indians to break RCB’s record for highest total in IPL. RCB held the record for over a decade after scoring 263/5 against the now defunct Pune Warriors India in 2013.
And it took less than a month for SRH to break their own record as they posted a record of 287/3 against RCB in their own backyard. The architect of the huge total was former RCB batsman Travis Head. Opening the innings for SRH, the Australian star completed his half-century in just 20 balls and scored his first IPL ton.
He scored 102 runs off just 40 balls with the help of nine fours and eight sixes. Heinrich Klaasen also played a blistering knock, smashing 67 runs off just 31 balls with the help of two fours and seven sixes. And towards the end, Abdul Samad and Aiden Markram helped SRH end the innings on a strong note.
The duo shared an unbeaten stand of 56 runs off just 18 balls for the fourth wicket. Yash Dayal bowled a good 18th over, conceding just 10 runs and it looked like RCB might restrict SRH to less than 270 runs.
However, Abdul Samad ruined their hopes by taking Reece Topley to the cleaners in the 19th over. The SRH batsman hit the England star for 24 runs in the penultimate over. After Markram took a single off the first ball to give the strike to Abdul Samad, the latter hit three fours and two sixes.
Speaking after the end of the innings, Travis Head spoke about his knock and his team’s batting plan, saying:
“Good wicket. I had to contribute at the right time. I just tried to maximize my opportunities. We had a very good start. I don’t know, it was proper batting. We tried to take the game (after a quick start).
‘We just try to maximize the power play and then try to keep going. Pat (Cummins) and Dan (Vettori) put pressure on the batting line to make sure we kept going. “All the guys are stepping up every game.”