Travis Head set the pace on the night, striking an 18-ball half-century, the fastest for SRH in the IPL. His record lasted roughly four overs, Abhishek Sharma slamming a 16-ball fifty to relegate him to No. 2. An hour after that, Heinrich Klassen cut loose to seemingly bat MI out of the contest. Abhishek Sharma‘s innings ensured that Sunrisers Hyderabad never lost their momentum with the bat in the entire innings going bang- bang right from the start.
Head’s inclusion in the XI meant Abhishek Sharma had to move down the order, and he walked in at No. 3 after Mayank Agarwal fell in the fifth over. Abhishek Sharma got going with a pull off Coetzee and then meted out a special treatment to the leg spinner Piyush Chawla, hitting him for three sixes in an over. That helped SRH notch up their 100 in just seven overs, their second-fastest in the IPL.
In a match that could rival any in terms of overall hitting pedigree, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians served up a feast which the former eventually clinched by 31 runs. In all a total of 38 sixes (the most in a T20 game) were hit across forty overs and as many as 523 runs (the most in a T20 game) scored in a match for the ages at Hyderabad. But the sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually falling only 31 short.
Pitch and Toss
First game of the season in Hyderabad. Leg-side is 66 meters, off-side is 63 meters, 76 meters straight down the ground. Looks like a great batting track, this one’s void of grass. The best time to bat is against the new ball. As the ball loses shine, the bowlers who use variations and bowl slower ones will get purchase from the wicket.
Teams need to capitalize in the first 5-10 overs while batting. There’s going to be something in it for the fast bowlers in the beginning, something in it for the spinners throughout. Bowlers who hit the deck will enjoy bowling here. Bumrah will excel. A bat first wicket, reckons Brian Lara. There won’t be dew, so the spinners will come into play later.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to bowl . The Hardik Pandya led team made one change giving debut cap to Kwena Maphaka an u-19 South African star pacer in place of injured Luke Wood and Romario Shepherd as impact sub.
Sunrisers Hyderabad bought in Travis Head and Jaydev Unadkat in place of Rahul Tripathi and T Natarajan and Umran Malik was the impact sub.
The perfect Head-start
Abhishek Sharma shows his mettle
Head’s inclusion in the XI meant Abhishek Sharma had to move down the order, and he walked in at No. 3 after Mayank Agarwal fell in the fifth over. Abhishek Sharma got going with a pull off Coetzee and then meted out a special treatment to the leg spinner Piyush Chawla, hitting him for three sixes in an over. That helped SRH notch up their 100 in just seven overs, their second-fastest in the IPL.
Abhishek Sharma also tore into Maphaka’s third over, hitting him for a sequence of 4, 6, 6, 4 to complete his fifty and snatch the record from Head. The key was how early he picked the length of the bowlers. He hit seven sixes in his 23-ball stay for 63 runs, before heaving a half-tracker that Chawla fired in seam-up at 112.8kph straight to deep midwicket.
If Head was ruthless against the pacers upfront, Abhishek Sharma was merciless against the bowlers to follow. First he would go after Piyush Chawla and then after the 17-year-old debutant Kwena Maphaka who was hit for 20 in a single over.
The youngster would finish with unflattering figures of 0/66 in his four overs but could take heart in the fact that none of the more accomplished bowlers were spared either. Abhishek Sharma’s blitz was so hard that he ended up breaking Head’s record for the quickest fifty for SRH in IPL, getting there in just 16 balls. After 10 overs, SRH’s total of 148 was the highest ever by any team in IPL at the halfway mark.
Klassen and Markram add finishing touches as Sunrisers Hyderabad boasts record breaking 277 for 3 after 20 overs.
Mumbai Indians held back Jasprit Bumrah even as SRH piled up 173 in just 12 overs. Bumrah had bowled only one over until then and they hoped to match him up better against Heinrich Klaasen at the back-end. It worked to an extent as Bumrah went for ‘only’ 9 an over. But as much as he was the standout on a flat batting beauty, it meant that there was no room to hide for any of the other bowlers.
The in-form Klassen spared none of the pacers even as he broke free, and finished it up with a 21-run over bowled by the spinner Shams Mulani to finish the innings. Klassen remained unbeaten on 80 in a 116-run stand with Aiden Markram. With that SRH had racked up the highest-ever franchise T20 score of 277. After SRH recorded the highest-ever IPL total, Mumbai Indians mounted a firm challenge in the chase.
With nine overs to go and two right-hand batters in the middle, Hardik Pandya sensed an opportunity to get left-arm spinner Shams Mulani in the game. That played into the hands of Klassen, though, who is a spin-basher. In T20s since January 2022, no batter who has faced at least 500 balls had a higher strike rate against spin than Klassen’s 174.38 before the start of the game.
True to form, he smacked Mulani over long-off to get his rhythm going. Klassen then hit a six each off Hardik and Jasprit Bumrah as SRH crossed 200 in the 15th over. Aiden Markram, at the other end, hit a six and a four but was happy to give the strike to his South Africa team-mate. Klassen brought up his fifty off 22 balls, which was only the third quickest on the night.
Klaasen hit two successive sixes in the last over bowled by Mulani to take Sunrisers past RCB’s record score. SRH added 63 in the last four overs to post the fourth-highest total in all men’s T20s.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan set the tone
Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma put on 56 in just 3.2 overs to give Mumbai Indians the perfect start as they took a shot at glory. Kishan hit four sixes and two fours in his 13 balls before falling to Shahbaz Ahmed. Sharma took on Pat Cummins, flicking him for a six, but fell pulling him next ball to give SRH a boost.
Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan kicked off Mumbai’s reply in fine fashion. Rohit muscled Bhuvneshwar Kumar down the ground before hitting Jaydev Unadkat – brought in for T Natarajan, who had a niggle – for back-to-back sixes. Kishan meanwhile took 23 off Bhuvneshwar’s second over, hitting him for a four and three sixes. Kishan then slogged Shahbaz Ahmed to deep midwicket, but Rohit kept going.
He whipped Pat Cummins’ second ball over midwicket before miscuing a pull to fall for 26 off just 12. Only twice in the IPL has Rohit scored more – 37 in April 2015 vs RCB, and 27 in May 2015 vs Chennai Super Kings – off the first 12 balls he faced.
Tilak Varma leads the way for Mumbai Indians.
Through the middle overs, Tilak Varma took it upon himself to keep the momentum going. Along with a fluent Naman Dhir, he added 84 in just 37 balls. That partnership set the chase up once again as Mumbai Indians started to give SRH something to think about seriously. Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma also kept Mumbai abreast with the required rate. They found boundaries regularly, with Tilak leading the charge, and added 84 off 37 for the third wicket. But once they fell within 21 balls of each other, MI lost momentum.
A chase that fizzles out
As the innings progressed, the track began to favour the bowlers who managed to take the pace off the ball. Both Cummins and Jaydev Unadkat exploited this to perfection. With MI needing 68 in the last three overs and a well-set Tim David still there alongside Hardik Pandya, the chase was still on. However, the pace duo managed to get the better of them by taking the pace off to give SRH a memorable win. Tim David managed to hit a few into the stands, but by then it was too late.
Sixes were being hit for fun. Runs were flowing at a breakneck pace. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking you were watching a video game. The carnage in Hyderabad resulted in an 11-year-old IPL record falling, RCB’s seemingly insurmountable total of 263 from 2013 falling by the wayside thanks to a breathtaking, collective show from the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters.
They notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL – 277 for 3 – but then, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude. Eventually, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.
Never were more runs scored in a men’s T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men’s T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Hardik Pandya the loosing skipper said : Not really (thought SRH would score 277 at the toss). Wicket was good, 277 no matter how bad or good you bowl, if the opposition has to score that much, they have batted well. They (the bowlers) were good, it was tough out there, almost 500 runs were scored and the wicket was helping the batters, we could have done a few things here and there, but having said that, we have a young bowling attack and we will learn.
If the ball goes this many times into the crowd, you will need time to get the overs done. Everyone (the batters) looked good and it is just a matter of time before we put things right. He (Kwena Maphaka) was fantastic, coming into his first game and getting overwhelmed, he was alright and backed his skillset, just needs some game time.
Pat Cummins the winning skipper said : That was insane. The ball was really pinging around. Not until we bowled, it got a bit too close for comfort. They found a boundary whenever they needed it, but we finished it off well. (On Abhishek Sharma) Really impressive, in IPL you play with a lot of pressure but he plays with great freedom.
(On plans in first innings) You never play for 270, but we wanted to be positive and be aggressive, take the game on. It was a good wicket, so we have to suck it up knowing we would go for a few boundaries. What’s important is to have clear plans with the ball. (On home crowd) Amazing atmosphere in the ground, enjoyed playing here, was incredibly loud.
Abhishek Sharma for his whirlwind innings of 63 was Player of the Match said : I said in the previous interview too, the domestic season gives us a lot of confidence. The message for the batters is simple – go out and express yourself. The plan was to attack, I enjoyed batting with Head, he’s one of my favorite batters, I admire him.
He told me to go for it if it was in my zone. I’m happy to be getting my chances, doesn’t matter what position I’m playing. I had a chance to talk to Brian Lara last night, that helped me massively. I would rather bowl more in practice than bat, trying my best with bowling as well.
What a wild game of cricket!! The 35,000 or so at the stadium are a part of a historic game, a T20 game with the most sixes ever and the most runs scored collectively. Let the margin of defeat not deceive you, because this game was a lot closer till the second strategic time-out. Mumbai Indians got off to a solid start, as Rohit Sharma went on the attack against Jaydev Unadkat, while Kishan took down Bhuvneshwar Kumar from the other end.
The openers got to 56 after just 3.2 overs, before Kishan holed out to Shahbaz. Rohit followed him shortly, as he skewed his pull shot against a Pat Cummins bouncer. Mumbai however rebuild with Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma, as the two youngsters played aggressive cricket to keep the asking rate in check.
Varma attacked the spinners, scoring sixes for fun to get a fifty. However, the SRH skipper Cummins returned after the time-out, and got the much needed wicket of the southpaw. Hardik and Tim David huffed and puffed after, but SRH’s pacers were superb – hiding the ball outside off and offering no pace. The chase never took shape after that, as MI lose their second game as well.
Fortunately, this happened on a cricket field because otherwise some of these batters today could be charged with battery with a deadly weapon, for the way they bludgeoned the bowlers today. It started with Travis Heads fastest fifty for SRH, which was usurped by Abhishek Sharma in a matter of balls.
And then the two South Africans showed no mercy to the MI bowlers, with Klaasen scoring 80 off just 34 balls. MI kept in line of the chase as the top four of Rohit, Kishan, Varma and Naman Dhir all smashed sixes for fun. However, at the end of the day 277 runs were a bit too many.
Life comes at you fast if you are Hardik Pandya. Last year this time, he had his feet up captaining a champion franchise. But he chose a different route for himself by getting traded back to Mumbai, splitting the whole fan base right down the middle.
He revels being cricket’s pantomime villain, and now he’s had two games where he could have been the hero in the chase but walked off begrudgingly in the final over after failing on both occasions. Not quite the homecoming he would have expected, but there are still 12 more group games and MI have never been fast starters.