CHENNAI: Travis Head smashed a 39-ball century as Sunrisers Hyderabad broke their own record (277) to post the highest total in the history of the Indian Premier League — 287/3 — against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Monday. In reply, RCB's batting unit, especially Dinesh Karthik, tried their best, but they could only manage 262/7, falling short by 25 runs.
Knowing the improbable task at hand, both Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli started positively — racing to 21/0 in two overs. When Shahbaz Ahmed was brought on to counter the matchup, Du Plessis hit him for two sixes and a boundary. Kohli, for his part, took apart Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan, striking at over 200 as RCB finished the powerplay at 79/0.
Two balls after that came the first breakthrough as Mayank Markande cleaned up Kohli for 42 from 20 balls. Will Jacks was ran out in the next over, and Rajat Patidar fell shortly after, but Du Plessis kept the chase possible with regular boundaries. After being hit for a four and a six, Pat Cummins removed the RCB skipper. Saurav Chauhan, too, fell, but Dinesh Karthik went on a carnage.
The TN batter took on everyone who came his way, hitting sixes and fours across the park. Such was his frenzy that he made the chase looking seemingly possible for a brief while. Karthik also looked like he might score a century himself, but Cummins and Natarajan challenged him enough to keep the run rate at check. In the end, Karthik got out for 83 from 35 balls and RCB fell short by 25 runs.
Put into bat first, Sunrisers did Sunrisers things. Abhishek Sharma uppercut Will Jacks while Head hit a six and four off Reece Topley. Abhishek, meanwhile, flicked the left-arm seamer over the ropes.
When Lockie Ferguson came on, Head hit the pacer for two sixes and a four. Yash Dayal also was not spared — 20 runs came off the sixth over as SRH finished the powerplay with 76/0.
Even as Abhishek got out, Head, along with Klaasen, kept the momentum going. They ensured at least one boundary came in each over, and when Vyshak Vijaykumar came back, he was hit for three fours by Head and in the process, the Australian brought up his century in 39 balls.
Soon, he got out, with 102 runs from 41 balls, but Klaasen did not slow down. He smashed Mahipal Lomror for two sixes and then, with Aiden Markram, collected 16 runs off Vyshak, getting to his fifty in just 23 balls. He got out in the same over trying to slice the New Zealander over point, and RCB managed to sneak in one quiet over. After 18 overs, SRH were 241/3, needing 38 runs to break their own record of highest score ever in the IPL.
That is when both Markram and Abdul Samad went berserk. Topley's penultimate over read 1, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4 with Samad hitting all five boundaries. Another 21 runs came in the final over as SRH finished with 287/3. Samad was unbeaten on 37 from 10 balls with Markram (32 from 17).