CHENNAI: Blistering half-centuries from Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen helped Sunrisers Hyderabad post the highest team total in the history of Indian Premier League, 277/3 and beat Mumbai Indians by 31 runs in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
The previous record was held by Royal Challengers Bengaluru when they scored 263/5 against Pune Warriors in 2013.
Chasing a record total, Mumbai got off to a good start themselves racing to 50/0 in just three overs. Ishan Kishan, smashing 34 off 12, looked set to do what Head did, but Shahbaz Ahmed got the left-hander in the fourth over.
Skipper Pat Cummins came on to dismiss Rohit Sharma in the very next over and put MI on the backfoot, but local lad Tilak Varma kept the chase going. He hit two sixes off Umran Malik and followed it up with another against Mayank Markande.
Against Shahbaz, Tilak smashed three more sixes in the over on his way to a 24-ball fifty. Once Naman Dhir got out, captain Hardik Pandya started with consecutive boundaries, but he could not sustain the onslaught. That Tilak got out shortly after did not help either.
Tim David came in and hit two sixes and a four off Bhuvaneshwar Kumar. He followed it up against Jaydev Unadkat as well, but it was too little too late. Hardik got out for 24 in 20 balls but David (42 n.o off 22) and Romario Shepherd (15 n.o off 6) tried their best. However, it was not enough as MI eventually fell short by 31 runs.
Earlier, put into bat, Head did not take any time to get things going. The Australian, playing his first match for the franchise, welcomed Kwena Maphaka with a boundary. He then went on an onslaught, taking two fours off Hardik Pandya.
When Maphaka came back, Head went ballistic hitting two sixes and as many fours in four deliveries. While Jasprit Bumrah bowled a quiet over, Head hit a hattrick off fours against Pandya and before you know the Australian had reached his fifty in 18 balls. Once Mayank Agarwal got out, Abhikesh Sharma joined Head in the carnage as the two left-handers did not leave any stone unturned. With Hardik saving Bumrah for the death, Head and Sharma went berserk.
Sharma hit three sixes in a Piyush Chawla over and the youngster brought up his half-century in just 16 balls as SRH finished ten overs with 148/2.
When it looked like SRH are going to go past 300, Chawla dismissed Sharma for 63. In came Klaasen, who along with Aiden Markram, kept the momentum going. The duo did not take any risk against Bumrah, but were happy to pick up boundaries against everyone else. When Maphaka came back for his last over, he was hit for two fours and a six and in the 18th over Klaasen brought up his half century in 23 balls. In the final over by Shams Mulani, Klaasen hit two sixes and a four as SRH finished with 277/3 in 20 overs. Klaasen remained unbeaten on 80 of 34 along with Markram who scored 42 off 28.