Hyderabad made new record
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) beat Mumbai Indians (MI) by 31 runs in yesterday’s IPL 2024 game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad. Sent into bat after losing the toss, SRH rewrote history to notch up the highest team total in the IPL – 277-3. They surpassed Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s 263/5 against Pune Warriors in Bengaluru in April 2013. Mumbai went hard in the chase but finished on 246-5. Abhishek Sharma won the player of the match because of his sensational innings.
Hyderabad Batters were insane
SRH were sensational with the bat right from the word go. They were aided by MI’s fielders, as Tim David dropped Travis Head off Hardik Pandya on the first ball of the second over. Head (62 off 24) made Mumbai pay by clobbering IPL debutant Kwena Maphaka for two sixes and two fours off consecutive deliveries in the third over. There was a brief respite for MI as Mayank Agarwal (11) top-edged a pull off Pandya towards mid-on. Head, though, slammed the last three balls of the over for boundaries. The left-hander raced away to 50 off 18 as SRH ended the powerplay on 81-1. In the next over, Abhishek Sharma (63 off 23) slammed three sixes off Piyush Chawla to lift Sunrisers Hyderabad past the 100-run mark. Head’s terrific innings ended when he was caught at deep-backward point off Gerald Coetzee.
Abhishek Sharma and Henrich Klaasen played special knocks
At the other end, though, Abhishek raced to a 16-ball fifty with consecutive sixes off Maphaka. His stunning knock ended when he was caught at deep midwicket off Chawla. Heinrich Klaasen (80* off 34) added to Mumbai Indians’ woes, clobbering four fours and seven sixes. He featured in an unbroken 116-run stand for the fourth wicket with fellow Proteas batter Aiden Markram (42* off 28). Klaasen brought up SRH’s 200 by pulling Jasprit Bumrah over deep square leg for a maximum. The destructive keeper-batter ended Hyderabad’s innings on a high, hammering a four and two sixes off Shams Mulani in the last over.
Mumbai Indians fought hard but failed
Chasing a record target of 278, Mumbai Indians got off to a blazing start, as their openers added 56 in 3.2 overs. The partnership was broken when Ishan Kishan (34 off 13) miscued a slog-sweep off Shahbaz Ahmed towards deep midwicket. Rohit Sharma (26 off 12) also fell after getting a start, top-edging an attempted big hit off SRH captain Pat Cummins. With a huge total to chase, MI batters had no option but to keep going after the bowling. They did not do a poor job, as Tilak Varma top-scored with a valiant 64 off 34, slamming two fours and six sixes. Naman Dhir (30 off 14) and Tim David (42* off 22) also chipped in, but MI were always waging a losing battle.
Kevin Varchand