On a night that was a bowler’s nightmare, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians served up an exhibition of ball-striking as the former eventually clinched the high-scoring affair 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 run-fest for the ages at Hyderabad.
If Head was barbaric against the pacers upfront, Abhishek Sharma was ruthless against the bowlers to follow. Abhishek’s pyrotechnics were so brutal that he ended up breaking Head’s record – set barely 20 minutes earlier – for the quickest fifty for SRH in IPL, racing to the landmark in just 16 balls. After 10 overs, SRH’s total of 148 was the best ever by any team in IPL at the halfway mark.
Heinrich Klaasen came out all guns blazing to build on the platform, remaining unbeaten on 80 in a consolidating 116-run stand with Aiden Markram. With that SRH had bludgeoned their way to the highest-ever franchise T20 score of 277.
After SRH posted the highest-ever IPL total, Mumbai Indians mounted a stiff challenge in the chase. Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma put on 56 in just 3.2 overs to give Mumbai Indians the start the doctor ordered as they took a shot at glory. 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.
However, as the innings progressed, the track began to favour the bowlers who managed to take the pace off the ball. With MI requiring 68 in the last three overs and Tim David going strong alongside Hqrdik Pandya, the chase was on. However, the pace duo of Pat Cummins and Cummins and Jaydev Unadkat managed to get the better of the well-set duo to give SRH a memorable win.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 277/3 (Heinrich Klaasen 80*, Abhishek Sharma 63, Travis Head 62) beat Mumbai Indians 246/5 (Tilak Varma 64, Tim David 42*) by 31
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