When you have already piled up 161/3 after 11 overs and Henrich Klaasen is still to bat, you can imagine the challenge for the bowling side. Mumbai Indians bowlers didn’t know what hit them against hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday.
In an astonishing display of hitting, powered by Heinrich Klaasen‘s unbeaten 80 (34b; 4×4, 7×6), SRH amassed 277/3, the highest total ever in IPL, going past Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 263/5 set in 2013 against the now defunct Pune Warriors India. Mumbai Indians were then restricted to 246/5 as SRH won by 31 runs. It is also the highest aggregate ever in a T20 game.
MI captain Hardik Pandya put SRH into bat and the carnage began. In a dream batting performance, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma added 68 (23 balls) for the second wicket, Aiden Markram and Abhishek Sharma put on 48 (19b) for the third wicket before Klaasen and Markram plundered 116* (55b) in the slog overs.
The packed Uppal Stadium was treated to a run feast. There were records galore. Within a few overs after opener Head hit the fastest fifty for SRH, getting to the mark in 18 balls, young Abhishek Sharma bettered it, reaching it in 16 balls.
Facing the impossible task of scoring at nearly 14 an over, the onus was on openers Rohit Sharma, playing his 200th game for MI, and Ishan Kishan. The openers set about the task aggressively to take MI to 50 in three overs. Spinner Shabhaz Ahmed got the breakthrough with the wicket of Ishan in the fourth over. Rohit also fell soon, at the total of 66, but Naman Dhir batted with aggression to maintain the tempo. Matching SRH’s start, MI’s 100 was up in 7.3 overs.
Swashbuckling left-hand batter Tilak Varma then smashed three sixes off Shahbaz in the 10th over. It was neck and neck. The 150 was up in 10.3 overs. But the seasoned seamer Jaydev Unadkat broke the third wicket partnership by deceiving Dhir with clever change of pace. Captain Pat Cummins got the big breakthrough by inducing a miscued pull off Varma. Pandya couldn’t find his hitting range as MI lost momentum late in the chase.
Known as slow starters, MI’s campaign has got off with two defeats. They lost the first game against Gujarat Titans from a winning position. It was SRH’s first win as the pattern of home teams winning in this IPL continued.
HEAD’S ASSAULT
Klaasen notched up the top score, but the real damage was done by opener Head and No 3 Abhishek.
An IPL game on a batting pitch is surely not the place for a young pace bowler to make his debut. Clearly, MI’s think tank got their matchups wrong with their decision to pit 17-year-old South Africa pacer Kwena Maphake against Head in his first ever game. It proved a forgettable IPL debut for the star of the recent Under-19 World Cup. Given the new ball, the left-arm pacer ended with figures of 4-0-66-0.
There was nothing wrong with Maphake’s line and length; he was clocking good speed at 140 plus, but Head simply improvised.
In the third over, the Aussie World Cup star went after him. He manufactured the first six over wide long-on by adjusting the body and making room to free his arm. Next ball, the pacer played into the batter’s hand by pulling back the length and Head pounced on it to cart him high into the mid-wicket stand. He came back for the 10th over and it was even more tougher against Abhishek Sharma, conceding for two fours and two sixes. His fourth over, 17th of the innings, cost 18 runs.
Maphake’s team just didn’t recover from the opening assault. Captain Pandya was short of options, having made the mistake of not
opening the bowling with Jasprit Bumrah. Even his most experienced spinner Piyush Chawla had an off day. Abhishek pulled him for three sixes in his first over. By the 12th over, SRH were 170 plus on the board.
The only positive for MI at that stage was that they still had three overs left of Bumrah. MI had held back their pace ace for Klaasen, but the SRH batter played smart. With the platform set by his top-order, he didn’t have to take any risk against Bumrah.
Without going into overdrive, Klaasen helped himself to his second successive fifty, getting to the mark in 23 balls.
He had an ideal foil in Markram. They targetted the other bowlers to add 75 runs in the last five overs.
When the 250 came up in 18.4 overs, the record for the highest IPL total held by RCB for over 10 years was in danger. Klaasen helped beak that in the final over of the innings bowled by left-arm spinner Shams Mulani.
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