Between them, Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen broke records, Mumbai Indians’ hearts, and T20 batting rules
Vishal Dikshit28-Mar-20241:43
Moody: Head set the tone, and Sunrisers just didn’t look back
If, before Wednesday, you were asked which team would break Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s record total of 263 for 5 from IPL 2013, who would you have picked?Not a team that has traditionally been known as a bowling powerhouse, surely?And yet, it’s Sunrisers Hyderabad. And the great bowling team of the past has not only broken the record by a distance, they have topped 200 in back-to-back matches in IPL 2024.Related
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And even if you had guessed Sunrisers, it would have been because of the presence of Henrich Klaasen, given his T20 strike rate of 193 since the start of 2023. He did top-score in Sunrisers’ 277 with a scorching 80 off 34, but it was the belligerence of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma that “set the tone” – in Klaasen’s words – for a magical night in Hyderabad.Sunrisers were seemingly under pressure coming into this season – they had finished IPL 2023 at the bottom of the table with just four wins from 14 games; they have a new leader with no T20 captaincy experience; they hosted Mumbai Indians knowing that home teams had won all the previous matches this season. When Sunrisers arrived in Hyderabad, they knew they had won just one out of seven home games last season.Sometimes, that sort of pressure can free you up, and when it’s so early in the tournament, you can also free your arms more easily, especially on the flattest of pitches. It helps if the team management gives you a “clear message” to “go out and express yourself”.Head may not need such messages, but it must have done wonders for 23-year-old Abhishek, who had seen Head cart the ball around in the first four overs to race to 32 off 12. When IPL debutant Kwena Maphaka offered pace, Head sent him for a 22-run over. When Abhishek joined him in the fifth over, and Hardik Pandya tried different lengths and pace, Head smashed the Mumbai Indians captain for three fours in a row. And when Jasprit Bumrah was not going to get a second over in the powerplay, Head and Abhishek went all guns blazing.By the end of the powerplay, Head had registered Sunrisers’ fastest IPL fifty off just 18 balls. Head is one of Abhishek’s favourite batters, and the infectious energy was passed on when Abhishek smashed his second ball for a six. Abhishek revealed after the game that Head had told him that if he felt like going after the ball, even if it’s the first ball, “just go for it”. And he did!2:42
Rapid Fire: An absolute nightmare for bowlers
After an 81-run powerplay, Sunrisers’ new record in the phase, Hardik fed the two left-hand batters legspin in the form of Piyush Chawla, and that meant only one thing – the ball sailing beyond the leg-side boundary, which is where Abhishek’s three sixes in that over landed. Sunrisers had crossed 100 in just seven overs. They were not just rewriting record books, they were smashing them to pieces.This batting duo was making the most of not just a flat track but also on a bowling attack that had an IPL debutant, one playing his second IPL game, one spinner turning the ball into them, and the best T20 bowler not bowling to them.Logic suggests that Bumrah should have bowled after Head fell to Gerald Coetzee in the 15-run eighth over, but Hardik persisted with himself and the 17-year-old IPL debutant Maphaka. Abhishek was in his groove by now, and when he clobbered a slower ball into the sight screen, he had broken Head’s record of the fastest fifty for Sunrisers – off 18 balls, set barely 20 minutes earlier – by getting there in 16 balls.”The message was simple for all the batters in the meeting we had before this match, that everyone just go and express yourself. That’s a very positive message,” Abhishek said at the press conference after the game. “If you get it from your captain and coach, I think that’s really supportive for all the batters.”The run rate was almost kissing 15 at the halfway mark and there was still no Bumrah, who, it appeared, was being saved for Klaasen. But when Klaasen came out at the start of the 12th over, there was still no Bumrah. Instead, Hardik brought on a bowler playing just his second IPL game: left-arm spinner Shams Mulani. Possibly because there were two right-hand batters in then, Klaasen and Aiden Markram. But this was despite Klaasen’s phenomenal record against spin in the IPL. Klaasen doesn’t need an invitation from spinners to hit sixes, and he launched Mulani down the ground for the first of his seven sixes off the second ball he faced.By the time Bumrah got the ball again, Sunrisers had soared to 173 in just 12 overs. The match was gone by then because even if Bumrah bowled three maidens after that – which might be beyond even his magical powers – Sunrisers would target the other 30 balls to still get to a daunting total. Hypothesis aside, Head and Abhishek had set the stage so beautifully and brutally for the rest that Klaasen’s seven sixes for his 34-ball 80 seemed routine rather than jaw-dropping.3:16
Moody baffled by Mumbai’s use of Bumrah
It has to be said that for a long time, Mumbai Indians were seriously in the chase of 278. Seventy-six runs in the powerplay, 100 off 45 balls, and sixes flying off the bat like in a highlights package.At 165 for 3 after 12 overs, when their run rate was 13.75 and the asking rate 14.12, it looked not just possible but achievable for Mumbai Indians. But that’s when Pat Cummins proved that despite the lack of T20 captaincy pedigree, he had the smarts – the World Test Championship title and the ODI World Cup trophy are evidence of that.Unlike Hardik, Cummins brought on his key bowlers when it mattered. He summoned his most experienced quick – Bhuvneshwar Kumar – before the death overs for a third over that went for just five runs. And when Cummins himself dismissed the dangerous Tilak Varma with a slow bouncer in a three-run over, he turned to Jaydev Unadkat for his knowhow of bowling mainly slower balls on a pitch where lack of pace was tough to score off. Unadkat’s five-run over continued a streak of 16 boundary-less balls and the asking rate had shot to 22 as Mumbai needed 88 off 24 balls.”Credit to SRH, they bowled pretty well there at the end, taking the pace off on a slowing pitch,” Tim David said at the press conference. “It can be pretty hard to hit to the big side so that’s credit to them.”The bowling was expected to do it, but with this new, improved, swashbuckling batting, Sunrisers have sent a message no opposition wants to show two blue ticks for.
