After Travis Head smashed his maiden IPL century in 39 deliveries, Dinesh Karthik waged a lone battle for Royal Challengers Bengaluru, smashing 83 in just 35 deliveries. However, Pat Cummins' three-fer proved decisive as it helped Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 25 runs in Match 30 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Monday night.
It was a run-fest to remember for all T20 fans as the match produced 549 runs, which is the highest aggregate total for a T20 match.
Sunrisers Hyderabad demonstrated just how brutal contemporary T20 batting may look against Royal Challengers Bangalore. They set an IPL record for the highest total with 287 for 3, breaking their own previous record of 277. Travis Head, who oversaw Australia's victories in both the World Test Championship and the ODI World Cup final in the past year, issued another cautionary note to bowlers ahead of the T20 World Cup. He hit a career-high 102 off 41 balls against RCB with nine fours and eight sixes, following up on his quick-fire knock of 62 from 24 balls against the Mumbai Indians earlier this season.
Heinrich Klaasen, for whom hitting a six is as easy as eating a cookie, pumped 67 from 31 deliveries. Of those runs, 42 were scored via sixes. Sunrisers scored 46 runs in the last two overs as Abdul Samad, who finished on 37 not out off ten balls, transformed into Romario Shepherd.
It was all so predictable and repetitious that it nearly became monotonous. It was a perfect day for batsmen as Sunrisers hammered 22 sixes, another IPL record, and RCB struck 16 of their own. In this match, Sunrisers Hyderabad elevated T20 batting to a new level. It was impressive that they hit 41 boundaries in the innings. There has only ever been one IPL match where a team has hit more boundaries; the well-known 2013 encounter between Pune Warriors and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. On that particular occasion, Chris Gayle contributed 30 out of 42 boundaries.
The SRH batters' onslaught was so relentless that, on average, only 1.76 balls were separating any two boundaries in the innings. There has only been one instance in IPL history of a 20-over innings being more explosive -- when Lucknow Super Giants reached 257 against Punjab Kings in Mohali in 2023, they hit the same amount of boundaries in their innings.
But in this match, SRH outperformed LSG in terms of how frequently they struck sixes. With 22 sixes, SRH scored eight more than LSG did. In the innings, there was only a 3.80 ball difference between any two sixes. In a 20-over IPL innings, this is the greatest "pulse rate" of sixes ever observed.
Opening the batting for Hyderabad, Head went off to absolute carnage and reached a century in 39 deliveries with the help of nine fours and eight sixes. It was also his maiden IPL century. However, he departed after scoring 102 off 41 deliveries on Ferguson's bowling. Ferguson went for a knuckleball on the third ball of the 13th over, and Head sent it straight into the air.
This was the fourth fastest century in the history of the IPL only behind Chris Gayle, Yusuf Pathan, and David Miller. Head broke the record of his countrymate, David Warner, who smashed a 43 deliveries century against Kolkata Knight Riders back in 2017.
SRH were 171/2 after 13 overs as Aiden Markram joined his South Africa team-mate Klaasen in the middle.
RCB entered this match without a single specialist spinner. They went for the off-spin of Will Jacks, who was taken for 32 in his three overs. RCB's pace bowlers Topley, Dayal, Ferguson, and Vyshak were belted for 137 off ten overs. Mahipal Lomror, bowling the 14th over, was smashed for 18 runs as SRH reached 189 for 2.
The 15th over ended with Heinrich Klaasen clubbing a six over the bowler Vijaykumar Vyshak's head, capitalising on a low full toss to send it bang into the sightscreen, reaching his half-century in just 23 balls. Ferguson decided to end the 17th over with a wide full toss outside off. Klaasen looked to simply use the pace of the bowler and guided it beyond point but could only get it as far as the fielder inside the circle.
It was a simple catch for Vyshak, and Klaasen walked back after 67 from 31 balls. Klassen and Markram added 66 in just 27 deliveries for the third wicket. Abdul Samad's late carnage of 37 in 10 deliveries helped SRH break their own record of the highest team total in IPL history after they posted a total of 287 for 3 in 20 overs.
Defending the total, Hyderabad brought in Mayank Markande as an Impact substitute for Travis Head at the start of RCB's chase of IPL's highest total. Like RCB, SRH too gave the first over to spinner Abhishek Sharma. Just the fifth ball of the over and Abhishek Sharma dropped Virat Kohli on the score of 1, who had forcefully played it back to the bowler. Bhuvneshwar Kumar came in for the second over, and Kohli lofted barely over the leaping short-third fielder got the boundary and then smashed the last ball for the maximum.
SRH were 76 without loss after the Power-play and RCB bettered that with 79/0 thanks to their openers. Kohli lofted Pat Cummins over his head to end the Power-play with a boundary. He was on 42 off 19 balls, with six fours and two sixes. Du Plessis also raced away to 37 from 17, including five fours and two sixes.
SRH got their Impact Substitute into action, and he delivered straight away. Mayank Markande tossed the googly up, and dipped on a length on off stump, as it drifted in. Kohli went for the slog sweep but was beaten by the turn and the slowness of the ball. RCB were 80 for 1 after 6.2 overs, with Kohli gone for 42 off 20 deliveries.
The RCB captain reached his fifty in 23 balls off the fifth ball of the eighth over, which was bowled by Jaydev Unadkat. He reached out far away from his body and managed to slash it over a short third. Next ball, he drove down the ground, only for the ball to tickle Unadkat's hands and flick the bails at the non-striker's end. Will Jacks was out of the crease and RCB lost their second wicket.
In came Rajat Patidar and thumped his second ball for a massive six over Markande's head. Two legal balls later, he heaved across the line only to find the fielder at wide long-on. RCB were 111 for 3 after nine overs. Yet again a double strike came from the skipper Cummins, who got du Plessis for 62 and Saurav Chauhan for a duck. RCB scrambled as they lost the last four wickets in just 13 legal deliveries.
After RCB's numbers 3,4 and 5 departed for 7, 9, and 0 respectively, Dinesh Karthik provided some entertainment to the crowd. He added 59 runs with Mahipal Lomror, out of which the latter contributed only 19. Lomror hit two sixes, but Karthik kept pumping boundaries from the other end. Cummins came back to bowl the 15th over and had Lomror chopping on. RCB were 187/6, with five overs left. Karthik then joined hands with Anuj Rawat and added 63 in just 28 deliveries, out of which the latter contributed only 8.
T. Natarajan, bowling the last over of his spell. got the prized wicket of Karthik, who got out after scoring 83 off just 35 deliveries. With RCB needing 44 of last over Rawat smashed 18 runs as Hyderabad defeated Bengaluru by 25 runs in the highest aggregate for a T20 match with a tally of 549 runs.
Brief score:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 287/3 in 20 overs (Travis Head 102, Heinrich Klassen 67; Lockie Ferguson 2-58, Reece Topley 1-68) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 262/7 in 20 overs (Dinesh Karthik 83, Faf du Plessis 62; Pat Cummins 3-43, Mayank Markande 2-46) by 25 runs.
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