Sunrisers Hyderabad flexed their muscles with the bat once again to score north of 250 runs for the third consecutive occasion, storming their way into a fourth consecutive triumph at the 2024 Indian Premier League (IPL). The Pat Cummins-led team defeated Delhi Capitals by 67 runs at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday (20 April), where, defending a total of 266/7, they bowled the hosts out for 199.
Considering they were chasing what was the third-highest total in IPL’s history, Delhi had no option but to swing their bat at everything white and spherical. Prithvi Shaw did that successfully for a brief while, hitting four consecutive deliveries, before losing his wicket on the fifth.
In the next over, Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed David Warner and it seemed that Delhi would not be able to make a case for themselves in the chase. Except, that was not the case, as the third over saw Jake Fraser-McGurk taking the attack to Washington Sundar and scoring 30 runs.
At the end of the powerplay, Delhi’s score read 88-2, and with their scoring rate being higher than the asking rate, it seemed that the match would go down the wire. But things changed when Mayank Markande dismissed both Fraser-McGruk and Abishek Porel in his first couple of overs.
Tristan Stubbs could not have an influence on this game, merely scoring 10 runs before losing his wicket to Nitish Kumar Reddy, while Delhi’s tail of Lalith Yadav, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar combined to score 13 runs. Rishabh Pant, despite his initial struggles, hit a few delightful shots to get to 44, while for Hyderabad, T Natarajan picked up a four-wicket haul.
Hurricane Head Leads Hyderabad's Hysteria
Earlier, Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma brought an out-of-the-world hurricane of ultra-aggressive batting by smashing 24 boundaries in their 131-run opening stand, as SRH scored 266/7.
Pushed into batting first, Head’s onslaught began by smashing Khaleel Ahmed for a six and two fours, before Abhishek clipped one for another boundary in a 19-run opening over. Head then pulled Lalit Yadav for back-to-back backfoot sixes, before cutting hard and being helped by a misfield from Anrich Nortje to get a four, with Abhishek lofting inside-out for another boundary as 21 runs came off the second over.
Nortje was next to come in the firing line, as Head hit him cleanly for four boundaries, before getting his fifty in just 16 balls, by whipping over deep mid-wicket for six, as 22 runs came off the third over. It was also the third time Head reached half-century in power-play of IPL 2024, also the joint-fastest fifty by an SRH batter in IPL.
Abhishek pulled and smacked Lalit for two sixes, before Head slapped him down the ground for third six of the fourth over. Abhishek greeted Kuldeep with loft and pull to hit a brace of sixes, before ending the over by dancing down the pitch to hit another maximum, as SRH crossed 100 in just five overs, also the fastest century by a team in T20s.
Head smacked Mukesh Kumar four straight boundaries, before ending the powerplay with a loft over long-off for six as SRH made 125/0, setting a new record for highest-ever score in power-play of T20s. The carnage seemed to have no stopping once Abhishek lofted Kuldeep on the first ball post power-play.
But after that, the script flipped in favour of DC. Abhishek went for a drive off Kuldeep, but couldn’t keep it down and Axar made a dive at extra cover to take a sharp catch. One brought two for Kuldeep as Aiden Markram hit straight to Axar again.
Despite Klaasen smacking him for two sixes down the ground and over long-on, Kuldeep bounced back by having Head, who didn’t get much strike after power-play, heave to a running long-on, and dismiss him for 89 off 32 balls. Axar further pulled DC back in the match by castling Klaasen.
Nitish dazzled with a picture-perfect cover-drive off Khaleel and collectively hit four more pleasing boundaries with Shahbaz as SRH crossed 200 in 14.5 overs. Reddy would again dazzle with a reverse-scoop off Kuldeep for six, before holing out to long-on, giving the spinner incredible figures of 4-55.
Shahbaz swung cleanly to hit Khaleel for back-to-back sixes, while Samad also took a maximum off him as 20 runs came off the 19th over for SRH to raise their 250 for the third time in this season. Shahbaz then hit a four and six on last two balls of the innings to get his maiden IPL fifty, as SRH’s batting carnage finally ended.
(With inputs from IANS)
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