Hyderabad eye 300 after SA batting heroics

New Delhi — After breaking the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) highest total record for a second time this season by racking up 287 runs on Monday, Sunrisers Hyderabad are now looking to breach the 300-mark, their in-form opener Travis Head says.

Hyderabad set a new mark in March by posting 277/3 against Mumbai Indians but bettered that by making 287/3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Pat Cummins-led side winning the match by 25 runs.

Head set the tone against Bengaluru with a fiery 102 off 41 balls while South African Heinrich Klaasen made a breezy 67 off 31 balls. Proteas teammate Aiden Markram hit 32 not out off 17.

“Our total needs a three in front of it, does it now?” Head said at the end of the Hyderabad innings on Monday.

“We’ve got guys like Klaasen, [Abdul] Samad and Nitish [Kumar Reddy]. We’ve got some power through the middle, and we want to keep just putting the foot down as much as we can. We know that’s not always guaranteed, but at the moment I think we’re setting it up really well in each game and getting to the score we need.”

Former champions Hyderabad are now fourth on the points table after their fourth win in six matches.

Hyderabad’s total was the second-highest in a men’s T20 behind Nepal’s 314/3 against Mongolia in 2023, and the highest in a franchise tournament.

The combined total of 549 runs was the highest in a T20 match.

Bengaluru, led by South African Faf du Plessis, dropped to the bottom of the 10-team league after their sixth defeat in seven matches.

Their Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who did not play against Hyderabad, subsequently announced he was taking a break to get his body right after his poor start to the season, which included three ducks in six innings.

“I went to Faf and the coaches after the last game and said I felt it was probably time we tried someone else,” Maxwell said. “I think now is actually a good time for me to give myself a bit of a mental and physical break, get my body right. If I’m required to get in during the tournament, I can hopefully get back into a really solid mental and physical space where I can still have an impact.” 

Reuters