At the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in this city on Wednesday, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Lucknow Super Giants by ten wickets and achieved the target of 166 runs in just 9.4 overs thanks to the crushing efforts of Travis Head (30 balls, 89) and Abhishek Sharma (75 off 38).
The LSG bowling attack was utterly decimated by Abhishek and Travis.
In the power play overs in IPL season, SRH has scored at an economy rate of 11.37 and has again reached 100 in less than six overs. Expectedly, LSG began their bowling with Yash Thakur and Krishnappa Gowtham, but SRH got off to a fast start.
After Travis smashes Gowtham for 22 runs, Abhishek smacks Thakur for four fours.
Both batsmen were in a destructive mindset to help SRH chase down the mark in less than 10 overs, thus the hitting never ceased even after the fifties.
Head struck for a half-century in just 16 balls this time. Head was simply picking his spots and sending them there regardless of the pitching direction or pace, and it was truly incredible hitting. A back-foot off-drive by Ravi Bishnoi for a massive six over long-off was one of the great ones.
Naveen-ul-Haq then took a swat down the wicket right after mid-off. He was now 58 off 18 and has smashed the most fours in this IPL season in addition to surpassing 500 for the tournament. In five overs, SRH was 87 for zero. That was now four times the size of LSG.
Only seven times in T20 cricket history has a team scored 100 or more in the powerplay; this IPL season, SRH has the two highest scores. SRH reached 120 for 0 in 6.3 overs, but it seemed leisurely in comparison. Abhishek Sharma got his fifty in 19 balls with a straight six off Ayush Badoni.
In the chase, up to 14 sixes and 16 fours were struck, meaning that every other ball touched the boundary.
Prior to this, Bhuvneshwar Kumar took the lead with figures of 4-0-12-2, giving up only single digits of wickets and shutting down the top order of the LSG, which managed just 66 in the first 11.2 overs. Ayush Badoni and Nicholas Pooran’s undefeated 99-run partnership helped LSG reach a decent total.
Quick score:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 167 for 0 in 9.4 overs (Travis Head 89 not out, Abhishek Sharma 75) defeated Lucknow Super Giants 165 for 4 in 20 overs (Ayush Badoni 55 not out, Nicholas Pooran 48 not out; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 2-12, Pat Cummins 1-47) by ten wickets.