Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head (R) and Abhishek Sharma during the Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty-20 cricket match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Delhi Capitals, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The destructive Travis Head has called his Sunrisers Hyderabad opening partner Abhishek Sharma an exciting talent for Indian cricket after the duo combined to pummel the Lucknow Super Giants bowling attack in a record IPL chase here.

Head (89 not out off 30) and Sharma (75 not out off 28), who have formed one of the most explosive pairings in the IPL this season, made a mockery of the 166-run target by overhauling it in just 9.4 overs. It was the highest ever 10 over score in history of men’s T20 cricket.

Both the southpaws hit fours and sixes for fun in what was a sensational display of power-hitting.

“The partnership with Abhi has been fantastic, he’s such an exciting talent for Indian cricket. We complement each other so well and he’s very very enjoyable to be around, he’s so excited and thinks about the game and yeah he’s got a lot of energy so it’s a great partnership to be involved in,” said Head in the post-match press conference on Wednesday.

Head is in top form ahead of the T20 World Cup in the Americas next month, having aggregated 533 runs in 11 innings at an astonishing strike rate of 201.89. Sharma too has been striking at over 200.

“Whenever you’re playing you want to be be as consistent as you can, you want to be getting runs. It’s nice to be among the runs been nice to be playing well. That’s not going to guarantee anything in the West Indies but it gives me the best chance to be in a very good mindset,” said Head.

“Working hard on training and I think we face a fair bit of spin in the Caribbean and wickets might become tougher as the tournament goes. So very pleased with how I played spin tonight, things that I’m working on in training are somewhat working in the moment,” he added.

Sharma had also earned high praise from West Indies legend Brian Lara, who is a former coach of SRH.

“Again he is someone who I met while I was batting coach of SRH. I spent two years there. I am allowed to a bit biased when I see a left-hander, I just love a left-hander.”

“Myself and Abhishek have developed a very good relationship, these youngsters are very humble. they want to learn,” Lara had said.

Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma went hammer and tongs at the hapless Sunrisers attack.
| Photo Credit: M. Vedhan

There was no rain on match day. But to the delight of a capacity crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, it was a deluge of fours and sixes as the left-handed opening pair of Abhishek Sharma (75 n.o., 28b, 8×4, 6×6) and Travis Head (89 n.o., 30b, 8×4, 8×6) made a mockery of the victory target of 166, in a chase lasting just 47 minutes, against Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday.

Clearly, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s focus was not just on scripting a quick victory but also keep an eye on the Net Run Rate to steer clear of the jam in the points table. It did it in style with a resounding 10-wicket win in just 9.4 overs thanks to some breathtaking stroke-play which left every bowler clueless.

It was arguably one of the most savage onslaughts by an opening pair at this venue as Abhishek (Impact Player for pacer T. Natarajan) and Head batted as if they were rehearsing some strokes in the ‘nets.’ There was nothing to rave about for any bowler, as all of them were hapless and mute spectators to a brutal batting display.

Earlier, Super Giants’ top-order failed before a fighting 99-run unbroken partnership off 52 balls for the fifth wicket between the classy Nicholas Pooran and the 24-year-old Ayush Badoni saw the team post what looked a competitive score at the innings break.

Pooran and Badoni came up with wonderful stroke selection under pressure, especially in the last five overs when they scored 63 runs.

For the home team, both the left-arm pacer and death overs specialist Natarajan, and skipper Pat Cummins were expensive

The seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar was easily the pick of the bowlers, conceding just 12 runs from his quota of four overs while taking the crucial wickets of Quinton de Kock (2) and Marcus Stoinis (3) thanks to some brilliant fielding by Nitish Kumar Reddy and Sanvir Singh respectively. It was not a kind of PowerPlay Lucknow would have hoped for after electing to bat — scoring just 27 for two.

SCOREBOARD

LUCKNOW SUPER GIANTS

K.L. Rahul c Natarajan b Cummins 29 (33b, 1×4, 1×6), Quinton de Kock c Nitish b Bhuvneshwar 2 (5b), Marcus Stoinis c Sanvir b Bhuvneshwar 3 (5b), Krunal Pandya run out 24 (21b, 2×6) Nicholas Pooran (not out) 48 (26b, 6×4, 1×6), Ayush Badoni (not out) 55 (30b, 9×4); Extras (lb-1, w-3): 4; Total (for four wkts. in 20 overs): 165.

FALL OF WICKETS

1-13 (de Kock, 2.1 overs), 2-21 (Stoinis, 4.2), 3-57 (Rahul, 9.6), 4-66 (Krunal, 11.2).

SUNRISERS BOWLING

Bhuvneshwar 4-0-12-2, Cummins 4-0-47-1, Shahbaz 2-0-9-0, Viyaskanth 4-0-27-0, Unadkat 2-0-19-0, Natarajan 4-0-50-0.

SUNRISERS HYDERABAD

Abhishek Sharma (Impact Player in place of Natarajan) (not out) 75 (28b, 8×4, 6×6), Travis Head (not out) 89 (30b, 8×4, 8×6); Extras (lb-1, w-2): 3; Total (for no loss in 9.4 overs): 167.

SUPER GIANTS BOWLING

Gowtham 2-0-29-0, Yash Thakur 2.4-0-47-0, Bishnoi 2-0-34-0, Naveen 2-0-37-0, Badoni 1-0-19-0.

Toss: LSG. PoM: Head

SRH won by 10 wickets with 62 balls to spare.