IPL 2024: Heads up! SRH at it again
New Delhi, April 20
Rishabh Pant’s emotional homecoming didn’t pan out into a dream script as Sunrisers Hyderabad adhered to their season’s template by blowing away Delhi Capitals in a 67-run win in their IPL match to consolidate their position in the league table here today.
4.6 SRH took 4.6 overs to reach the 100-run mark. This is the fastest any team has reached the milestone in T20 cricket. The previous fastest was off 5.3 overs by South Africa last year
125 SRH’s total at the end of the sixth over is now the highest in the powerplay in men’s T20 cricket, bettering Nottinghamshire’s 106/0 against Durham in 2017
It was Travis Head’s 32-ball 89 and his carnage in unison with Abhishek Sharma (46 off 12 balls) that ensured another match-winning total of 266/7 for SRH in their 20 overs.
A record powerplay score of 125/0 gave SRH the base and at one point, the first-ever 300-plus total in the IPL looked a possibility.
In reply, Jake-Fraser McGurk’s equally aggressive 18-ball 65 raised hopes of an improbable win as he added 84 runs for the third wicket along with Abhishek Porel (42 off 22 balls) in just five overs.
Once Fraser-McGurk was gone, DC went off the boil and they were all-out for 199 in 19.1 overs.
T Natarajan’s superb use of slower bouncers and figures of 4 for 19 went a long way to ensure that SRH (10 points) are now second behind Rajasthan Royals (12) on the points table.
Pant wasn’t in his element as he could hardly get his timing right en route painstaking 44 off 35 balls which did more harm than good to DC’s cause. — PTI
Brief scores
SRH: 266/7 in 20 overs (Head 89, Abhishek 46, , Shahbaz 59*, Reddy 37; Kuldeep 4/55) vs DC: 199 all out in 19.1 overs (Fraser-McGurk 65, Pant 44, Porel 42; Natarajan 4/19, Reddy 2/17)
Friday’s result
CSK: 176/6 in 20 overs (Jadeja 57*, Rahane 36, Moeen 30, Dhoni 28*; Krunal 2/16) vs LSG: 180/2 in 19 overs (Rahul 82, de Kock 54)
