Sunrisers Hyderabad are taking the 17th Indian Premier League (IPL) by storm. In their latest match of the season - against the Mumbai Indians on March 27 - the Hyderabad franchise made 277, thanks to a 23-ball 63 from Abhishek Sharma and Heinrich Klaasen's 34-ball 80 which included four fours and seven sixes. Mumbai gave chase, but ultimately fell short at 246/5. The result: SRH won. And, SRH and MI together put up the biggest combined score in the history of T20 matches. A look at the biggest runs scorers of the match:
SRH v MI: Biggest run-getters for Sunrisers Hyderabad
Three Sunrisers Hyderabad batters crossed the 50-milestone in this match:
Heinrich Klaasen: No surprises there. The South African cricketer is a power-hitter, and front-runner for the Orange Cap in IPL 2024 currently with 143 runs across two matches at a strike rate of 226.98. His 143 IPL runs include 15 sixes and four fours. He's managed to cross 50 in both IPL matches he's played in 2024 so far.
Now, to look more closely at Klaasen's performance in the SRH vs MI fixture of March 27: Klaasen's 80 runs came off seven sixes, four boundaries, four 2s and 14 singles. Klaasen hit a six off every bowler who bowled to him in this match, including Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Kwena Maphaka, Gerald Coetzee and Sham Mulani. From deep cover to deep back square leg, Klaasen bossed over a large territory, seemingly hitting fours and sixes at will.
Travis Head: Returning to the IPL after a gap of six years, the Australian batter made 62 runs off 24 balls at a strike rate of 258.33. His blitz with the bat included nine fours and three sixes. The Mumbai franchise brought impact player Umran Malik, but Head's wicket eventually fell to Gerald Coetzee.
Abhishek Sharma: Player of the Match for his 63 runs off 23 balls, Sharma raced to 50 in just 16 balls. He has played in the India Under-19 team previously, and his IPL debut was in 2018 with the Delhi Capitals (when they were Daredevils).
Biggest scorers for the Mumbai Indians in SRH v MI IPL 2024 Match 8
NT Tilak Varma: Mumbai's score of 246 would have been enough to win by a large margin in many other IPL matches, but not this one. That they got even this close to the target of 278 to win, is thanks to a 37-ball 84-run partnership between NT Tilak Varma (52 off 25 deliveries) and Naman Dhir (28 runs in 12 balls).
Varma was the only player on the MI side to cross 50 in this match. Naman Dhir blazed a trail to put 30 runs on the board in 14 deliveries. Tim David's unbeaten 42 off 22 balls and Ishan Kishan's 34 (24 of which came off sixes), were the only other batters to cross 30 runs for MI in the high-scoring match against the Sunrisers on March 27.
Can Sunrisers Hyderabad win IPL 2024?
In their first IPL match of the season against Kolkata Knight Riders on March 23, Sunrisers Hyderabad put up a score of 204 while chasing 208 - the tournament's first 200-plus score this year. But it wasn't just SRH's batting that stood out. SRH fielded first, and how. Former captain Aiden Markram, current captain Pat Cummins and Marco Jansen prevented the fours and curtailed the twos in the field. With the ball, T. Natarajan bagged three wickets, giving away 32 runs in four overs. Every dot balls in IPL feels more momentous; Natarajan bowled nine in this match. Mayank Markande took two wickets and conceded 39 runs at an economy of 9.75.
In Match 8 against HI, SRH captain Pat Cummins put up the best bowling figures of the night - two wickets in four overs in which he conceded just 35 runs at an economy of 8.75. What also helped the Hyderabad franchise pull ahead of MI was again the fielding. Each of the five wickets Mumbai lost in the match was caught out.
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