Sunrisers trump Mumbai in record six-hitting carnage

Sixes were being hit for fun. Runs were flowing at a breakneck pace. You wouldn't be blamed for thinking you were watching a video game. The carnage in Hyderabad resulted in an 11-year-old IPL record falling, RCB's seemingly insurmountable total of 263 from 2013 falling by the wayside thanks to a breathtaking, collective show from the Sunrisers Hyderabad batters. They notched up the highest total in the 16-year history of the IPL - 277 for 3 - but then, just as incredibly, Mumbai Indians almost paid them back with the same coin, their batters coming out with a nothing-to-lose attitude. Eventually, they ran out of steam and finished on 246 for 5, the highest IPL total in a losing cause.

Travis Head set the pace on the night, striking an 18-ball half-century, the fastest for SRH in the IPL. His record lasted roughly four overs, Abhishek Sharma slamming a 16-ball fifty to relegate him to No. 2. An hour after that, Heinrich Klaasen cut loose to seemingly bat MI out of the contest. But the sixes kept rolling off the Mumbai bats too, helping them keep up with the asking rate for most of the chase, eventually falling only 31 short.

Never were more runs scored in a men's T20 match (523). Never were most sixes hit in a men's T20 (38). At the end of the close to four-hour six-fest, only two bowlers returned with an economy rate of under ten an over.

Head, in for Marco Jansen, continued from where he had left off on his previous tour of India. He was off the mark with a four off IPL debutant Kwena Maphaka, the 17-year-old who played for South Africa at the Under-19 World Cup earlier this year. Head was given a life when Tim David dropped him at mid-off off Hardik Pandya's first ball. But there was no looking back from there.

Head smacked two fours and two sixes in a 22-run Maphaka over before hitting two fours and a six off Gerald Coetzee in an over that went for 23 to end the powerplay. Head had scored 59 of the 81 SRH made in the first six overs. In his next over, though, Coetzee bowled a short and wide one, which the batter could only carve to deep backward point.

Head's inclusion in the XI meant Abhishek had to move down the order, and he walked in at No. 3 after Mayank Agarwal fell in the fifth over. Abhishek got going with a pull off Coetzee and then meted out a special treatment to the legspin Piyush Chawla, hitting him for three sixes in an over. That helped SRH notch up their 100 in just seven overs, their second-fastest in the IPL.

Abhishek also tore into Maphaka's third over, hitting him for a sequence of 4, 6, 6, 4 to complete his fifty and snatch the record from Head. The key was how early he picked the length of the bowlers. He hit seven sixes in his 23-ball stay for 63 runs, before heaving a half-tracker that Chawla fired in seam-up at 112.8kph straight to deep midwicket.

With nine overs to go and two right-hand batters in the middle, Hardik Pandya sensed an opportunity to get left-arm spinner Shams Mulani in the game. That played into the hands of Klaasen, though, who is a spin-basher. In T20s since January 2022, no batter who has faced at least 500 balls had a higher strike rate against spin than Klaasen's 174.38 before the start of the game.

True to form, he smacked Mulani over long-off to get his rhythm going. Klaasen then hit a six each off Hardik and Jasprit Bumrah as SRH crossed 200 in the 15th over. Aiden Markram, at the other end, hit a six and a four but was happy to give the strike to his South Africa team-mate. Klaasen brought up his fifty off 22 balls, which was only the third quickest on the night.

Klaasen hit two successive sixes in the last over bowled by Mulani to take Sunrisers past RCB's record score. SRH added 63 in the last four overs to post the fourth-highest total in all men's T20s.

Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan kicked off Mumbai's reply in fine fashion. Rohit muscled Bhuvneshwar Kumar down the ground before hitting Jaydev Unadkat - brought in for T Natarajan, who had a niggle - for back-to-back sixes. Kishan meanwhile took 23 off Bhuvneshwar's second over, hitting him for a four and three sixes. Kishan then slogged Shahbaz Ahmed to deep midwicket, but Rohit kept going.

He whipped Pat Cummins' second ball over midwicket before miscuing a pull to fall for 26 off just 12. Only twice in the IPL has Rohit scored more - 37 in April 2015 vs RCB, and 27 in May 2015 vs Chennai Super Kings - off the first 12 balls he faced.

Naman Dhir and Tilak Varma also kept Mumbai abreast with the required rate. They found boundaries regularly, with Tilak leading the charge, and added 84 off 37 for the third wicket. But once they fell within 21 balls of each other, MI lost momentum. David managed to hit a few into the stands, but by then it was too late.