IPL24 : Head ton powers SRH to record score & a win over a fighting RCB

 

Royal Challengers Bangalore lost again in IPL.  RCB lost by 25 runs  in Bangalore on Monday.  In reply to Sunrisers Hyderabad's record 287, Bengaluru's innings ended at 262 for 7.  Hyderabad won by 25 runs.  With this, Bengaluru lost all six of the seven matches of the IPL.  Even Dinesh Karthik's fightback could not save Bengaluru's loss.  On the other hand, Hyderabad won four out of six matches.

 On this day Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis decided to field after winning the toss.  Sunrisers Hyderabad batters used the opportunity to bat first.  Hyderabad scored 287 runs for 3 wickets thanks to the batting of Travis Head, Henrich Klaassen.  This is the highest team innings in IPL history.  After 19 days, Hyderabad broke their own record.  On March 27, Pat Cummins' team scored 277 for 3 against Mumbai Indians.

 Hyderabad's two openers started in an aggressive mood at Bengaluru's 22 yards. They launched a fierce assault on the hapless RCB bowlers  Abhishek Sharma was dismissed for 34 off 22 balls.  He hit 2 fours and a six in his breezy knock .  Head on the other hand slaughtered the RCB bowling with his cuts , drives and on side massive hits by opening his stance . Head was in super aggressive mood . The Aussie batsman, the hero of the last year's World Cup final, completed his century off only 39 balls.  In the end he scored a blistering  102 runs off 41 balls with the help of 9 fours and 8 sixes.  It was a murderous assault on the RCB bowling Klassen, who came down at number three, did not make concessions to the opposing bowlers.  His innings of 67 off 31 balls included 2 fours and 7 sixes as he soon exploded after a steady start .

 Later, Aden Markram and Abdul Samad also maintained the momentum of the team's runs.  Markram made an unbeaten 32 off 17 balls hitting 2 fours and 2 sixes.  Samad was more aggressive.  He remained unbeaten with  a smashing  37 off 10 balls.  4 fours and 3 sixes came from his bat.  Bangalore's most successful bowler Lockie Ferguson took 2 wickets for 52 runs.  Reece Topley took 1 wicket after spending 68 runs.

RCB openers  started in an aggressive mood too chasing a big target.  But they could not reach the target by losing wickets continuously.  Kohli came down to open and made a quickfire 42 off 20 balls before getting bowled trying to sweep Markande .  The former captain of the Indian team hit 6 fours and 2 sixes.  Another opener Duplessis was more aggressive.  He played an explosive innings of 62 runs from 28 balls .  The Bengaluru skipper completed his innings with 7 fours and 4 sixes.  Bangalore's next batters could not sustain the good start.  Will Jacks (7), Rajat Patidar (9) and Sourav Chauhan (0) were dismissed in quick succession.  As a result, Bangalore went from 80 for no wicket to 122 for 5 wickets.  Duplessis team could not handle this pressure.

 However Karthik fought with the bat in the end and even looked like pulling off an inprobable win with his sublime hitting but due to the lack of partners at the other end of the wicket, the team could not cross the threshold of victory.  He completed his fifty off 23 balls.  In the end, an incredible innings of 83 runs from 35 balls came from Karthik's bat.  He smashed 5 fours and 7 sixes.  His astonishing innings put some pressure on Hyderabad.    Mahipal made 19 off 11 balls.  He hit two sixes.  Anuj Rawat also tried.  He scored 25 runs off 14 balls.  He hit 5 boundaries but to no avail.  Vijayakumar made an unbeaten 1.

 Hyderabad's most successful bowler Cummins took 3 wickets for 43 runs.  Mayank Morkand 2 wickets for 46 runs.  1 wicket for 47 runs by T Natarajan.  Head won the player of the match for his blistering century that set up the SRH win.