Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) stormed through to a 10-wicket victory over the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma’s explosive batting dominated the day and continued to show why the SRH batting is one of the most feared in the TATA Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024. A target of 166 was chased down in 9.4 overs – a fact that sums up SRH’s batting performance of the day.
SRH’s pyrotechnics were on display in the powerplay – a phase they have generally dominated through the tournament. SRH scored 107 in the powerplay alone – which effectively won them the game. The LSG bowlers had no margin for error as the left-handed opening pair were intent on dominating the day.
What makes their feat most mind-boggling is that they only made eight runs in the first over. The second over is when they unleashed their best with Abhishek stroking four fours off Yash Thakur. When K Gowtham came on to bowl the third – Head got into the act by picking up 22 – three sixes and a four. This forced KL Rahul to bring in Ravi Bishnoi in the fourth over – a move that did not deter SRH as the runs continued to flow easily. When Naveen-ul-Haq came on for the fifth over, Head maintained that tempo and raced away to a 16-ball half-century. That over too went for 23.
Thakur bowled the last over of the powerplay and Abhishek, matched Head shot for shot and took SRH past their 100. When the field spread, many would have felt that there would be some respite for LSG. That wasn’t the case as Head slog-swept the first ball of the seventh over for a six over mid-wicket. Abhishek then got to his fifty by hitting a six over long-on.
The boundaries kept flowing from both ends. It didn’t matter who came on to bowl, as Head and Abhishek were batting as if they had to get the target inside 10 overs. Victory was achieved when Abhishek smashed Thakur over cover for a huge six. Head remained unbeaten on 89 off 30 balls, and Abhishek finished on 75 not out off 28 balls. The SRH innings featured as many as 16 fours and 14 sixes. The LSG bowlers had a day to forget as their bowling figures indicated.
Earlier, SRH’s bowlers had done well to restrict LSG to 165 by jolting their top order with wickets at regular intervals. It was only due to a good partnership by Ayush Badoni (55 not out off 30 balls) and Nicholas Pooran (48 not out of 26 balls) that LSG reached that total. The unbeaten 99-run stand dominated the last 10 overs of their innings. It was quite in contrast with the way LSG’s innings panned out in the first 10.
In the initial overs, Bhuveshwar Kumar brought in all his experience to put pressure on the LSG batting. In his first three overs, he conceded only seven runs and bagged the first two wickets of Quinton de Kock and Marcus Stoinis. It was evident with the score at the end of the powerplay – which was 27 for two. LSG had to rebuild with Krunal Pandya and KL Rahul.
Pandya decided to shift gears in the eighth over when he targeted Jaydev Unadkat and smashed two sixes. However, LSG were still scoring at less than a run-a-ball overall and the difficulties only compounded when Rahul fell for 29 – hitting one off Pat Cummins to the deep. In the 12th over, Pandya was run-out for 24. That is when Pooran and Badoni came together.
While Pooran showed all his application and experience, Badoni was the one who brought out the aggression and helped pump life into the LSG innings. When T Natarajan was brought in for the 14th over, Badoni opened up and picked three fours. The 16-run over brought in much-needed impetus. What helped LSG was that the two batters managed to score over 10 runs in every over since the 14th – apart from Bhuvneshwar’s last – which went for only five runs. Bhuvneshwar capped off a successful spell of two for 12 – outlandish figures considering what we saw later in the match.
Badoni brought up his fifty in the penultimate over – getting there off only 28 balls. The last two overs of the LSG innings went for 34 – which included 19 off the last bowled by Cummins. This propelled LSG to 165. If one puts into perspective their effort in the first 10, the recovery was remarkable and would have given them hope going into the defence. But Head and Abhishek were too good on the day.
