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“I have no idea what to say. That type of batting has been seen on TV. But this is unbelievable batting,” Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul said to the media at the post-match ceremonies, summarising the havoc of the second innings at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma displayed their aggressive batting once again in what turned out to be a lopsided match in Hyderabad, needing just 9.4 overs to chase down a total of 166.
On a pitch that looked difficult for the hitters to hit, the Super Giants put up what seemed to be a competitive total. But because of their incredibly aggressive style, the SRH openers didn’t even consider the pitch, and as a result, multiple T20 records were shattered once more. The differential in the powerplay scores, 80 runs, told the story as SRH triumphed with 62 deliveries remaining, the earliest a team has completed a 150-plus mark in T20 cricket. They stormed beyond 100 in the powerplay, becoming the first side to do so on two separate occasions.
“I don’t think we could have ever expected chasing it like that,” acknowledged Head at the post-match press conference. “It looked like a tough wicket in the first innings, it looked like it was holding and a slow pitch. I guess, knowing that as a batter, you know that the powerplay is important. (We were) trying to maximise that and we played beautifully, we were able to get ahead of the rate, which is nice. And once we got going in the first two or three overs, it was just about trying to maximise that as much as we can and I felt we picked our targets and played very well.”
This season’s LSG consultant Adam Voges commended the SRH openers for their “incredible batting” but acknowledged that the difference in the two teams’ powerplays played a significant role in the result of the game.
“I think we’re all in awe of what we’ve just seen. Sometimes you got to tip your hat and say well played to the opposition. (They) might have mis-hit one or two balls in the nine and bit overs that we bowled at them. Incredible batting, incredible hitting, clearly we didn’t have an answer for,” said Voges. “I haven’t spoken to the guys yet whether there was a difference in terms of the innings but clearly our powerplay compared to the Sunrisers was at the two extremes.