Records tumble as SRH outmuscle Mumbai Indians in six-hitting festival
Hyderabad, Mar 27: Records tumbled as Sunrisers Hyderabad went on a rampage to post the highest ever IPL total of 277 for 3 against Mumbai Indians before sealing a 31-run victory in a power-hitting contest that left bowlers on
both sides befuddled.
SRH opener Travis Head (62 off 24) and number three Abhishek Sharma (63 off 23) came up with a sensational display of power-hitting that saw the latter snatching the franchise record for the fastest fifty from the Australian within minutes.
Heinrich Klaasen (80 not out off 34 balls) provided the fireworks in the end to help SRH break an 11-year-old record. The previous highest total in IPL was 263 for five achieved by Royal Challengers Bangalore back in 2013. It was also the highest total recorded in a T20 league.
Mumbai bowlers were left shell-shocked by SRH's six-hitting spree but their batters came out with a purpose and made a match out of what looked like a one way traffic at the innings break.
Eventually, they ended at 246 for five in 20 overs.
A record 38 sixes were plundered in the game and it was the first time 500 runs were scored in a T20 match.
"The wicket was good but 277, no matter how good or bad you bowl, if the opposition get 277 that means they batted very well. It was tough out there for bowlers. Close to 500 runs were scored so the wicket was helping the batters," MI skipper Hardik Pandya said after the match.
Chasing a mammoth 278, Rohit Sharma (26 off 12), in his 200th game for the franchise, played some sublime strokes and was well complemented by Ishan Kishan (34 off 13) who got some much needed runs.
Tilak Varma (64 off 34 balls) took the game deep with a high-quality knock, comprising half a dozen sixes. At 182 for three in 14 overs and seven wickets in hand, Mumbai Indians were on course for something special before succumbing to constant scoreboard pressure.
Tim David (42 not out off 22) tried his best towards the end but it was not enough.
Earlier, it was raining fours and sixes as Head and Sharma toyed with the Mumbai Indians attack after being put in to bat.
Head, who was surprisingly left out of the playing eleven for the opening game, reinforced his status as one of the most dangerous batters in the game with a whirlwind effort.
He broke David Warner's record of the fastest fifty by a SRH batter with a 18-ball half-century before Sharma surpassed Head's feat 20 balls later by reaching the milestone in 16 balls.
Head, who was dropped by compatriot Tim David at the start of his innings, opened his front leg and hit boundaries at will, collecting nine fours and three sixes in total.
The southpaw completed his fifty with an inside out four wide of mid-off before dispatching a bouncer from Gerald Coetzee for a six over deep midwicket, prompting opposition skipper Hardik Pandya to acknowledge the Australian's brutal assault.
When Head departed, Sharma went hammer and tongs, mostly targeting the cow corner region for his seven sixes and three boundaries.
It was a nightmarish start to the IPL for the 17-year-old South Africa pacer Kwena Maphaka, who made the Mumbai Indians squad at the back of his exploits in the U-19 World Cup.
He leaked as many as 66 runs in his four overs. The left-arm pacer could not recover from Head's onslaught in his second over in which he conceded 22 runs.
With the majority of the Mumbai bowlers taken to the cleaners, it was surprising that Mumbai Indians skipper Pandya waited till the 13th over to give Jasprit Bumrah his second over.
Following Sharma's dismissal, the in-form Klaasen ensured there was no stopping to the SRH's six hitting spree. Klaasen ended up with seven sixes with the maximum off a Bumrah bouncer standing out.
Klaasen had almost taken SRH over the line with his breathtaking knock against KKR at the Eden Gardens.
Former skipper Aiden Markram chipped in 42 off 28 balls.
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BJP has become party of Bakasur, its hunger insatiable: Sanjay Raut on defection of AAP MPs
Mumbai (PTI): A day after seven Rajya Sabha MPs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quit and said they were merging with the BJP, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Saturday likened the saffron party to the mythological demon Bakasur with insatiable hunger.
Talking to reporters here, Raut said the majority of AAP MPs who switched their loyalties to the Bharatiya Janata Party were "Page 3 leaders", and claimed that they were scared as they were "wealthy and needed protection."
"Let the garbage from other parties go the BJP so that it becomes a dumping ground," Raut said.
The AAP suffered a jolt on Friday as seven out of its 10 Rajya Sabha members, including Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal and Sandeep Pathak, quit the party, with Chadha saying all of them had merged with the BJP.
"In Mahabharat, there is a demon called Bakasur whose hunger was insatiable. The BJP has become a party of Bakasur. It can eat anything," Raut said.
Chadha had once termed the BJP a party of goons, while Mittal's businesses faced raids soon after he was made deputy leader of the AAP in the Rajya Sabha (replacing Chadha), said Raut, himself a member of the Upper House of Parliament.
The Enforcement Directorate had last week conducted raids at business entities linked to Mittal in Punjab as part of a FEMA probe.
"Everyone knows about the BJP's politics. It is shamelessness," the Sena (UBT) leader said, adding that US President Donald Trump called India a hellhole and the BJP was showing what hell looks like.
He himself had written to then Vice President and Rajya Sabha chairman Venkaiah Naidu that there was pressure on him to join the BJP but he did not betray his party and preferred to go to jail, Raut said, referring to his arrest in an alleged money laundering case in 2022. He was released on bail in the case months later.
#WATCH | Mumbai | On Raghav Chadha, along with 2/3 AAP Rajya Sabha MPs joining BJP, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut says, "... Everyone knows the politics the BJP is playing. Their politics is a single word, we call it shameless. They have no shame. Because these people, like… pic.twitter.com/hJslDdLZDV
— ANI (@ANI) April 25, 2026
