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Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 277-3 for the highest-ever Indian Premier League (IPL) total in a match against Mumbai Indians with Heinrich Klaasen unbeaten on 80 off 34 balls on Wednesday.
Australia’s Travis Head hit a 24-ball 62 to lead the batting assault after Hyderabad batted first and went past the previous IPL best of 263-5 by Royal Challengers Bengaluru in 2013.
Head, dropped on five by Tim David off skipper Hardik Pandya, got his fifty in 18 balls and after his departure, Abhishek Sharma reached his half-century in 16.
The team’s 100 came up in just seven overs and Hyderabad, led by Australia’s World Cup-winning captain Pat Cummins, posted the tournament’s highest-ever total in the first 10 overs of 148-2.
Abhishek fell for 63 off 23 balls but there was no respite for the bowlers who were at the receiving end of some punishing batting.
It was raining sixes with 18 hits over the fence in 20 overs of Hyderabad’s innings as the South African pair of Klaasen and Aiden Markram, who hit 42, posted an unbeaten stand of 116.
Mumbai’s South African import Kwena Maphaka had a bruising introduction to IPL when the 17-year-old left-arm quick went for 66 runs in his four overs.
Five-time winners Mumbai, who had a change in captaincy after Pandya took over from the experienced Rohit Sharma, and Hyderabad started this edition with a loss each.
The match is Rohit’s 200th in the lucrative T20 tournament where the Indian captain has led Mumbai to all five titles.