There was no lack of motivation. Royal Challengers Bangalore are at the bottom of the IPL 2024 points table with just one win from six matches. With three consecutive away games to come, a win at home on Monday would give their fans a semblance of hope. They plunged by dropping the out-of-form pair of Glenn Maxwell and Mohammad Siraj.
However, it forces us to reimagine what can happen in T20 batting as he runs out to Sunrisers Hyderabad for RCB. With Travis Head smashing a 39-ball century, SRH amassed 287/3 – the highest total in the tournament’s history – when asked to bat first. The hosts rode on a Dinesh Karthik special and put up an impressive fightback to finish with 262/7, but it was not enough as they lost by 25 runs.
Given the current form, RCB’s bowling attack against SRH’s batting line-up is always going to be interesting at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. While SRH hit the highest total in the IPL earlier this season, RCB, in their last match, chased Mumbai Indians 197 with 27 balls to spare. Social media was abuzz with the prospect of an absolute carnage, and that’s exactly how it turned out.
Sunrisers were 103/0 in 7.1 overs, 205/2 in 15 overs, and surpassed the total of 277 they had against MI three weeks ago. He hit 22 sixes – the most in an IPL innings – and recorded the second highest total in T20 cricket ever.
Opener Abhishek Sharma played his part with a 22-ball 34 before producing another sensational display of headed power hitting. The left-hander, whose centuries helped Australia beat India in the finals of the ODI World Cup and World Test Championship last year, hit 9 fours and eight sixes in his 41-ball 102. The pitch had a layer of grass and the ball was coming well, Head made space for himself as he usually does and several in the square of the wicket. Hit the boundaries.
Promoted to No. 3, Heinrich Klaasen scored 67 runs off 31 balls, hitting seven sixes. The South African keeper-batsman scored his third half-century of the season and again showed why he is rated by many. Best T20 Batters around. Aiden Markram (32* off 17) and Abdul Samad (37* off 10) then had a truly forgettable outing for the RCB bowling attack.
Pacers Reece Topley (1/68), Vijaykumar Vaishak (0/64), Locky Ferguson (2/52) and Yash Dayal (0/51) were taken to the cleaners for the first time in IPL history by four bowlers. Gave away 50 plus runs in an innings.
“It was the right batting,” Head said during the mid-innings break. “We wanted to take the game, maximize the powerplay and then continue. We got some power in the middle and wanted to keep the legs down as much as we could.
Captain Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli added 79 runs in the Powerplay to give RCB fans some cheer. Kohli was reduced to a wicket by Abhishek Sharma but then hit the ball well for 42 off 20 balls. Du Plessis scored his second consecutive half-century (62 off 28 balls) but his counterpart Pat Cummins dismissed Sourav Chauhan. The same over and finished with impressive figures of 3/43.
Karthik landed a brilliant shot at No.6 to keep SRH on their toes. The 38-year-old keeper-batsman, who had blasted a quickfire half-century against MI in the previous match, scored just five runs off the first eight balls he faced. But he turned it on in style from there and hit five fours and seven sixes in his 35-ball 83. RCB were probably never with a realistic chance of achieving the target, but their effort with the bat ensured the highest total. Runs in T20 match (549).