Australian opener Travis Head was at his menacing self but played second fiddle to Abhishek Sharma who played a record-breaking knock of 55-ball 141. Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) made the 246-run target look like child's play with their allout attack approach. During the run chase, Head was involved in a verbal spat with his Australian teammates, Punjab Kings' (PBKS) Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis. However, Head left everything on the field after SRH's eight-wicket win and termed it as banter.
"You bring out the best and the worst in each other when you know them so well, nothing too serious, just a bit of banter," Head told the broadcasters after the match.
The incident took place in the ninth over of the innings when Head smashed Maxwell for two consecutive sixes. While PBKS waited for the ball to be found, Maxwell exchanged a few words with Head. The SRH opener wasn't pleased and gave him a mouthful. The last two deliveries were dots. After the over, Head and Maxwell had another exchange and the umpire intervened. Stoinis came in to douse the flames but Head was not in a mood to calm down.
Head on the mindset in the run chase
Head reached his fifty from 31 balls. His knock came to an end in the 13th over. Coincidentally, Maxwell took his catch in the deep off Yuzvendra Chahal's bowling. The opener scored 66 runs from 37 deliveries, including nine fours and three sixes. He shared a 171-run opening partnership with Abhishek who went on to score 141.
Abhishek opened up on the partnership and the belief they had before walking out for the run chase.
"Not bad, nice to get on the winners list. Exceptional night, we needed it. We had our work cut out at the halfway point. We gave ourselves a chance, showed a bit more patience at the start. We knew the plans they were going to come with. Gave ourselves a bit more time and got off to a flier. We did the things we did really well last year and that’s what made us such a good partnership. It’s just about encouraging each other, picking our targets and setting the stage. We’ve seen 270-280 scored on that wicket. We’ve played on slightly different wickets but no.2 seems to put out big scores. Everything had to go right for us to chase down 240," said the Australian opener.
The win helped SRH rise to the eighth spot on the points table with two wins from six games. They will go up against Mumbai Indians (MI) in their next encounter at Wankhede Stadium.