Head and Sharma's electrifying opening stand earns Hyderabad 10-wicket win over Lucknow
HYDERABAD, India (AP) — The opening pair of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma shared a massive 167-run stand as Sunrisers Hyderabad required just 58 balls to rout Lucknow Super Giants by 10 wickets in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.
Head and Sharma cranked 16 fours and 14 sixes in an extraordinary display of power-hitting in the first-ever IPL game that saw so many runs being scored inside the first 10 overs.
Head has been scoring consistently for the batting power-house of Hyderabad this season and raced to his half-century off 16 balls before he eventually finished on an unbeaten 89 off 30 balls.
Sharma followed the Australian left-hander soon when he reached his 50 off 19 balls as they raced to century-stand inside the batting power play. Sharma regained his lost touch with an undefeated 75 off 28 balls.
The win lifted Hyderabad to No. 3 with 14 points and more importantly gave it a healthy net run-rate of 0.41 with two home games to go. The huge defeat has pushed Lucknow in the tight corner for the playoffs with 12 points from 12 games.
Earlier, Ayush Badoni (55) and Nicholas Pooran (48) propelled Lucknow to 165-4 with a 99-run unbeaten fifth-wicket stand after Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2-12) gave away just 12 singles and dismissed the big hitters — Quinton de Kock (2) and Marcus Stoinis (3) — inside the power play.
Head and Sharma charged against pace and spin as Yash Thakur was smashed for 47 off his 16 balls while spinners Ravi Bishnoi and Krishnappa Gowtham gave away 63 runs off their four overs.
Lucknow had a moment to separate the destructive pair but Thakur couldn’t hold onto a sharp one-handed catch of Sharma at short third-man when the batter was on 18 in the third over. Sharma had another escape after completing his half-century when leg-spinner Bishnoi dropped a hard two-handed return catch.
Earlier, Kumar had buckled down Lucknow 27-2 in the first six overs on a tacky wicket and Rahul struggled to give the innings momentum before pulled skipper Pat Cummins to deep backward square leg and got dismissed for struggling 29 off 33 balls.
Pooran and Badoni countercharged in the death overs with Badoni playing some orthodox shots on square of the wicket as pace duo of T Natarajan and Cummins conceded 34 runs off the final two overs.
___
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
