Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], April 16 : Former Indian pacer RP Singh lauded Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) opener Travis Head for his knock against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), saying that his shots were "magnificent" and nobody could execute a yorker against him.
RCB bowlers conceded 287 runs and could take only three wickets against SRH. SRH produced the highest total in IPL history and broke their own record of scoring 277 against the Mumbai Indians (MI) thanks to some serious hitting from Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. Though fiery knocks from skipper Faf Du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik helped RCB put up a fight and end with 262/7 on the board, RCB are likely to remember the match mostly for the wrong reasons.
RP, who is also an IPL expert on JioCinema said, "He hit some magnificent shots tonight; there is no area of the ground he did not hit the ball to. This was an explosive inning. He started with boundaries and then accelerated to sixes. After a point, it felt like, will any bowler even be able to bowl dot balls to him? Nobody could execute the yorker; the slower ball was not working. The way he batted, he viewed the powerplay differently, and that impact stayed throughout the match."
The former Indian bowler said that Klaasen, who scored 66 during the match, has started playing spin as well; he plays fast bowling. RP lauded that how balls missing the yorker length are sent flying out of the park by Klaasen.
"He always played pace bowling really well but now he is playing spin bowling equally well. Balls that miss the yorker length, especially the stumps, are almost guaranteed to go flying out of the stadium; he does not let them stay in the ground. If you think you cannot execute a yorker to the stumps, you should refrain from using it, because every time it failed to execute, he punished it with a six. The word mistime has been removed from his dictionary; every shot he hit went into the second tier tonight," said the former pacer.
Coming to the match, RCB put SRH to bat first. A century from Travis Head (102) and an explosive fifty from Heinrich Klaasen (66) pushed SRH to 287/3 in their 20 overs.
Lockie Ferguson was the pick of the bowlers for RCB, with 2/52 in four overs.
In the run chase, Virat Kohli (42) and skipper Faf Du Plessis (62) put up an admirable 80-run partnership within the powerplay, unfazed by the scoring rate and target. But a brilliant spell from skipper Pat Cummins (3/43) and Mayank Markande (2/46) reduced RCB to 122/5. Despite that, Dinesh Karthik (83) and Anuj Rawat (25) put up a fight but fell short of 25 runs, ending at 262/7.
With this loss, RCB is at the bottom of the table, with just one win in seven overs. They have just two points. SRH now has four wins and two losses, with eight points. They are in the fourth spot.