Sunrisers Hyderabad Shine in Record-breaking Six-fest, Defeat Mumbai Indians in IPL Thriller

At Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday, it appeared to be a six-fest.

The game saw 38 maximums hit in all, the highest in a T20 match ever. But Sunrisers Hyderabad ultimately emerged victorious in the chaos, defeating Mumbai Indians by a margin of 31 runs.

After being called to bat, the Sunrisers batting unit produced the greatest-ever IPL total of 277/3 thanks to their amazing display of strokeplay.

The Sunrisers defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore's 263/5 against the now-defunct Pune Warriors in April 2013 thanks to courtesy opener Travis Head, who hit 62 off 24 balls, No. 3 Abhishek Sharma (63 off 23 balls), the reliable Heinrich Klaasen (80 not out off 34 balls), and former captain Aiden Markram (42 not out off 28 balls).

The MI hitters gave the Sunrisers a serious scare for a significant portion of their chase for runs, but ultimately had too much work to do as they were unable to score more than 246/5. It was the MI's second consecutive loss in this IPL under Hardik Pandya's leadership. Pat Cummins and company were undoubtedly relieved following last Saturday's close loss to Kolkata Knight Riders in their first game.

With their 84-run third-wicket partnership, Tilak Varma (64 off 34 balls) and Naman Dhir (30 off 14 balls) had MI right in the game, but captain Cummins came through when his team needed him most. After taking out the vital wicket of Rohit Sharma earlier, Cummins forced an error from Varma in the fifteenth over, which caused MI to retreat. That came after the skilled Bhuvneshwar Kumar produced an outstanding 13th over that cost the Sunrisers just five runs and increased MI's needed rate even further.

Prior to this, Hardik was just passable with the ball; he wasn't any better with the bat either. Despite moving up the order, he only scored 24 runs off of 20 balls at a time when his side really needed much more from him.

The Hyderabad pitch was undoubtedly a gem, but players like Head, Abhishek, and Klaasen made sure the MI bowlers could not take it easy. Even though Jasprit Bumrah (0/36 in 4 overs) ended with the best economy rate once more, he was not spared the stick.

Bumrah was again introduced by Hardik as a first-change bowler, much as he had done in their previous match against the Gujarat Titans. However, he took it a step further this time by starting the match with Kwena Maphaka, a left-arm speedy 17-year-old from South Africa.

Head and Abhishek hit 68 for the second wicket in less than four overs, but the Australian was out of the game off of Gerald Coetzee. And the Sunrisers were only three wickets short of a century and sixteen1 after eleven overs when Klaasen got to the crease.

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