SRH opening pair of Abhishek-Head rewrite IPL, T20 record books against DC

DC's return to their home arena, Arun Jaitley Stadium, was not at all sweet and was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Right from ball one, opener Head-Abhishek smashed fours and sixes left and right, irrespective of the bowler. After demolishing Mumbai Indians (MI) and Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) with 250-plus totals of 277 and 287 runs respectively, which went on to become the highest score in IPL history, the Aussie-Indian pair laid down foundation for yet another big score. SRH ended with 266/7 in their 20 overs.

Head and Abhishek amassed 125 runs in just six overs of their powerplay, the highest-ever powerplay total in IPL history. They broke the record of 105/0 put up by the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) against RCB in the IPL 2017. This is also the highest powerplay score in the history of T20 cricket.

Travis ended the powerplay at 84 in just 26 balls, making it the highest powerplay score for SRH in the IPL by a single player, outdoing David Warner's 62 in 23 balls against KKR in Hyderabad back in 2019.

Travis reached his half-century in just 16 balls, tying with Abhishek Sharma's 16-ball fifty against MI in this season for the fastest fifty in IPL history for SRH. Rajasthan Royals (RR) batter Abhishek Jaiswal has a 13-ball fifty, the fastest ever in the IPL.

Head also reached his fifty for the third time season within the powerplay itself. David Warner has repeated this feat six times in IPL, while Chris Gayle and Sunil Narine have done so thrice as well.

SRH reached the 100-run mark in just five overs with a huge six from Abhishek. This is the fastest team hundred in the history of the IPL, outdoing the feat by the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) reaching the 100-run mark in just six overs against Punjab Kings (PBKS) in the IPL 2014.

At the end of 10 overs, SRH was 158/4. Despite the fact that Delhi spinners Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav made a comeback with some quick wickets, they could not stop SRH from posting the biggest total in IPL history after 10 overs, outdoing SRH's 148/2 against Mumbai Indians made not so long ago.

SRH reached their 200-run mark in 14.5 overs, making it the third fastest instance of a team reaching 200 runs in the IPL. The fastest instance was by RCB, who reached the 200-run mark in 14.1 overs during a 15-over game against Punjab in 2016. The fastest instance of a team reaching 200 runs in an IPL game of 20 overs is also owned by SRH, who did so in 14.4 overs against MI this season.

This is the third instance of a 250-plus run score by SRH in T20s, tying them with Surrey for the most 250-plus scores in T20 cricket. 22 sixes were smashed in this innings, making it the joint most sixes in an IPL innings, equaling SRH's record of 22 sixes against RCB, which came recently in this season.

The 266-runs scored by SRH is the fourth-highest total in the IPL. The Orange Army owns the highest ever total as well, scoring 287/3 against RCB this season.

In six matches, Head has scored 324 runs at an average of 54.00, with a strike rate of 216.00. He has scored a century and two fifties, with the best score of 102. He is the second-highest run-getter in the tournament so far.

On the other end, Abhishek has scored 257 runs in seven innings at an average of 36.71 and a strike rate of 215.96, with a fifty. His best score is 63. He is the 10th-highest run-getter so far.

Coming to the match, SRH was put on field first by DC. Head (89 in 32 balls, with 11 fours and six sixes) and Abhishek (46 in 12 balls, with two fours and six sixes) put on an explosive stand of 131 runs in 6.2 overs. Later, contributions from Shahbaz Ahmed (59* in 29 balls, with two fours and five sixes) and Nitish Kumar (37 in 27 balls, with two fours and two sixes) came in handy to take SRH to 266/7 in their 20 overs.

Kuldeep Yadav was the pick of the bowlers for DC with 4/55. Mukesh Kumar and Axar Patel also got a six. (ANI)