Heinrich Klaasen smashed a a 37-ball hundred while Travis Head found form to help Sunrisers Hyderabad's imposing 278/3 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday.
Australian Travis Head, whose form was a bit patchy during the better part of the tournament, was in his destructive best once again, scoring 76 off 40 balls with half a dozen sixes and as many boundaries. But Klaasen (105 not out off 39 balls) was way more severe in completing his half-century off just 18 balls after being promoted ahead of Isjan Kishan at the fall of Abhishek Sharma (32 off 16 balls).
Klaasen muscled the KKR bowlers and the likes of Anrich Nortje (0/60 in 4 overs), Harshit Rana (0/40 in 3 overs), Varun Chakravarthy (0/54 in 3 overs) and Sunil Narine (2/42 in 4 overs) were all punished on one of the flattest decks on offer.
On a ground where SRH had set the new batting record in 2024, scoring 125 in Powerplay against Delhi Capitals, Head and his partner in crime Abhishek added 79 in the first six overs to set the tone. Both Head and Abhishek initially made room and carted pacers over extra cover with utter disdain.
On smooth decks, their spinners Chakravarthy and Narine didn't have enough bite and when it came to the pacers, Harshit's propensity to use cross-seam variations backfired badly.
Harshit of 2024 didn't depend so much on slower deliveries and bowled the heavy deliveries, short pitched stuff and hard length balls more frequently.
As far as Nortje is concerned, the lack of game time was apparent as this was his second match and throughout the duration, he kept searching for that ideal length where he could keep the batter quiet.
