In the 2013 IPL game between Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Pune Warriors, it rained sixes from Chris Gayle’s axe-like willow. Such was the mayhem on view at the Chinnaswamy stadium that RCB finished with a gargantuan total of 263. At that juncture, it felt as if not just Gayle’s record, but even RCB’s team total would stand the test of time as the highest score in the IPL history. The assertion proved to be right as for the next 11 years, none of the IPL franchises surpassed it.
However, since the start of 2024 IPL, something has changed. The aforementioned total has been eclipsed five times with four of those efforts coming from Sunrisers Hyderabad. In summary, SRH have not just breached the mark quite a few times, but they have virtually changed the batting template on flat decks. So much so that even a score of 250 might not seem like a winning total in such conditions, especially while playing SRH.
In that context, you start to ponder what are the nuts and bolts of SRH’s template? Or rather how do they go about achieving those monstrous scores? The essence of their batting model is the Powerplay. SRH have clearly upped the ante as they are targeting around 100 runs in the Powerplay.
Yesterday, too, the ‘Travis-Hek’ opening pair steered SRH close to the 100-run mark versus Rajasthan Royals, with the franchise accruing 94 in the PP. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the duo of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma have also ensured that SRH hold the record for accumulating the most runs in the PP – 125 versus Delhi Capitals last year.
The icing on the cake for SRH’s fans is that their explosive batting unit comprises a few more big-hitters. Ishan Kishan, Nitish Reddy, Heinrich Klaasen and Abhinav Manohar have all gained a reputation for landing meaty blows. Even Aniket Verma is known for playing the big shot as seen by his strike rate of 205.4 in the 2024 Madhya Pradesh Premier League.
To excavate more information, run through the strike rates of SRH’s batters during the last season. The likes of Head, Abhishek and Klaasen all had strike rates well in excess of 150, while Nitish ‘s strike rate was just below 150. Of course, the template is also based on the hypothesis that a sizeable portion of the decks would be featherbeds. Out of the five highest totals in the annals of IPL, two of them belong to Hyderabad, SRH’s home patch.
SRH’s template is both exhilarating and intimidating. It is akin to watching a game of cricket on Xbox. There is now a certain aura surrounding the way SRH’s batters go about playing without any fear. The kind of template that could help them take one step further, when compared to the last season, and lift the title.
As Pat Cummins, the SRH skipper, summed it up last year: “It is not going to work every game. But I can tell you, everyone is terrified when they come up against us.