‘See the ball, hit the ball’ – This simple maxim is usually the mantra for any batter while playing street or gully cricket. Somewhere down the years, cricketers at higher levels too have started to base their games on the above-mentioned adage. It is true that at higher levels, there is some sophistication attached to a batter’s methods. But when you witness the likes of Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen, Abhishek Sharma and co. floor one opponent after another in the ongoing IPL, it is crystal clear what their modus operandi is – see the ball and give it a mighty thump.
Just do some number-crunching to understand the extent to which the Sunrisers’ batters have left scars on opposition teams. By April 25 itself, SRH had cracked 100 sixes in the league. By then, not even half the matches had been completed. Abhishek himself has notched up a mind-blogging 41 sixes for the season. SRH also stockpiled the highest score in the history of IPL – 287 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru. In fact, in this tournament, they have already accumulated three 250-plus totals.
Head, Abhishek’s opening partner, best exemplifies SRH’s ultra-aggressive approach. Even if the pace bowler offers a bit of width, he invariably pounces on it. Mukesh Kumar of Delhi Capitals had first-hand experience of Head’s power-hitting. From round the wicket, he kept offering a modicum of room, with Head clubbing him for 22 runs in an over. The margin for error is very little while bowling to SRH’s batting unit.
Yes, for a while, there was a theory going around that SRH tend to struggle a bit while chasing down targets. During the second half of the league phase, they debunked that hypothesis too by hunting down Lucknow Super Giants’ total in a mere 9.4 overs. They followed it by surpassing Punjab Kings’ score of 214 in the final over a couple of days ago. On occasions, the swagger and chutzpah of SRH’s batters have made you wonder whether they were playing PlayStation 24 or on a cricket ground.
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KL Rahul, the losing LSG skipper, went on to say, “I am lost for words. We have watched that kind of batting on TV. But this is unreal batting. Everything seemed to find the middle of the bat. Kudos to their skills. They have worked hard on their six-hitting skills.”
So, what has been the crux of SRH’s metamorphosis? Somewhere, the SRH backroom staff deserve their fair share of the credit. At the IPL auction, Pat Cummins was bought for a whopping 20.5 crore. He was soon named the captain of the franchise. He has certainly demonstrated his leadership skills by freeing up the minds of the players.
“That is how we want to play,” he said in a recent dressing-room chat featured on the franchise’s social-media platforms. “It is not going to work every game. But I can tell you, everyone is terrified, when they come up against us.”
Before the KKR-SRH playoff game, Daniel Vettori, the head coach, also chipped in, “Nothing changes when we go into the playoffs. Take the game on, play exactly the same and stay consistent and true to our methods, so, well done boys.”
SRH’s template is both exhilarating and intimidating. Any bowler at the top of his mark would know that if he misses his lines and lengths by a fraction, the ball is set to end up somewhere in the stands. Basically, there is now an aura surrounding the way SRH’s batters go about playing without any fear. The kind of template that is an indicator of a potential champion side.