Bengaluru: Travis Head’s 41-ball 102 and Heinrich Klassen’s 31-ball 67 helped Sunrisers Hyderabad to break their own record for highest team total in the history of Indian Premier League on Monday when they posted a mammoth 287/3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. Earlier in the tournament, SRH scored 277/3 against Mumbai Indians to surpass RCB’s 263/5 made in 2013. Head’s century was also the fourth ton in IPL 2024 after Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jos Buttler. The Australian also became the fifth SRH batter to hit an IPL hundred.

For RCB, four bowlers conceded more than 50 runs. They are Reece Topley (1/68), Yash Dayal (0/51), Lockie Ferguson (2/52) and Vijaykumar Vyshak (0/64). This is the second highest team total in T20 cricket. Head kept his cool as he smashed a 39-ball hundred, and shared a 108-run stand with opener Abhishek Sharma (34) to guide former IPL champions to a record total.

The opener was dismissed soon after by Ferguson on 102 runs (41 balls). He struck eight maximums and nine boundaries. Wicketkeeper-batter Klaasen, however, kept punishing the RCB bowlers, scoring another whirlwind half-century, studded with seven sixes as SRH batters made merry on a docile Chinnaswamy pitch. Aiden Markram (37 not out off 17 balls ) and Abdul Samad (37 not out off 10 balls) then gave SRH innings the finishing touch.

“Got to contribute at the right time. Just tried to maximise my opportunities. We got off to a really nice start. I don’t know, that was proper batting. We have tried to take on the game (after quick starts). We just try to maximise the powerplay and then we try to keep going. Pat (Cummins) and Dan (Vettori) put pressure on the batting line up to make sure we keep going. All the guys are stepping up in each game,” Head said during the innings break.