Records were broken on Wednesday night as the SRH batsmen destroyed the Mumbai Indians, posting the highest IPL total of 277 for 3, and winning the game by 31 runs.
Opening batsman Travis Head (62 off 24) and number three Sharma (63 off 23) put on a brilliant display of power hitting, with the latter setting a new team record for the fastest fifty in the IPL.
Heinrich Klaasen helped SRH smash an 11-year-old record near the finish with his 80 not out off 34 balls. Royal Challengers Bangalore had scored 263 for 5 in 2013, which was the previous greatest IPL total.
“To be honest I didn’t realise that it was the fastest fifty for SRH and for this year. I just wanted to go and express myself and after getting out I realised that it was the quickest. I enjoyed it,” said ‘Man of the Match’ Sharma.
“I think the message was pretty much simple for all the batters in the meeting we had before this match. ‘Everyone just go and express yourself’. That’s a very positive message if you get it from your captain and coach. That’s really supportive for all the batters.”
Sharma and Head stitched 68 runs off just 22 balls for the second wicket for SRH.
“I was batting with Travis and he is one of my favourite batters. I really enjoyed batting with him,” Sharma said.
Sharma claimed that even though SRH put a huge total on the board, MI came very close, therefore it wasn’t an easy win for them.
With a brilliant innings that included six sixes, Tilak Varma (64 off 34 balls) pushed the game to new heights. Tim David (42 not out of 22) gave it his all towards the end, but it was insufficient.
“When Tilak Varma, Hardik bhai and even Tim David were batting, we were still a bit, I won’t say worried but concerned. The way they were playing it was very good but we knew our bowlers were very much prepared for this kind of situation and they executed really well,” Sharma said.
David said at the halfway stage they were positive about chasing down the target and eventually came pretty close.
“It would have been pretty good as a spectator if you are sitting home or in the stands it was very entertaining, amazing match.
“We believe in our batting unit. We chased some high scores last year. The talk was let’s just stick to our process and we were keeping up with the rate at a certain point of time. Although we didn’t get the runs it was a great batting performance from us too,” he said.
The Australian, however, credited SRH for their all-round show.
“Credit to SRH, they bowled pretty well at the end, took the pace of the ball on a slowing pitch, it was pretty hard to hit. But everything has to go right if you are to chase 278, that didn’t quite happen but we got pretty close,” David said.
“They played some amazing shots, credit to their batsmen for putting the pressure on any bowler. There is nothing much you can do to stop them if they play good shots. You got to take (your) hat off when someone plays well.”
(With PTI inputs)