Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Travis Head plays a shot during his century knock in the Indian Premier League 2024 match against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 15.
| Photo Credit: K. Bhagya Prakash
Sunrisers Hyderabad have taken T20 batting to the next level with sustained range-hitting in the Indian Premier League, and Travis Head said maximising Power Play segment was central to their aggressive approach.
Head, whose 39-ball 100 led SRH to a record-setting 287/3 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on April 15, underscored that approach with a fifty inside the Power Play.
It was also the second time Head completed a half-century within the first six overs.
“We’ve definitely got a lot of power through our top and middle-order and I think we’ve sort of got to tailor the way we want to play around that power that we’ve got, especially in power play,” said Head in the post-match press conference.
The Australian opener has a perfect ally at the top in an equally belligerent Abhishek Sharma, who blunts slower bowlers upfront while Head goes about destroying the pacers.
“I guess Abhi and I at the top of the order try to maximise that (Power Play) as much as we can. It may be fours, it may be sixes.
“But yeah, we want to try to attack the power play with the two of us and then obviously we’ve got a lot of power through that middle-order,” Head added.
It wasn’t a mere tall claim as a quick check will reveal SRH’s power play scores in six matches this season as 65/1, 81/1, 58/1, 78/1, 40/3 and 76/0, and none of the other nine teams have come close to those numbers.
But it was not blind hitting. Head revealed his approach in the initial six overs.
“Depending on the field positions, I try to sum up what the bowlers are trying to do. In the power play, with just two fielders out, I try to think about hitting the ball 360, around the whole ground, as you only have to go over the infield or through the infielders for boundaries.
“I’d worked on a few things over the last couple of days. I did not execute the way I would have liked (in the last two matches). But today, especially in the power play, I was able to strike the ball the way I wanted,” said the left-hander.
The 30-year-old also lauded Hyderabad bowlers, especially skipper and premier pacer Pat Cummins, for holding their nerves when RCB batters were scoring briskly.
“We knew that we probably needed three or four really good overs in the game to win it. So, it’s amazing to sit here and think that when we make 280, but it’s going to be one of the nights for the bowlers to hold on and I thought Pat bowled exceptionally well.
“We were able to get wickets throughout the middle of the overs which set the game up. DK (Dinesh Karthik) played an unbelievable innings. But we did really well to get them back at 125 or 130 for five,” he added.
