Hyderabad, Mar 27: Shardul Thakur picked 4-34 as Travis Head top scored with 47 to help Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) post 190/9 in 20 overs against Lucknow Super Giants in Match 7 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025, at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Thursday.

SRH got off to a fiery start courtesy of Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma, maintaining a run rate of 13.5 during their brief partnership—the highest for any duo in IPL history (min. 500 runs). Head was in aggressive mode, smashing 47 off 28 balls, before debutant Prince Yadav knocked over his stumps to claim his first IPL wicket.

Meanwhile, Shardul Thakur struck twice in his second over, dismissing Abhishek (9) and Ishan Kishan for a golden duck, making Kishan the latest entrant in the list of players dismissed for zero after scoring a hundred in their previous innings. By the end of the power-play, SRH had raced to 62/2, despite LSG dropping Head twice in one over of Ravi Bishnoi.

SRH’s middle-order struggled to maintain the momentum. Heinrich Klaasen looked promising but fell in the most unusual fashion. He was run out after Prince Yadav, attempting a caught-and-bowled off Nitish Reddy’s powerful drive, dropped the ball, only for it to ricochet onto the stumps with Klaasen (14) stranded outside the crease.

Reddy himself was dismissed soon after for 32 off 27 balls, bowled while attempting to attack Bishnoi. At 110/4 after 12 overs, SRH, who had piled on a record 286/6 in their previous game, now seemed unlikely to even reach 200.

With wickets falling at regular intervals, Aniket Verma played a brief but crucial cameo, hammering 36 off 13 balls, including back-to-back sixes off both Bishnoi and Digvesh Rathi. However, his attempt for a third consecutive six ended in a catch, and two balls later, Abhinav Manohar (2) perished to Shardul Thakur, reducing SRH to 156/7 in 17 overs.

Captain Pat Cummins injected some excitement by launching his first three balls for sixes, joining an elite list that includes MS Dhoni, Nicholas Pooran, and Sunil Narine. However, he was dismissed off his fourth ball, caught at short third off Avesh Khan. SRH finished on 190 for 9 as the last two overs brought just ten runs. Shardul Thakur finished with 4-34, his best figures in the IPL with a purple cap too.

Brief scores:

Sunrisers Hyderabad 190/9 in 20 overs (Travis Head 47, Aniket Verma 36; Shardul Thakur 4-34, Prince Yadav 1-29) against Lucknow Super Giants

--IANS

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