Travis Head on SRH's batting: 'We've wanted to be exciting the whole time'

After helping Sunrisers Hyderabad amass 287 for 3 with a 39-ball century and break the IPL record for highest total for the second time this season, opener Travis Head said his side would fancy targeting 300 as their next challenge. He also credited the captain Pat Cummins and head coach Daniel Vettori for pushing the openers to keep being aggressive in the first six overs.

"[Our total] needs a three in front of it, does it now?" Head joked, when asked between innings about the benchmarks Sunrisers are setting for themselves, after the first innings against Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Monday. "It's proper batting. We've wanted to be exciting the whole time, and we've wanted to take the game on, and Pat and then Dan have put pressure on the batting line-up to make sure we try and maximise the powerplay and then keep going.

"We've got guys like [Heinrich] Klaasen, [Abdul] Samad and Nitish [Kumar Reddy, who] didn't even get a hit today. We've got some power through the middle, and we want to keep just putting the foot down as much as we can. We know that's not always guaranteed, but at the moment I think we're setting it up really well in each game and getting to the score that we need."

Sunrisers smashed 22 sixes, the most in IPL history, and Head hit nine of them. Along with Abhishek Sharma, Head helped Sunrisers race away to 76 for 0 in the powerplay while also getting to his fifty. After the game, Head said he was enjoying batting with Abhishek. "We complement each other really well. He's a young player and pretty fearless. There was a little bit of spin in the powerplay and he was so dominant against them. I'm loving it."

Head was eventually out in the 13th over for a 41-ball 102. His wicket brought zero respite though, as Klaasen pumped a 31-ball 67 from No. 3. Klaasen too was full of praise for his team-mate for setting up the match and making his job easier. "Unbelievable start there from Heady. It's a special knock that. Puts the bowler under a lot of pressure," Klaasen told the broadcaster after the game. "[I] came in and wanted to be very sensible and knock it around and make sure he faces majority of the balls. It is difficult to out-hit players like that so when it's his night, make sure I'm on the other side and wait for a couple of bad balls. And then I should take over when he gets out.

"It was nice batting out there, the wicket was nice and good but the tempo was set there upfront. Its nice to have bowlers under pressure when you come in."