Two hundred and seventy seven. It’s not 50-over cricket, in fact it’s a score notched up from 120 legal balls as Sunrisers Hyderabad batters unleashed carnage against Mumbai Indians to post a mammoth 277 for 3, the highest total in Indian Premier League (IPL) history, and the third-highest total in all men’s T20s across the globe. At the end, the Sunrisers expectedly romped home by 31 runs, to notch up their first win of the season.

In reply, the Mumbai boys responded in equal intensity, with former skipper Rohit Sharma (26 off 12 balls) and Ishan Kishan (34 off 13) bringing up the side’s 50 in mere three overs, before Tilak Varma (64 off 34) and Naman Dhir (30 off 14) continued the onslaught with some fierce hitting to help the side cross the 100-run mark midway into their innings and keep them in the race for the chase.

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However, Pat Cummins led the home side’s fightback with the ball, picking the key wickets of Rohit and Tilak, before left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat responded to his captain’s faith despite being initially hammered for consecutive sixes, with the scalps of Naman and Hardik, that pegged back the visitors’ chase, eventually limiting them to 246 for 5. Towards the end, Tim David (42 not out off 22) and Romario Shepherd (15 not out off 6) helped the Mumbai Indians reduce the deficit with some lusty blows, despite knowing well that chasing such a total was always going to be an uphill task for any opposition.

Earlier, Travis Head’s record for the quickest half-century by a Sunrisers Hyderabad batter lasted only 20 balls as Abhishek Sharma smoked a 16-ball 50 to lay the foundation of a record-breaking total before Henrich Klaasen and Aiden Markram combined forces with a 116-run stand to enthral the capacity crowd at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Wednesday.

The MI management’s gamble to open the bowling with U-19 World Cup star and debutant Kwena Maphaka instead of their premier pacer Jasprit Bumrah, completely backfired as Head welcomed the 17-year-old by smashing 22 runs in his second over.

“They didn’t bowl their best bowler in the powerplay… that was our plan. They missed a trick up front. We’ve got incredible strikers up front in our batting line-up. They just set the tempo so our work was basically done,” Klaasen said in the mid-innings break.

Replacing the young pacer, MI skipper Hardik Pandya made amends by dismissing Mayank Agarwal for 11 off 13 balls in the fourth over, allowing the visitors a sigh of relief as they managed to make up for the dropped chance of Travis Head on five. But the relief lasted a mere couple of deliveries as Abhishek came all guns blazing to lit up the Uppal stadium, and propel the Sunrisers to 81 for 1 by the end of the power play.

While Mumbai Indians’ pacer Gerald Coetzee managed to finally get the prized scalp of Head after he smashed a 24-ball 62, laced with 9 fours and three sixes, Abhishek Sharma at the other end, raced to a 16-ball 50, and forged another quick fire 48-run stand for the third wicket with Aidan Markram before being packed back by Piyush Chawla in the 11th over for a 23-ball 63, powered by three fours and seven mighty sixes.

By that time, the Sunrisers already reached 161, and there was more carnage in store as the destructive Henrich Klaasen arrived in the middle to pile on more agony for the Mumbai Indians. The South African pair of Klaasen and Markram bludgeoned their way to bring up the team’s 200 in mere 14.4 overs, and dealt mostly in fours and sixes to eventually post the monstrous total.

Klaasen played a blinder of a knock, smoking a 34-ball 80, and finished with an unbroken 116-run partnership with Markram, who had the best seat in the house to watch his Protea teammate unleash his fury at the MI bowlers.