'RCB-SRH game was one of sixes, not of batsmanship,' says Aaron Finch

Aaron Finch. Pic/AFP

Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bengaluru unleashing a barrage of sixes in their IPL 2024 match left little room for batsmanship and what mattered was who hit the most number of sixes, said Australia's T20 World Cup-winning skipper Aaron Finch. Travis Head's maiden T20 ton and Heinrich Klaasen's pillaging 67 drove SRH to a record-breaking 287 for three, which helped them go past their own 277/3 against Mumbai Indians at Hyderabad this March 27.

Dinesh Karthik then smashed a blazing 35-ball 83 but RCB ended up losing the match in which 38 sixes were hit all around the park. "It was never going to be a game where you talk about batsmanship. It's a game where you talk about who hit the most sixes and that was the difference," Finch said on Star Sports. "They (RCB) had to start at 14 (runs per over). And if you have one bad over it goes to 16." Finch said the Hyderabad side used the Powerplay segment well.

"They (SRH) were getting lucky in the first powerplay and they needed those sixes and Travis Head was the difference there. "He started off well, his intent to get the ball rolling and then a courageous move to keep Klaasen at No. 3 and say we need to keep going, we have a deep batting line-up and we are going to put the bowlers to the sword here," added Finch. Head's destructive hundred, crafted off 39 balls, was the fourth fastest in the tournament, the cornerstone of SRH's 25-run win. Finch said IPL teams had started changing their strategies by bringing in big-hitters like Klaasen up the order as they play fearless cricket.

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"A lot of times teams think that Klaasen has so much power to the back end, let's hold him back. Like (RCB's) Glenn Maxwell at times, you don't want to expose him right now because if he gets out, then we've got to rebuild. Teams don't think like that anymore. "(SRH coach) Dan Vettori has talked about that, play aggressive, play fearlessly and bear the consequence if it doesn't go right. If it does go right, you don't lose." Dinesh Karthik once again underlined his value making a 35-ball 83 at a strike-rate of 237. Finch said the ability to strike the ball comes naturally to Karthik, given his more than two decades of experience in the game.

"Well, once you've got 20-25 years of experience behind you, and you've got that bulk of balls you've hit throughout your whole career since you were five years old, you don't lose that ability to bat. "So, I think, it works in their favour because they train specifically for that role which they play for their team. They don't over train, they aren't trying to improve on their skills or they aren't trying to improvise anymore, they just train specifically," said Finch. The Victorian cricketer added that players like Karthik are examples for others preparing to be specific about their roles. "That should be a lesson for players around the world, that you have to be really specific with your preparation and how you go about it. "You can hit as many balls as you want, if you walk out to the middle with a clouded mind or are not fresh, you're going to find it hard no matter how well you're playing."

(With agency inputs)