- Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis clashed
- Heated exchange between Aussies went viral afterwards
Tempers flared between Australian teammates Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis on Saturday night as Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled off a terrific run chase in the IPL against the Punjab Kings.
The drama unfolded during the ninth over when Head got into a fiery verbal exchange with his Australian teammates.
It appears Head was not happy with Maxwell throwing the ball back down the pitch – and he let him know about it.
After the over, the pair got into it again, with Stoinis fielding nearby also getting involved in the on-field altercation.
Head explained after the match that the situation ‘wasn’t too serious’.
‘You bring out the best and the worst in each other when you know them so well, nothing too serious, just a bit of banter,’ he said.
Tempers flared between Australian teammates Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis
‘Not bad, nice to get on the winners list. It was an exceptional night; we needed it. We had our work cut out at the halfway point. We gave ourselves a chance, showed a bit more patience at the start.
‘We knew the plans they were going to come with. Gave ourselves a bit more time and got off to a flyer. We did the things we did really well last year, and that’s what made us such a good partnership.
‘It’s just about encouraging each other, picking our targets and setting the stage. We’ve seen 270-280 scored on that wicket.
‘We’ve played on slightly different wickets, but No. 2 seems to put out big scores. Everything had to go right for us to chase down 240.’
Head and Abhishek Sharma put on an extraordinary 171 first-wicket partnership off only 75 balls to help the Sunrisers end a four-match losing streak against Ricky Ponting’s Punjab Kings and pull off the second-highest successful chase in IPL annals by reaching 2-247 off 18.3 overs.
Head was coming off a rare couple of failures but looked back to his best, pummelling 66 off 37 balls, featuring three sixes and nine fours.
Yet he would be the first to admit he was quite spectacularly eclipsed by the brilliance coming from Abhishek at the other end, as the 24-year-old from Amritsar smashed 10 sixes and 14 fours in an innings of 141 that took him just 55 balls to compile.
That’s a strike rate of 256, sustained over 16 overs and two balls. ‘Phenomenal,’ as Cummins put it.
Head and Abhishek Sharma put on an 171 first-wicket partnership off only 75 balls
The Australia captain never looks as if he’s feeling the pressure but the criticism has begun to mount around his team’s all-or-nothing approach, so this was a vindication of SRH’s all-out attack and his faith in Sharma, who’d only mustered 51 in total in his previous five knocks.
‘I’m a pretty big fan of Abhi. We’ve been really happy with how everyone’s going and training and the form, it just hasn’t clicked. So we didn’t want to change the recipe or tear it apart. We just keep concentrating on what makes us good players,’ said Cummins.
Asked to sum up his partner’s knock in one word, Head offered: ‘Ridiculous!’
‘Nice to get back into the rhythm again,’ added the leftie. ‘We just wanted to make sure to do the small things right like we did last year. We complement each other really well.’
Earlier, Marcus Stoinis had joined in the big-hitting carnage for the Kings, clouting four consecutive sixes off paceman Mohammed Shami to end the innings, as he finished 34no off just 11 balls.
That also left the Indian Test quick Shami nursing the second-worst figures in the history of the IPL – 4-0-75-0.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer had led the way for Punjab with 82 off 36 balls, hitting six sixes in his third half-century of the season.
