Watch: Noor Ahmad strikes gold as he castles Travis Head with sensational googly

Australia opening batsman Travis Head, who has fond memories of scoring a century at the Narendra Modi stadium in the CWC 2023 final, could not do anything special upon his return to the venue.

He was castled by Gujarat Titans’ Afghanistan chinaman Noor Ahmad with an unplayable googly which Head tried to slog away but the ball came in just too quickly inside.

On his Sunrisers Hyderabad debut against the Mumbai Indians a couple of days ago, Travis Head led by example and set the tone for other batters in front of the home crowd. He lit up the Rajiv Gandhi stadium with raining 4s and 6s and eventually departed after a 24-ball 62-run blitz.

Watch Travis Head’s departure

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Travis Head will be gutted to have not been a little patient with his temperament as he was looking in a good touch and good form that he picked up in the previous match. His bat flow was looking as smooth as it was against the Mumbai Indians when he was taking on the MI bowling attack, having arrived at the crease to open with Mayank Agarwal.

After Agarwal’s early departure for 11 off 13, Travis Head paired with Abhishek Sharma to literally destroy the MI bowling line-up which was playing only their second match under the captaincy of Hardik Pandya.

Travis Head started to hit right from the word go and was not looking in a mood to stop until Gerald Coetzee’s fiery bouncer became the reason for his departure. But even after his arrival in the dressing room, the SRH batting line-up continued with their carnage as Aiden Markram first made a solid partnership with Abhishek Sharma and then with Heinrich Klaasen.

Travis Head, at the time of his departure, was batting at a strike rate of 258.33, smacked 9 fours and 3 sixes and scored a 19-ball half-century. The Australian was splashed more than 7 Crores INR during the IPL auction last December at Dubai’s Coca-Cola arena.

With the way he had batted against MI, the SRH team owners would have been feeling really proud to have spent that much on the player. He is definitely going to be a key asset for the team as the Orange army aim to land their first IPL title since the 2016 season when they defeated Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the final at RCB’s den of M. Chinnaswamy stadium.

To a lot of SRH fans, Head reminds them of their title delivering former captain, the pocket size dynamite David Warner. Through the help of their Aussie duo of Head and skipper Pat Cummins, Hyderabad’s first aim will be to secure a spot in the play-offs for the first time since 2020. And after then only, the outfit should be thinking about their title chances.

Following Head’s departure, Gujarat slow down the flow of runs

Meanwhile, after a poor start with the ball, Gujarat Titans have fought back really well as after Travis Head’s departure, the hosts quickly claimed the wickets of Markram, Heinrich Klaasen and Abhishek Sharma. At the time of writing, SRH were 137/5 after 17 overs.