Can Hyderabad deliver the run-fest Wankhede didn't?

In the lead-up to the 2019 ODI World Cup in England and Wales, the fan scorecards were quietly redesigned to accommodate team totals up to 500. It was a reaction to England's dizzying new approach of fearless hitting on pancake-flat, tailor-made pitches that threatened to upend batting conventions. But as it turned out, the revision was an overcorrection. Across 48 matches in the tournament, no total crossed even 400. And only four went past 350.

Nearly six years later, we tuned into this IPL season with a similar sense of anticipation. The stars seemed aligned: the subtleties of the Impact Player rule had taken hold, a generation of Indian batters had been unshackled, and the science of pitch preparation had quietly evolved into an art form. Hype, too, had its moment. At a Sunrisers Hyderabad fan event before the tournament, Pat Cummins smiled, held up three fingers and said the magic number: t-h-r-e-e h-u-n-d-r-e-d.

Cummins might have been playing to the crowd that day, but the 300 dream didn't seem misplaced when SRH opened their season with 286 for 6, the second-highest total in IPL history. It was a batting performance that sent the hype train into overdrive. Dale Steyn, picking up on the early season mood, playfully predicted that 300 runs could be scored when SRH faced Mumbai Indians on April 17 at the Wankhede. And to be fair, it hardly felt far-fetched; the venue seemed built for it.

But when the day arrived, it was a different story altogether. Wankhede, almost impishly, dished out its slowest pitch on the square, a surface so sluggish it felt like a betrayal. SRH, seemingly happy to be sent in first, spent their innings looking less like the blazing force of opening night and more like travelers