Home
+
Published : 23 Mar 2025, 09:59 PM
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) have made an emphatic statement by beating Rajasthan Royals (RR) by 44 runs, riding on Ishan Kishan’s belligerent unbeaten century on franchise debut in the Indian Premier League.
Kishan blasted (106) a 45-ball century and laid the groundwork with Travis Head (67 off 31 balls) that allowed Hyderabad to indulge in fireworks through the late overs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Sunday.
The hosts were threatening to post a total in excess of 300, but eventually fell 14 runs short at 286 for 6, just a run short of the IPL record they had set last season.
RR were off to a feisty start to the chase, with Sanju Samson (66 off 37 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (70 off 35 balls) matching the intent of SRH batters. Late onslaught from Shimron Hetmyer pushed RR to 242 for 6 as the aggregate surged to 528 runs, the second highest IPL total.
The track was easy-paced while RR’s wayward bowling allowed Travis and Abhishek Sharma (24) to set the tone of the innings.
The unfettered assault forced RR into doing death bowling from the powerplay onwards. Maheesh Theekshana (2-52) tried to arrest the scoring rate with wickets but six of the first 13 balls Kishan had faced went to the boundary or cleared it.
Kishan, unfazed, kept searching for balls to launch into orbit as Theekshana's mystery spin, Jofra Archer's (0-76) pace, Tushar Deshpande's (3-44) change-ups - it all disappeared into the crowd.
Kishan scored his fifty off 25 balls, before remaining unbeaten to safely tuck his team to a virtually unchaseable total.
RR were off to a shaky start, losing Yashasvi Jaiswal (1) and their captain Riyan Parag (4) in the first two overs of their chase. They were reduced to 50 for 3 in the fifth over.
Samson came on as RR’s Impact Player and stitched a brave 111-run stand with Jurel off 59 balls. Returning after recovering from a finger injury, he looked comfortable, launching four sixes.
Jurel, on the other hand, was particularly harsh on the seamers as he kept launching them over the top.
SRH employed the spinners and Cummins through the middle overs, managing to backload Harshal Patel's overs. Harshal snared Samson with a slower bouncer in the 14th and Adam Zampa, SRH's Impact Player, had Jurel caught at long-on in the next over to virtually end the chase.
