Last Updated on 3 hours ago by Charbel Coorey
After Ishan Kishan’s masterful 91 off 44 balls, Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain produced dream performances on their debuts to hand Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) a crucial 57-run win over the previously undefeated Rajasthan Royals (RR).
RR, led by their superb opening duo, have blown teams away. 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has dominated some of the world’s best and most established bowlers en route to 200 runs at a strike rate of 266.66. SRH have been poor with the ball this season, even losing easily to Punjab Kings on the weekend despite scoring 219.
SRH had to make changes and they did. But surely they couldn’t have imagined the sheer impact the debutants would have straight away. Hinge, with two senior T20s under his belt before this game, dismissed the in-form Sooryavanshi first ball. Even better, he dismissed Dhruv Jurel and Lhuan dre-Pretorius in the next four deliveries to become the first bowler in history to take three wickets in the opening over of an IPL match.
It left an egg on my face!
Sakib Hussain then joined party. He had Yashasvi Jaiswal caught at deep third man to leave the Royals at a scarcely-believable 2/4. Riyan Parag didn’t last much longer, nicking to slip to hand Hinge his fourth wicket and put RR at risk of making the lowest score in IPL history.
Donovan Ferreira (69) and Ravindra Jadeja (45) saved RR from utter embarrassment, putting together a 118-run stand. However, the result was a foregone conclusion, despite Ferreira showing plenty of promise in an innings laced with superb six-hitting.
SRH vs RR: Praful Hinge, Sakib Hussain, Ishan Kishan dominated the previously unbeaten Royals
Earlier, Ishan Kishan rescued SRH from their own tough start. Abhishek Sharma was out first ball before Travis Head struggled for his 18-ball 18. The hosts were going nowhere at 55/2 in the seventh over, before Kishan went into overdrive.
The SRH captain hit eight fours and six sixes in his 44-ball innings. It continued a wonderful year where the left-hander is striking above 200 in all T20s.
Here are some of the reactions to a memorable and outstanding SRH win.
SRH’s next match is against CSK at Hyderbabad on Saturday. RR will be looking to bounce back against KKR at Eden Gardens on the same day.
