Sunrisers Hyderabad flexed their batting muscles once again with latest recruit Ishan Kishan announcing his arrival to the franchise with his maiden IPL hundred. The exploits of the southpaw catapulted the men in orange to a jumbo 286 – the second-highest IPL total ever – which proved to be a tough ask for Rajasthan Royals, who showed the stomach for a fight in reply but still ended up 44 runs short. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals, hence losing momentum far too often in a chase that didn’t allow for hiccups.
Sunrisers Hyderabad aced the PowerPlay throughout 2024 where they crossed 100 twice in this phase. Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma came out all guns blazing once again after Rajasthan Royals opted to bowl. Neither of Fazalhaq Farooqi, Maheesh Theekshana or Jofra Archer was spared. The young Abhishek couldn’t kick on to produce a sizeable knock but there was no stopping Head. with Kishan getting into his groove immediately, incumbent captain Riyan Parag was left racking his brains.
Head rustled up his fifty off just 21 balls, while Kishan, making his debut for SRH, turned out to be right up SRH’s alley as a middle-order enforcer. Even as Head fell victim to Tushar Deshpande, Nitish Reddy and Kishan continued the onslaught, managing to fetch ten runs an over for their team. Kishan came down heavily on Jofra Archer, clubbing him for three sixes in an over en route an electric half-century. His 72-run stand with the all-rounder, accrued off merely 29 balls, gave SRH a rock-solid base with the scoreboard reading 208 by the 15th over mark.
𝙄.𝘾.𝙔.𝙈.𝙄 🔥
Ishan Kishan dealt in sixes on his way to a magnificent maiden #TATAIPL 💯 😮 👊
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— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) March 23, 2025
Archer conceded 76 in his four overs – the most expensive figures in IPL history – as SRH finished on a high. It was the fourth time that SRH transcended the 250-run mark in IPL history and all the innings have come in the last two seasons.
Rajasthan had no choice but to come out firing on all cylinders, but Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag both perished trying to do so against Simarjeet Singh in the second over. Nitish Rana’s leading edge off Mohammed Shami left RR three down inside the PowerPlay. However, Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel counterpunched like pros. The sixth over, delivered by Pat Cummins, went for 20 with Jurel proving the wrecker in chief.
What looked like a lost cause halfway through the PowerPlay suddenly turned a corner as both Samson and Jurel excelled in the middle overs too. Jurel upped the ante with by smoking Simarjeet for three sixes as the duo added 111 runs in quick time to keep the pink army in the hunt. Albeit, Samson top-edged a loft off Harshal Patel while Jurel holed out in the deep; the double blow denting the pursuit severely.
Yet, Shubham Dubey and Shimron Hetmyer helped Rajasthan breach the 200-run mark. They put on as many as 80 in short order. With the Net Run-Rate always a key determining factor in qualification, the runs at the back-end may not have yielded glory for RR but they’d be hopeful that reducing the margin of the loss can help them in the longer term should they find themselves jostling for the top four ahead of the semi-final stage.
