An expert and a debutant joined forces to take down the mighty Rajasthan Royals in Hyderabad on Monday.
Despite the openers faltering — Abhishek Sharma was dismissed off the first ball and Travis Head made a scrappy 18 — stand-in captain Ishan Kishan's counterattacking, compact innings gave the Sunrisers Hyderabad a formidable total to defend.
Thereafter, pacer Praful Hinge (4/34), making a roaring IPL debut, swung the scales decisively in favour of the Sunrisers. The 24-year-old quick from Vidarbha, who had featured in only one T20 game prior to Monday’s clash, struck four times in his first couple of overs — three in his first over — to practically shut the door on the Royals.
In reply to the Sunrisers’ 216/6 after they were put in, the Royals, reeling at 9/5 at one stage, were eventually bundled out for 159 with an over to spare. The Sunrisers thus romped to a 67-run victory.
Giving Hinge perfect support was the Sunrisers’ Impact Player Sakib Hussain, another debutant and also a former Kolkata Knight Riders player, who finished with 4/24.
Having recorded their second win this season, the Sunrisers have moved up to fourth in the standings. The Royals, despite their first defeat, remained at the top.
The Hyderabad pitch had a bit of extra bounce in it. Ishan tackled it quite well first up en route to his brilliant 44-ball 91 that comprised eight boundaries and half a dozen maximums. But the Royals' batters faltered in their execution as Hinge exploited the surface to feast on the Royals’ top order.
Hinge became the first in the IPL to pick up three wickets in the opening over of an innings. He focused on the area just short of good length to account for the dangerous Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and the in-form Dhruv Jurel.
On the last ball of what was an unbelievable over for Hinge, Lhuan-dre Pretorius flicked one straight to deep square leg for the pacer’s third. Lack of footwork from Royals' skipper Riyan Parag earned Hinge his fourth in his second over.
Steady Ishan
Ishan didn’t go into this game with lots of runs. On this occasion, however, the left-hander trusted his strokeplay and was perfect in his execution. If the ball was short and in his arc, Ishan took no half-measures, forging a crucial 88-run stand with Heinrich Klaasen for the third wicket. Cameos from Nitish Kumar Reddy (28 off 13 balls) and Salil Arora (24 not out off 13 balls) also benefited the Sunrisers.