Sunrisers Hyderabad 216 for 6 (Kishan 91, Klaasen 40, Archer 2-37) beat Rajasthan Royals 159 (Ferreira 69, Jadeja 45, Sakib 4-24, Hinge 4-34) by 57 runs
Hinge’s magical start
In some ways, it felt destined. Hinge was set to debut in SRH’s previous game, against Punjab Kings, after being named at the toss, only for the team management to have a late change of heart and sub in Jaydev Unadkat instead. A game later, Hinge had a moment he would cherish forever.
Jasprit Bumrah and Josh Hazlewood weren’t spared, but Hinge didn’t carry any baggage. A hard-length delivery into the pitch had Vaibhav Sooryavanshi top-edge a pull to wicketkeeper Salil Arora for a golden duck. One ball later, Hinge had the in-form Dhruv Jurel chop on, and then capped off the first over by having Lhuan-dre Pretorius, who replaced Shimron Hetmyer, flick one straight to long leg.
Sakib joins the fun
At the other end was Sakib, who also celebrated a special moment when he sent Yashasvi Jaiswal back by having him ramp a short ball straight to deep third, leaving the score at an eye-popping 2 for 4. That soon became 9 for 5 when Hinge had Riyan Parag caught at slip after he had been whipped through midwicket for four. Sakib added three more wickets to his kitty, all off slower variations, to finish with 4 for 24. That included strikes off consecutive deliveries to dismiss Jofra Archer and Ravi Bishnoi late in the innings.
Jadeja, Ferreira limit damage
But while he was at the crease, Ferreira gave a good account of himself, particularly in his handling of spinners. Quick to get to the pitch or rock back to pull, he was severe on both Shivang Kumar and Harsh Dubey as he raised a maiden IPL fifty off 31 balls. But his dismissal, followed by Jadeja’s, opened the floodgates for Sakib.
Kishan kicks in after RR’s dream start
Long before the wreckage, RR had a first-ball wicket of their own when Abhishek Sharma charged at Archer to get a thick edge to deep third. If Archer’s first over was a ripper, his second brought him back to earth as Kishan nonchalantly picked him for two boundaries: a whip behind square for four, and the subsequent bumper dumped over deep midwicket for six.
Travis Head was streaky, with left-arm seamer Nandre Burger nearly having him twice in the fourth over. First, a nip-backer kissed the inside edge and beat a diving Jurel behind the stumps. Then, Head skewed a skier over mid-on to evade a retreating Archer. But his luck didn’t last as Head was beaten in flight to hole out to long-on off Parag in the seventh over. By then, he had put on 55 with Kishan to set a platform.
The Kishan blitz
Kishan brought up his half-century when he hit a monstrous fifth six, a slog sweep off Bishnoi, getting there off 30 balls. Along the way, Kishan and Heinrich Klaasen also raised the half-century stand quickly – off just 26 deliveries – as Kishan attacked Tushar Deshpande. This forced Parag to turn back to Archer for a third over in the 13th, but there was little respite.
Even as Klaasen fell for 40, Kishan kept charging at breakneck speed – carving anything full and wide between backward point and cover with those lightning hands, and muscling anything short into the body in front of square via the pull or the whip.
In trying to sustain the surge, Kishan fell for 91, but SRH had Nitish Kumar Reddy and Salil Arora to thank for cameos lower down the order that powered them to 216, before two debutants combined to leave everyone spellbound.
Shashank Kishore is a senior correspondent at ESPNcricinfo
